his convicted in 1994 along with a man and robert carter, of killing a texas woman, her daughter and four grandchildren. in 2010, graves was fully exonerated after spending 18 years behind bars, the bulk of that time on death row and in solitary confinement. we will talk more about his case later in the broadcast. first, we're joined by veteran journalist james ridgeway, co- editor of solitary watch, a website that tracks solitary confinement and torture in american prisons. he writes regularly for "mother jones" magazine and is a 2012 soros justice fellow, along with his reporting partner, jean casella. we welcome you to "democracy now!" start off by talking about the significance of this hearing. >> i don't think anybody ever thought that senator durbin and the other members of that committee would actually get into this subject in such a forceful and direct manner. i mean, the state alone by senator durbin is highly unusual. and for the senate and for the whole congress, grave. american politicians do not like criminals, and there are a lot of people in solitary confinement who ob

roberts has gone in that direction. the court has been shifting to the right probably over the last 30 years. there have been more republican presidents than democrats. carterget any nominees in his four years. sort of unlucky. that's been the shift. >> cenk: that's really a good point, carter didn't get any and there have been more republican presidents serving longer over that stretch of time. but i think it goes deeper. in 1971, lewis powell writes a memo and says, let's buy the supreme court in essence. nixon said good idea. and so then we have--not just citizens united when it comes to the corporate money and power in politics. you have to go back to buckley where they say money equaled speech and valadi where they say corners versus first-amendment rights. that was death nail. i don't think you can get elected in the democratic party without the same views. now the court seems to be saying we've got this on lockdown. we don't even have to pretend to be fair any more. chamber of commerce all the way. >> we'll see that next week with the healthcare ruling. that's the thing about the court. a lot of people think about the court in terms of social issues,