Category: Criminal Justice

A Law-and-Order Agenda Must Include Prison Reform

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2.5 percent of inmates are serving life sentences; that means 97.5 percent of all federal inmates will eventually be released. Our prisons must effectively prepare inmates for release, which includes the bare minimum of protecting them from violence, but also providing them the resources they need to turn their lives around.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-law-and-order-agenda-must-include-prison-reform/

Arizona Town To Pay $8 Million to Widow of Daniel Shaver, Shot While Crawling Unarmed Toward Police

The cop who killed Shaver was fired. But he will receive a disability pension for the rest of his life because he claims he has post-traumatic stress disorder.

https://reason.com/2022/11/28/arizona-town-to-pay-8-million-to-widow-of-daniel-shaver-shot-while-crawling-unarmed-toward-police/#

Houston Prosecutors Are Keeping Cash Seized From Defendants Whose Cases Were Compromised by Police Corruption

Even in cases that hinged on the trustworthiness of demonstrably untrustworthy cops, people are still waiting to get their money back.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg wants credit for investigating the blatantly corrupt behavior of Goines and other Houston narcotics officers. Meanwhile, her office, which is hardly without blame for prosecuting falsely accused defendants, is eagerly engaged in money grabs that victimize innocent people and make a mockery of justice.

https://reason.com/2022/11/04/houston-prosecutors-are-keeping-cash-seized-from-defendants-whose-cases-were-compromised-by-police-corruption/

After Supreme Court Ruling, States Grapple With How To Define an Excessive Fine

The Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Timbs v. Indiana revived the Excessive Fines Clause. Now state courts have to come up with tests to determine what’s excessive.

“Surely, if the Excessive Fines Clause means anything, it means that the government cannot confiscate a defendant’s entire net worth when the maximum fine set by the legislature is less than one-tenth of the value of the forfeited asset.”

https://reason.com/2022/11/04/after-supreme-court-ruling-states-grapple-with-how-to-define-an-excessive-fine/

What Happens When a County Employee Acts Like a Police Officer?

Over the past few years, some Republican politicians have made defending qualified immunity a core prong of their campaigns. Ensuring government unaccountability is, by partisan definition, a strange hill for conservatives to die on.

https://reason.com/2022/10/20/what-happens-when-a-county-employee-acts-like-a-police-officer/

The Jury Was Right Not to Give the Parkland Killer the Death Penalty

We have a broken criminal justice department with long wait times, harried, overworked public defenders, and an imperfect police force (to put it as diplomatically as possible). A state sanctioned death penalty simply can’t be trusted.

https://www.newsweek.com/jury-was-right-not-give-parkland-killer-death-penalty-opinion-1752055

A Jury Acquitted Them of Various Charges. They Served Prison Time for Them Anyway.

Can you do prison time for a criminal charge of which you were never convicted? Known as acquitted conduct sentencing, the practice allows judges to bloat a prison term when sentencing a defendant by punishing them for a separate charge or charges on which a jury deemed them not guilty.

https://reason.com/2022/10/04/a-jury-acquitted-them-of-various-charges-they-served-prison-time-for-them-anyway/