Christina Petrucci

Death Row: Trusting a Broken System

On March 9, 2011, Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation effectively abolishing the death penalty in the state of Illinois, making it the 16th state without the death penalty.[i] The next day, on March 10, 2011, Johnnie Ray Baston was executed in Ohio for aggravated murder.  He is the 9th person to be put to death […]

The Tunisian Spark: Triggering the Fourth Wave of Democratization

Mohamed Bouazizi was a college graduate and yet at twenty-six years old he found himself selling fruit on the side of the street to support his mother, uncle and five siblings in their hometown of Sidi Bouzid.  According to a report by the New York Times,[i] a municipal inspector, Faida Hamdy, seized Bouazizi’s goods because […]