The pending execution of Troy Davis in Georgia has sparked worldwide protests as far away as London and Rome, with people demanding his life be spared because there is “too much doubt” regarding his conviction. “We’re trying everything we can do, everything under the law,” Chester Dunham, a civil rights activist protesting in Savannah, GA, where police are stepping up security, told the AP. ThinkProgress compiled some photos from around the world of the demonstrations:

Six retired Georgia corrections officials — including the director who oversaw executions for the state — sent a letter to Georgia corrections officials and Gov. Nathan Deal (R) asking them to urge the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to reconsider their Tuesday decision to deny Davis clemency, and, if that fails, to “allow[] any personnel so inclined to opt-out of activities related” to Davis’ execution. The officers’ statement centered on the “awful lifelong repercussions” that result from participating in executions, particularly those who maintain their innocence until their death. From the statement:

We write to you today with the overwhelming concern that an innocent person could be executed in Georgia tonight. We know the legal process has exhausted itself in the case of Troy Anthony Davis, and yet, doubt about his guilt remains. This very fact will have an irreversible and damaging impact on your staff. […] Living with the nightmares is something that we know from experience.

Davis’ attorneys have filed a stay petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, their absolute last hope to spare Davis’ life, after Georgia’s Supreme Court declined their motion earlier this evening. Their petition can be read here.

As demonstrations break out around the world to protest the execution of Troy Davis tonight in Georgia, some conservatives have been less than concerned with the doubt surrounding his conviction. CNN contributor and Red State editor Erick Erickson wrote that Davis is noting more than a “cop killer who, 20 years later, defense attorneys and liberals are turning into a victim.” “The state maintained a finding of guilt. Time to execute him,” Erickson added on Twitter.

Davis was convicted of killing an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard, but seven of the nine witnesses have since recanted and many experts say there is “too much doubt” to proceed with an execution.

But Fox News didn’t seem too concerned. Throughout the day, the network has overwhelmingly presented the prosecutions’ view, giving little airtime to the other side. Fox and Friends host Gretchen Carlson said Davis “murdered a police officer 22 years ago” and will soon “pay the ultimate price,” while host Bill Hemmer called Davis a “cop killer.” The network then interviewed the daughter of the victim, who is convinced of Davis’ guilt.

The first time Fox interviewed anybody with an alternative view, it was a “short segment” debate in which host Megyn Kelly repeatedly interrupted Amnesty International’s Laura Moye, and echoed former prosecutor Jeffrey Steinberger’s argument to such a degree that he said, “that’s exactly what I said!” Watch it:

As contrast, CNN and MSNBC have both run multiple full segments on the issue, devoting entire interviews to opponents of the execution.

In February, ThinkProgress wrote about an unexpected silver lining in the state budget crunches: prison reform. Cash-starved state budgets provided a prime opportunity to institute a more sensible approach to criminal justice, rather than simply throw millions in prison with no regard for cost or fairness.

Seven months later, with most state legislatures finished for the year, the promise of criminal justice reform has been enacted in a number of states, according to a new report from the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU highlights two particular success stories in Kentucky and Ohio.

The reforms in Kentucky’s HB 463 include:

- Eliminates pre-trial detention for many drug offenses; mandates citations instead of arrests for some misdemeanors.

- Reclassifies marijuana possession to a misdemeanor; presumes probation for simple possession of many drugs; reduces sentences for other drug crimes; offers non-prison alternatives for felony possession.

- Expands earned credit programs for prison and parole.

As a result, Kentucky is “expected to reduce the prison population by 3,218″ this year and make further reductions in the future. The state will also save more than $400 million over the next decade.

Similarly in Ohio, HB 86 will make structural reforms to the state prison system:

- Eliminates crack/cocaine disparity; reduces mandatory minimum sentences for some drug crimes; mandates non-prison alternatives for misdemeanors and low-level felonies; increases property crime thresholds.

- Expands earned credit programs; expands parole eligibility; gives prisoners over the age of 65 additional parole hearings; provides financial incentives for counties to reduce technical violation revocations.

