Category: Criminal Justice

Possible Good News on Reform of Civil Forfeiture?

Forfeiture has expanded dramatically as a weapon in the War on Drugs (similarly to the Prohibition era). One crucial development has been that law enforcement agencies can often keep the proceeds from auctioning seized property, which creates an incentive to seize more property and complicate the retrieval processes. This seems likely to distort balanced enforcement of laws and is inconsistent with the presumption of innocence.

https://www.cato.org/blog/possible-good-news-reform-civil-forfeiture

Red States Are Reversing Criminal Justice Reform

Politicians have pushed the narrative that criminal justice reforms have led to rising crime rates. The good news is that now, since those trends are reversing, that anti-reform story should be a harder sell. Since spiking in 2020, murder rates in major cities have been declining sharply.

https://reason.com/2024/06/06/states-turn-their-backs-on-criminal-justice-reform

The Difference Between Justice and the Rule of Law

As a libertarian, I would like to abolish a vast range of current laws for reasons unrelated to rule-of-law considerations. I think a high proportion of current laws are substantively unjust; if I didn’t think that, I would not be a libertarian in the first place.

https://reason.com/volokh/2024/04/30/the-difference-between-justice-and-the-rule-of-law/

Will the Supreme Court Let Sylvia Gonzalez Sue the Political Enemies Who Engineered Her Arrest?

“Gonzalez was so hurt by the experience and so embarrassed by the media coverage of her arrest,” the petition says, that “she gave up her council seat and swore off organizing petitions or criticizing her government.”

https://reason.com/2024/03/21/will-the-supreme-court-let-sylvia-gonzalez-sue-the-political-enemies-who-engineered-her-arrest/

If You Spend Time in Jail Because the Government Lied, You Should Be Able to Sue

The Sixth Circuit’s rule gives police and prosecutors a perverse incentive to overcharge defendants, because the more charges are brought the greater likelihood that at least one will be found to have probable cause.

https://www.cato.org/blog/you-spend-time-jail-because-police-officer-lied-you-should-be-able-sue

Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands

Enshrined in the Constitution by the 13th Amendment, slavery and involuntary servitude are banned – except as punishment for a crime.

That clause is currently being challenged on the federal level, and efforts to remove similar language from state constitutions are expected to reach the ballot in about a dozen states this year.

https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-c6f0eb4747963283316e494eadf08c4e

Nice Dig at Qualified Immunity, by Judge Don Willett (5th Cir.)

Turns out, ignorance of the law is an excuse—for government officials. Such blithe “rules for thee but not for me” nonchalance is less qualified immunity than unqualified impunity.

https://reason.com/volokh/2024/01/24/nice-dig-at-qualified-immunity-by-judge-don-willett-5th-cir/

Trumbull County grand jury declines charges in miscarriage case under national spotlight

Watts’ lawyer, Traci Timko, said in an Associated Press story in December that her client was sitting at St. Joseph Warren Hospital for eight hours awaiting treatment while officials there tried to decide how to treat the symptoms of her pregnancy under Ohio’s abortion laws.

https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/warren-news/trumbull-county-grand-jury-chooses-not-to-indict-woman-charged-after-miscarriage/

Study Estimates Roadside Drug Tests Result in 30,000 Wrongful Arrests Every Year

…as many as 30,000 innocent people a year may be wrongly arrested for drug possession based on their results, making these tests “one of the largest, if not the largest, known contributing factor to wrongful arrests and convictions in the United States.”

212 people pleaded guilty between January 2004 and June 2015 to drug possession based on Houston Police Department field tests that were later invalidated by crime labs.

https://reason.com/2024/01/09/study-estimates-roadside-drug-tests-result-in-30000-wrongful-arrests-every-year/