DPI Podcast 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context: Maha Jweied of The Responsible Business Initiative for Justice Discusses Intersection of Business and the Legal System

In October 2025’s episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI man­ag­ing direc­tor Anne Holsinger inter­views Maha Jweied. Ms. Jweied, the CEO of The Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ), is an inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized expert on the role of the pri­vate sec­tor in jus­tice sys­tems and an advo­cate for improved access to jus­tice world­wide. During the pod­cast, Ms. Jweied describes RBIJ’s mission of work­ing with busi­ness lead­ers to push for crim­i­nal jus­tice reform. Along with death penal­ty abo­li­tion, RBIJ advo­cates for poli­cies address­ing chal­lenges fac­ing for­mer­ly incar­cer­at­ed indi­vid­u­als reen­ter­ing the workforce. 

RBIJ, which was orig­i­nal­ly estab­lished by founder and for­mer cap­i­tal defense lawyer Celia Ouellette to high­light busi­ness lead­ers’ con­cerns about the death penal­ty, has since evolved into an orga­ni­za­tion whose mis­sion is to ​“advance crim­i­nal jus­tice reform, not just in the death penal­ty space, but also around issues that relate to the health and vibran­cy of the work­force, so crim­i­nal record clear­ing, occu­pa­tion­al licens­ing reform, dri­ver’s license reform.” They work with busi­ness­es to per­suade the pub­lic and law­mak­ers that death penal­ty and crim­i­nal jus­tice reform are not ​“fringe” ideas but com­mon sense, non­par­ti­san, and sound policies.

One of RBIJ’s efforts has cul­mi­nat­ed in the launch of their glob­al ​“Business Leaders Against the Death Penalty” cam­paign. Over 600 busi­ness lead­ers across numer­ous indus­tries have signed the cam­paign dec­la­ra­tion, in which they com­mit to using their influ­ence and plat­forms to advo­cate for the end of cap­i­tal punishment worldwide. 

“Truly, there’s no con­stituen­cy that is more influ­en­tial and more per­sua­sive to pol­i­cy­mak­ers and deci­sion-mak­ers than the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty.” Ms. Jweied says. “[Signing the dec­la­ra­tion] is a val­ues-based deci­sion that these lead­ers are choos­ing to use to be vocal and clear that they believe in more fair­ness in the world; they believe in the rule of law and that human rights are universal.”

Many busi­ness lead­ers involved with RBIJ par­tic­i­pat­ed in an event at the recent­ly trans­formed San Quentin prison in California, for­mer­ly known for being one of the state’s harsh­est facil­i­ties and hous­ing its death row. The new facil­i­ty empha­sizes reha­bil­i­ta­tion over pun­ish­ment, and con­ver­sa­tions between the res­i­dents and RBIJ’s busi­ness lead­ers cov­ered how to encour­age Governor Gavin Newsom to fur­ther his efforts to reform California’s prison sys­tem by com­mut­ing the sen­tences of con­demned pris­on­ers still unsure of their futures in the state’s legal system. 

RBIJ’s pod­cast, Rewriting Justice, has pub­lished a con­ver­sa­tion between Jarvis Jay Masters, a California death row pris­on­er and author of ​“That Bird Has My Wings,” and Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group and co-founder of Business Leaders Against the Death Penalty. Released on World Day Against the Death Penalty, their con­ver­sa­tion cov­ers Mr. Masters’ per­son­al expe­ri­ence of rais­ing inno­cence claims while fac­ing a death sen­tence, as well as the sys­temic arbi­trari­ness and unre­li­a­bil­i­ty of the death penalty.

Ms. Jweied encour­ages all busi­ness lead­ers inter­est­ed in dis­cussing how they can get involved with RBIJ to vis­it the web­site and get in con­tact with the orga­ni­za­tion, where she stress­es that RBIJ will ​“meet you where you are.”

“We are not an orga­ni­za­tion that names or shames busi­ness­es,” Ms. Jweied empha­sizes, ​“We are an orga­ni­za­tion that part­ners with the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty to advance jus­tice reform, to cre­ate more vibrant and safe communities.”