Tag: Matt Bevin

Governors Bill Lee and Matt Bevin Scheduled to Talk Criminal Justice Reform at Belmont Wednesday

Chris Butler

Republican governors Bill Lee and Matt Bevin are scheduled to headline an event to discuss and promote criminal justice reform at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Belmont College of Law. Former U.S. Attorney General Albert Gonzales and former inmate Matthew Charles are scheduled to moderate the event, according to a press release. Specifically, Bevin, governor of Kentucky, and Lee, governor of Tennessee are scheduled to discuss state-level criminal justice reform, the press release said. Charles, meanwhile, will share his perspective as the first man released after the passage of the First Step Act. According to Vox.com, the First Step Act takes modest steps to reform the criminal justice system and ease very punitive prison sentences at the federal level. It affects only the federal system — which, with about 181,000 imprisoned people, “holds a small but significant fraction of the US jail and prison population of 2.1 million.” The groups Men of Valor and Right on Crime will host the event, according to a press release. Right on Crime is a national campaign that supports conservative solutions for reducing crime, restoring victims, reforming offenders, and lowering taxpayer costs. Men of Valor is a prison ministry in Middle Tennessee committed to reconciling men to God, their…

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Judge Extends Suspension on Kentucky Fetal Heartbeat and Discrimination Abortion Bans

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by Grace Carr   A federal judge indefinitely barred Kentucky from enforcing two abortion laws Wednesday that recently passed and were temporarily blocked shortly thereafter. U.S. District Judge David Hale passed an order Wednesday extending a suspension on two state abortion bans, one which prohibits abortions in the presence of a fetal heartbeat and another which bans abortions on the basis of race, sex or disability, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin signed Senate Bill 9 on March 15. It “prohibit[s] a person from performing an abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat,” according to the legislation. A heartbeat typically becomes detectable between six and nine weeks of gestation. Many women do not know they are pregnant at six weeks. Bevin also signed House Bill 5 in March, “prohibit[ing] an abortion if the pregnant woman is seeking the abortion, in whole or in part, because of an unborn child’s sex, race, color, national origin, or disability, except in the case of a medical emergency,” according to the legislation. The bill bans “eugenics-based abortions,” according to Bevin’s general counsel, M. Stephen Pitt, the Courier-Journal reported. Both bills were signed under an “emergency” clause and took immediate…

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