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by Jordan Meadows-

Four people on death row have been executed in the United States in 2023. The executions took place in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and two in Texas. 

In 2021, Virginia became the 23rd state – and first southern state – to ban the death penalty. Virginia has carried out almost 1400 executions since its inception, more than any other state in history. 

A state senator in Virginia, Bill Desteph (R-VA Beach), has proposed legislation that would restore capital punishment. The legislation states that the death penalty could be used when there is “the willful, deliberate and premeditated killing of a law enforcement officer when such killing is for the purpose of interfering with the performance of his official duties.” 

The bill is likely to fail in committee as Democrats hold a majority in the state senate. 

One in eight people on death row is eventually exonerated at the federal level. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, in the last 50 years, almost 200 people have been exonerated. In most of these cases, wrongful convictions arose from erroneous eyewitness identifications, false and coerced confessions, inadequate legal defense and more. 

In 2018, 79% of all homicide exonerations were due to misconduct on the part of the police or the prosecution – or both. That number grows to 87% for Black exonerees. Black Americans account for 41% of people on death row and 34% of those executed. 

There has been a multitude of instances where individuals with mental disabilities and children have been executed – ultimately banned by the Supreme Court in 2002 and 2005, respectively. 

Capital punishment costs taxpayers more than if they had non-capital punishment. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2020, the average time between someone being sentenced and executed was 18.9 years. During this time, the government is required to provide resources and funding for people on death row, such as the attorney. 

23 people are scheduled to be executed in five different states this year. One state, Ohio, has scheduled inmates to be executed in 2026. President Joe Biden is the first president to publicly oppose the death penalty but has taken no major steps to that end. 

By: Ryan Schork

The online boycott of the highly anticipated video game, Hogwarts: Legacy, seems to have backfired as it reaches the pinnacle of purchased charts. Even more impressive, the game hasn’t even been released to players yet. Hogwarts: Legacy is set to release on Feb. 10, 2023, yet players have pre-purchased the game at such a high volume that it is currently the number-one-selling game.

Hogwarts: Legacy, a game based around the world of Harry Potter, came under fire recently because of insensitive tweets by the author of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter is the most successful book series of all time, with over 500 million copies sold. Furthermore, Rowling is the first author in history to become a billionaire, according to Guinness World Records.  

Rowling has a history of controversy, mainly on Twitter, due to her tweets and overall views of the transgender movement. Rowling has been labeled as a “TERF” which stands for a trans-exclusionary radical feminist. The Hogwarts: Legacy website claims that Rowling was not involved in the game’s production. However, fans are still calling for the boycott as she is sure to gain financially from its success.

After a litany of tweets from Rowling, fans rushed to Twitter to voice their anger with the author and called for a complete boycott of the game. Furthermore, many fans reached out to popular Twitch streamers, asking them to not play or broadcast the gameplay to their fans out of respect for the transgender community. Many Twitch streamers have also taken to Twitter, calling for fellow streamers to also boycott the game. However, this reaction has not been held by most, as the loss of exposure and revenue would be detrimental to their careers.  

However, nothing is as it seems on the internet. The boycott seems to have backfired as sales started to skyrocket after the news broke about said boycott. Currently, Hogwarts Legacy is at the top spot of purchased games on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation. Whether the spike in sales is genuine backlash from players due to the boycott, or if it is simply because the game is highly anticipated is unclear. Some fans of the series have developed a conspiracy theory that the whole fiasco was a marketing ploy, though this is only speculation.

As the release date for Hogwarts: Legacy approaches, fans are divided on the ethics of buying and playing the game. For longtime fans of the Harry Potter series, the game seems like a dream come true that has now become a nightmare of controversy. While covered in drama and controversy, Hogwarts: Legacy will be played by millions of people around the world.