News Sources: Army Seeks Death Penalty for 9/11 Planners

The Pentagon on Monday charged the alleged planner of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and five others with murder and conspiracy and asked that they be executed if convicted. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges and universities, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Christopher Pyle - Professor of Politics, Mount Holyoke College - Pyle is a noted expert on both USA Patriot Acts and issues pertaining to civil liberties in the midst of the war on terror. He is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer and the author of Military Surveillance of Civilian Politics.

Austin Sarat - William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College - Sarat studies legal theory and is especially interested in the death penalty, to which he is opposed.

Martha Crenshaw - John E. Andrus Professor of Government, Wesleyan University - Crenshaw gained an international reputation for her studies of political terrorism. She has testified before Congress, and he has served as a consultant to the Department of State, the U.S. Naval and Army War Colleges, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Defense Nuclear Agency. She has authored three books, including Terrorism, Legitimacy, and Power: The Consequences of Political Violence.

Morehouse a New Chapter in Genarlow Wilson Story

Genarlow Wilson says he's having "a rebirth" after the Tom Joyner Foundation agreed to fund his education at Morehouse College. It's a far cry from the day when a 17-year-old Wilson was sent to prison for receiving oral sex from a 16-year-old girl. The sentence’s harshness was denounced nationwide by civil rights leaders, and the offense was subsequently reduced to a misdemeanor.

Point Guard Scores Political Coup

The the Sunnyside, Washington, City Council is about to dramatically change its composition, after a Whitman College student's research showed its at-large voting system kept Hispanic residents off the council. The studies by Ian Warner, a 2007 graduate who was a point guard on Whitman's basketball team, attracted the attention of the U.S. Justice Department.

News Sources: Disparities in Prison Sentences

What happens when lawmakers dictate that similar crimes should have differing penalties, or when sentences vary from courtroom to courtroom? The Supreme Court wrestled with these questions Tuesday in a pair of drug cases that included one dealing with a law that calls for tougher punishment for possession and distribution of crack cocaine than the powdered variety. The crack-powder disparity also has a strong racial dimension because the vast majority of crack offenders are black. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including (click on names for contact information):

Robert McNamara - Assistant Professor of Sociology, Furman University - McNamara's research focuses on crime prevention, policing, drug use and prostitution. He is the author of Beating the Odds: Crime, Poverty, and Life in the Inner City, an autobiographical account of growing up in New Haven, CT.

James O'Kane - Professor of Sociology, Drew University - O'Kane focuses on issues of crime, ethnicity and urban studies. He is an expert on patterns of urban crime, especially murder. His book, The Crooked Ladder, deals with gangsters, ethnicity and the American Dream.

Lief Carter - McHugh Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Colorado College - Carter's areas of expertise include constitutional law, legal theory, courts and politics, administrative law and politics, contemporary Supreme Court, and religion and law. He is the author of five books, including Contemporary Constitutional Lawmaking: The Supreme Court and the Art of Politics and The Limits of Order.