David Love: Twelve years after the controversial Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is having some second thoughts about the case.

David Love: Many would be surprised at the high odds of innocent people being executed, which speaks to a criminal justice system riddled with problems, including witness misidentification, prosecutorial misconduct, incompetent lawyering, raw racism and class bias.

David Love: As is the case with same-sex marriage, the tide seems to be turning on public attitudes on marijuana. For the black community, with so many young people incarcerated for possessing small quantities of the drug, the stakes are high.

David Love: So, what do you make of a country where a third grader brings a gun to school to ward off bullies?

David Love: No one stepped in to help this traumatized boy deal with the anger, shame, confusion, paranoia and self-hatred he experienced from years of manipulation and abuse.

David Love: Forty after Furman, problems still plague the death penalty, when in reality the problems never went away. And as long as there are executions, we’ll continue to have a problem.

David Love: Just as an older generation had to step aside for him, Jesse Jackson has had to contend with a younger generation of black leaders, and that is not a bad thing.

David Love: It is ironic that Rodney King died on the day that Rev. Al Sharpton led a march to protest New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “stop and frisk” policy.

David Love: Faced with hard times, people have clear choices. Either they join forces across racial and ethnic lines and fight their common adversary, or they double down on the dumbness, thrive on misinformation and assign scapegoats.

David Love: Meanwhile, a coalition of groups including the Human Rights Campaign and Empire State Pride Agenda are joining forces with NAACP’s Ben Jealous and Rev. Al Sharpton for a June 17 march to protest stop and frisk.

David Love: Another reason for the rift between blacks and the LGBT community has been the historic lack of synergy and inclusion regarding blacks and the gay rights movement.

David Love: As people are still put down like dogs in the land of the free – despite the momentum for abolition – capital punishment represents America’s human rights blind spot.

David Love: If some politicians say they want to follow the advice of the generals on the ground, Powell was a “good soldier” who followed orders, perhaps even to the detriment of his long-term reputation.

David Love: The charisma, charm and brilliance of a Condoleezza Rice could help offset Romney’s negative image as a rich, dull, white bread kind of guy.

David Love: Surely, as Romney etch-a-sketches his way back to the center, Republicans are thinking that a brown or black face on the ticket will help them with moderate and independent voters.

David Love: It is hard to imagine how Romney will clear a path to victory in November by associating with an ideologically extreme radical such as Robert Bork.

David Love: The killing of Trayvon Martin has brought many people together, but has exposed the various divisions along racial, political and media lines as well.

David Love: So what’s going on here? Some black folks in Sanford suggest that many whites are supportive, but do not want to display any public sentiments for fear of being called a “ni**er lover.”

David Love: Trayvon Martin’s killing continues to expose the problems black men face, the low priority they are assigned as black victims, and the unfair treatment they face at the hands of the police and in the justice system.

David Love: Breitbart, Limbaugh, J. Edgar — This nation has a love-hate relationship with bullies. In one breath, society condemns bullying. And yet our society thrives on it, encourages it and glorifies it.

David Love: Republicans are once again turning President Obama’s faith into a political issue. But will their strategy work? History and hypocrisy suggest that the political gamesmanship won’t succeed.

David Love: If Stockholm Syndrome relates to the feeling of empathy that kidnap victims have with their captors, then certainly what we are witnessing today is a Stockholm Syndrome of those on the losing end of American capitalism.

David Love: Over one-third of people say that a relative is married to someone of a different race, and nearly two-thirds say it would be fine if a family decided to marry someone of a different race or ethnicity.

David Love: Now, when the GOP is tea party-owned and steeped in 100% pure corporatism, greed, intolerance and white supremacy, black conservatives are simply useful idiots.

David A. Love: Executions in the U.S. are part of a racially-coded system of retribution. Poor people and members of racial minorities are more likely to receive a death sentence, as are those who are charged with murdering a white victim.

On his way out the door, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour decided to grant executive pardons and medical releases to over 200 convicts, including 14 convicted of murder. He even pardoned Scott Favre, brother of retired NFL quarterback …

David Love: Haley’s policies, not unlike those of her predecessors, are the unjust laws that Martin Luther King discussed in Letter from Birmingham Jail.

David Love: The Donald’s entry into the presidential race as an independent candidate is exciting, but not necessarily because he could win more votes than the GOP nominee.

David Love: The police response to the Occupy Movement flies in the face of the reputed tenets of American constitutional democracy, and contravenes the precepts of international human rights law.

David Love: Capital punishment operates under a pretense of justice, when in reality it represents pure vengeance and mob retribution, favoring expediency and finality over finding the real killer.