- Gives judges more discretion to keep juveniles out of the adult system.

Projections show Ohio’s prison population reducing 13.8 percent over the next four years and save the state approximately $1 billion as a result of the new law.

The ACLU notes that other states are moving in a positive direction as well. In California, the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Plata “ordered California to reduce its prison population to alleviate extreme overcrowding.” Meanwhile, a new law in Louisiana will create an elderly parole program in order to determine whether some prisoners age 60 or older no longer pose a threat to society.

By no means are all the changes this year perfect. Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) chose as the head of Ohio’s prison system Gary Mohr, the former director of the Corrections Corporation of America, a private prison company that lobbies for legislation that would throw more people in jail.

Yet the overall trend this year has been towards a smarter, more sensible criminal justice policy in many states across the country. State budget crunches are forcing conservative state lawmakers to see the wisdom of prison reform, providing a rare area of bipartisan agreement. The true test, however, will be whether reform efforts are stifled when the economy begins to pick up.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) believes Social Security is unconstitutional, and has proposed an economically impossible plan to eliminate Social Security and transfer responsibility for seniors’ retirement to the states.

In response to Perry’s opposition to Social Security, the Romney campaign circulated four statements by Florida elected officials criticizing Perry — including an unusually thoughtful statement by Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL):

Rick Perry has said that he wants Social Security to go back to the states. Given the challenging budgetary situation many states are already in, his plan could put retirees and near-retirees in an even more precarious position. Would states like Florida have to choose between honoring our promises to seniors and paying for education and public safety?

Mack, who has endorsed Romney for president, is right to worry about Perry’s plan, but the reality is even worse than Mack suggests. As a recent Center for American Progress white paper explains, Perry’s state takeover of Social Security would completely destroy Florida’s ability to function:

Under our current system, someone who begins their career in Ohio, moves to Virginia to accept a better job offer, and then retires in Florida pays the same federal taxes regardless of their residence. These taxes then fund programs such as Medicare and Social Security. If each state were responsible for setting up its own retirement system, however, the person described above would pay Ohio taxes while they worked in Ohio, Virginia taxes while they lived in Virginia, and would draw benefits from the state of Florida during their retirement. The state which benefited from their taxes would not be the same state that was required to fund their retirement, and the result would be an economic death spiral for states such as Florida that attract an unusually large number of retirees.

Simply put, Perry needs to stop getting his policy advice from radical tenthers with no understanding of the Constitution and even less grasp of basic economics.

While in Washington yesterday, longshot presidential contender Rick Santorum (R-PA) expressed his approval for a scheme by Pennsylvania Republicans to split up the state’s electoral votes. Bucking the winner-takes-all tradition (which awarded all of the state’s votes to Barack Obama in 2008), the plan proposed by GOP Gov. Tom Corbett is a nakedly partisan attempt to give away as many as a dozen of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes to the Republican presidential candidate for free.

Slate’s Dave Weigel reports that Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, had no qualms about admitting that the idea is a transparently political ploy designed to advantage his party:

“Certainly, from the standpoint of a Republican, it’s a winner,” Santorum said. “Republicans will come out ahead in Pennsylvania in every election. The way Democrats win, they have two big cities with huge concentrations of voters — and then overwhelm the rest of the state.” [...]

“All of a sudden, a Republican can win — and would probably routinely win — all but three or four congressional districts in Pennsylvania,” he said. “It would turn it from a state Democrats rely on, as part of the base, to a state that they’re gonna lose under almost any scenario.”

Weigel observes that Republicans’ real problem seems to be that “because the votes of urban Democrats count as much as the votes of suburban Republicans, Democrats are often able to win Pennsylvania by getting more people to choose their candidate.” So Republicans have devised a scheme to award some votes to their guy even when most Pennsylvanians don’t vote for him! Santorum also seemed to be all in favor of gerrymandering tactics that would pour all urban Democrats into a few seats, thereby allowing Republicans to further maximize their voting power.