mr. levin, you're making me very nervous. we keep inviting you to these hearings and as a texas conservative i find myself agreeing with you more and more, so i'm hoping you'll at least highlight a few things that you know we disagree on, but thank you very much for coming and the floor is yours. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> turn the microphone on there. >> thank you, mr. chairman, for your leadership on this and i want to thank as well the ranking member who i have known and admired for many years, senator cruz. we are a conservative think tank but -- >> and i'll note on that you did find something you disagree with the chairman on. >> well, we are a conservative think tank but i will tell you that if we believe in making government less intrusive and personal responsibility and accountability, we have to shine the light in the darkest of places, and the most restrictive areas of government control, which is solitary confinement. so i'm pleased to be here today. one of the issues that we feel strongly about is ending the p

increase our order in prisons and make the public safer when these inmates are discharged. >> thanks, mr. levin. again, thanks to the entire panel. a special thanks to miss kerman and mr. thibodeaux for coming and speaking openly about their own experience in incarceration. mr. thibodeaux i have read your testimony three times. it is that compelling. i ask you to summarize it. >> thank you. thank you for inviting me to speak about my 15 years in solitary confinement on death row at the louisiana state penitentiary at angola. i'm here because in september of 2012 i became the 141st actually innocent death row exoneree since the u.s. supreme court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. but before i was exonerated and released i was subjected to solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for 15 years between the ages of 23 and 38. this experience was all the more painful and cruel because i had not committed the crime for which i had been sentenced to die. in my written statement i described the physical and mental torture that inmates in solitary confinement suffer. the diet is horrible, the heat an

mr. levin, you're making me very nervous. we keep inviting you to these hearings and as a texas conservative i find myself agreeing with you more and more, so i'm hoping you'll at least highlight a few things that you know we disagree on, but thank you very much for coming and the floor is yours. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> turn the microphone on there. >> thank you, mr. chairman, for your leadership on this and i want to thank as well the ranking member who i have known and admired for many years, senator cruz. we are a conservative think tank but -- >> and i'll note on that you did find something you disagree with the chairman on. >> well, we are a conservative think tank but i will tell you that if we believe in making government less intrusive and personal responsibility and accountability, we have to shine the light in the darkest of places, and the most restrictive areas of government control, which is solitary confinement. so i'm pleased to be here today. one of the issues that we feel strongly about is ending the p

mr. levin, you are making me nervous. we keep inviting you to these hearings and i keep agreeing with you more and more. i hope you will at least highlight a few things you know we disagree on. thank you very much for coming. the floor is yours. >> thank you for your leadership on this. we are conservative think tank -- >> i will note you did find something you disagree with the chair on. we are a conservative think tank and to make the government less intrusive, we have to shine the light in the darkest of places in the most restrictive areas of government control. solitary confinement. i am pleased to be here today. one of the issues is ending the practice of releasing inmates from solitary confinement. with over 1300 such releases from solitary confinement from texas state prisons n. washington state, the study was done on the super max that found inmate release from solitary confinement were less likely to commit a new offense and more likely not to commit a new offense as compared to inmates with similar defense prof

mr. speed levin, would you care to respond? sandman: i agree with mr. nolan we need to stop selling arms to all of those people over there. we need to bring our people home. we've been fighting for how many thousands of years and i don't believe that we are doing them any favors by supplying arms. we need our boys and our young women home. we need to stay up and quit trying to be the world's policeman. we need to take care of what is happening here in the united states. >> moderator: thank you. congressman? nolan: i want to reiterate we have no friends in this conflict. inevitably it's the arms that we send that are used against us and even if you think it's a good idea, we can ill afford it. it's bankrupting the country and the nation. those are money that we need to not only rebuild america those are money that we need to take care of the veterans when they come home. we have a sacred obligation to take care of the veterans who served and protected us to serve and protect them when they come home and i've been committed to that end of this is why we e

previously mr. levin served and staff attorney at the texas supreme court tanks to the texas public foundation's work meant to reform the law and particularly i want to thank you for your support. all the members here are cosponsored. damon is witness before us and in late september, damon became the nation's 141st death row inmate to be exonerated on actual innocence grounds since the supreme court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. he was released from the state penitentiary after 15 years in solitary confinement. his release was supported by the district attorney's office which was responsible for his original prosecution. following his release, he relocated to minneapolis where he obtained his ged and january 2014 he began his truck driving career with the transportation company. i'm sorry for what you have been through and i comment you for what you have done to rebuild your life. it's an amazing story. thank you for having the courage to appear here today. you have five minutes and your written

mr. holder of a few of the other epic failures. all of that plus the great one mark levine, mark stein, anne coulter, governor palin and much more. an all-star "hannity" starts right here. tonight sh days and counting until election day 2014 and the question remains will republicans take control of the u.s. senate? joining us now at the "hannity" billboard, my good friend bill hemmer. >> very good. about a week since we talked? >> yes, sir. >> here is the state of things as we see them according to the polls now. not voters, but the polls. the what if scenario, 45-5 is your opening mark. republicans need 6 to get control of the senate. really very little if any change in west virginia. that still looks very favorable for the gop. likewise for montana. but we talk about south dakota, what's going on out here. it has a little bit. let me show your audience what's happening. you have a three-way race. mike brown still has the lead, the republican, but he's drafting votes, pressler is the former senator away from rounds, but right now for the sake of our discussion -- >> i'll h

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