Currently, prosecutors in both the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems have too much discretion in pressing charges, determining what sentences are sought, and negotiating plea deals. Trial by jury is a key tenant of the American criminal justice system, but heightened prosecutorial power significantly reduces the power and frequency of a trial by peers. Attempts at sentencing reform must address largely unchecked prosecutorial discretion.
“Johnson sought for the teenagers to be tried as adults, and the public hasn’t really heard much about it from her since. Organizers and nonprofits focused on issues of mass incarceration and criminal justice got to work on strategies of their own. Brianna Brown from Texas Organizing Project said ending mass incarceration cannot come to fruition without making sure kids are tried as kids.“
Dallas Observer
November 1, 2018
Read More“Those are just a couple examples of the long-lasting collateral damage caused by incarceration, and things could have gone differently. The prosecutor in charge of my case could have used a diversion option, like treatment court, or a different form of supervision that would have allowed me to address my addiction, options which would have minimized the impacts I still feel on my life today. I have since been told my sentence was extreme and that the prosecutor could have easily diverted me to a treatment court program or community supervision to address the underlying reasons for my addiction and subsequent crimes.“
Prison Legal News
October 31, 2018
Read More“The deference shown to prosecutors reaches every aspect of the criminal justice system. Even the reformers who recommend consulting prosecutors on parole decisions and second-look sentencing, however, fail to explain why their involvement is needed in these post-sentencing processes. It strikes me as counterintiuitive that the official responsible for seeking someone’s lengthy sentence should be consulted about that person’s release, yet those recommendations continue.“
Prison Policy Initiative
October 25, 2018
Read More“Although law enforcement officials have traditionally opposed such measures for an array of reasons — including accountability, a belief that records are vital to public safety, and unstinting support for crime victims — a growing number of them have begun to recognize that criminal records can be enduring obstacles to self-sufficiency and even help trap people in cycles of crime. Increasingly, they are overtly endorsing mercy through record suppression.“
New York Times
October 7, 2018
Read More“As a rising Cardinals analyst, Chris Correa didn’t believe he was committing a crime when he hacked into the Astros’ internal database. Then he went to prison, where he changed his views on his actions and the criminal justice system.“
Sports Illustrated
October 4, 2018
Read More“Robinson said his office does take ‘all factors into consideration’ including youth brain development, when making charging decisions. He added that he has no problem seeking life without parole for juveniles who were accomplices in a felony that resulted in a murder, depending on the facts of the case.“
The Appeal
October 4, 2018
Read More“Noted political scientist and author Marie Gottschalk has called life without parole ‘death in slow motion.’ Pope Francis deemed it ‘a death penalty in disguise.’ Kenneth Hartman, who served more than 37 years in prison before California governor Jerry Brown commuted his sentence, was the first to label it ‘the other death penalty.’ When he was still behind bars, Hartman wrote for The Marshall Project that life without parole is ‘the sense of being dead while you’re still alive, the feeling of being dumped into a deep well struggling to tread water until, some 40 or 50 years later, you drown’.“
Truthout Magazine
September 16, 2018
Read More“Lawmakers in Louisiana passed the split-jury rule in 1880 after the 14th Amendment guaranteed all men, including former slaves, the right to vote and serve on juries. The rule was formally entered into the Louisiana Constitution at the state’s 1898 constitutional convention, where lawmakers declared a mission to ‘perpetuate the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race in Louisiana’.“
LA Times
September 12, 2018
Read More“Currently on his way out of state prison, Agtuca will have a gradual release. He will be moved to a halfway house and slowly returned to free society. He hopes to work as a paralegal and finally make a home with Susan, whom he married in prison.“
The Appeal
September 11, 2018
Read More“Once a prosecutor makes a recommendation, a judge would still have to impose the new sentence, and the sentence must be allowed by law. But just as prosecutors have enormous power to seek harsh penalties when a defendant is first sentenced, so too could prosecutors demand leniency after someone has already spent many years in prison.“
The Appeal
September 7, 2018
Read More"As is the case with most criminal court fees, Pennsylvania’s plea fee is disproportionately leveled against poor people. In 2015, more than $900,000 in plea fees were imposed in York County, according to a review of all criminal dockets by The Appeal. More than $570,000—or roughly 60 percent—of those fees were charged to people who were represented by a public defender."
The Appeal
August 29, 2018
Read More"Pleading guilty and implicating a co-defendant can be the only practical choice when your lawyer lacks the time and resources to mount an effective defense. In fact, flipping on your cohorts can be the only way to avoid the de facto punishment of pretrial detention."
Washington Post
August 24, 2018
Read More"One of Hein’s friends pulled a knife during a fistfight over marijuana. James Farris III died; Jason Holland testified that he committed the stabbings in a backyard clubhouse, but Hein was also sentenced to life in prison under California’s “felony murder” rule that holds accomplices to the same standard as if they had personally committed the crime."
AP
August 17, 2018
Read More"Felony-murder laws allow prosecutors to file murder charges against participants in fatal crimes without having to show that they intended to kill. Unlike such laws in other states, the appeals court said, the California law “takes an abstract approach to evaluating a crime’s dangerousness,” looking at the definition of the crime rather than the facts of the individual case."
San Francisco Chronicle
August 6, 2018
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