SCJN National Advocacy Calls on Developing Legislation
NACDL’s State Criminal Justice Network (SCJN), conference call series entitled National Advocacy Calls on Developing Legislation (NACDL), feature an expert(s) on a variety of criminal justice issues. Key to the calls is informing participants of any legislation or litigation pending that seeks progressive reform on the issue, and serves as a call to action for advocates interested in developing strategies for legislative reform or litigious efforts in their jurisdictions.
If you have ideas for future calls, please send an email to scjn@nacdl.org.
Previous Calls
March 2013
March’s advocacy call focused on unmanned aircraft commonly known as drones, and featured a discussion of pending legislation across the country. The panel discussed jurisdictions that have sought licenses for using the aircraft and legislation pending in several states.
You may listen to the recording of this call here. Please also visit NACDL's new Domestic Drones Information Center
NACDL Federal draft drone legislation
Speakers:
Mason Clutter serves as National Security and Privacy Counsel to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). Ms. Clutter works closely with NACDL’s National Security, Military Law, and Fourth Amendment Committees. Her work focuses on the intersection between national security and the traditional criminal justice system, including the detention and trial of terrorism suspects, and the use of national security and electronic surveillance laws.
Ms. Clutter earned an LL.M. in Law and Government from American University’s Washington College of Law, where she specialized in constitutional law and civil rights. She earned her J.D. from Barry University School of Law.
Steven R. Morrison is an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota School of Law, where he teaches in the areas of criminal and constitutional law. He graduated from Boston College Law School, and clerked for Justice Warren M. Silver of the State of Maine Supreme Judicial Court. He was then an associate at the Boston criminal defense law firm Carney & Bassil.
Professor Morrison is the author of a number of law review articles, which have appeared in journals at the University of Virginia School of Law, Northwestern Law School, and others. His work has been used in public defender training programs nationwide. Professor Morrison’s recent article, Conspiracy Law’s Threat to Free Speech, will be published in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law. Other current works include The System of Modern Criminal Conspiracy, and Requiring Proof of Conspiratorial Dangerousness, both of which discuss aspects of criminal conspiracy law.
Professor Morrison is active on the Fourth Amendment, National Security, and Sentencing Committees of the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. As a committee member, he is engaged in ongoing activities concerning the implications of the domestic use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Professor Morrison also, pursuant to the Criminal Justice Act, represents criminal appellants before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Christopher Calabrese is the legislative counsel for privacy-related issues in the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington Legislative Office (WLO). He leads the office's advocacy efforts related to privacy and the responsible use of technology, developing proactive strategies on pending federal legislation and executive branch actions concerning data collection, surveillance, and identification systems.
Calabrese is currently working to battle data collection practices by the government and private sector that could lead to the creation of a surveillance society, fight invasive airline passenger screening practices, and protect workers against the damaging impact of a national electronic employment verification system.
Calabrese has testified before Congress and appeared in many media outlets, including CBS Evening News, Fox News and National Public Radio, discussing technology and privacy issues, and he has been quoted in a variety of publications including the New York Times, Washington Post and Associated Press.
Calabrese is a graduate of Harvard University and holds a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Previous Calls
February 2013
February’s advocacy call was Wednesday February 13 at 12:00 p.m. EST and focused on legislation that passed around the country on medical and personal use marijuana. In particular the call focused on the state responses based on federal policies. An audio recording of the call is available here Go to audio
January call 2013 Our January National Advocacy Call on Developing Legislation on Wednesday January 16, 2013 at 12:00p.m. EST featured a discussion about death penalty moratorium legislation pending in several states. Jeremy Schroeder, National Strategy Counsel with the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty discussed efforts in Maryland, Colorado, Deleware, Kansas, and Montana to abolish the death penalty. For more information about NCADP please visit the website at www.ncadp.org.
Bail Reform Wednesday September 19, 2012 12:00-1:00 pm EDT
Featured a discussion on bail, for-profit bail bonding and legislation and advocacy efforts behind the issue. Presenters were Professor Adele Bernhard a member of NACDL’s Pretrial Justice Task Force; Spike Bradford, JPI’s Senior Research Associate; and Shima Baradaran Professor of Law at BYU and Chair of the ABA Committee on Pretrial.
Bail Reform Advocacy Call Audio
Resources
Reports and Journal Articles
Model Legislation
Presenters
Professor Shima Baradaran's teaching and scholarship focuses on criminal law, criminal procedure, and international law. Her current scholarship examines prediction, the presumption of innocence, international law and terrorism, race and violent crime. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, on National Public Radio and other media outlets. Her most recent articles are Predicting Violence, Texas Law Review, Race, Prediction & Discretion, George Washington Law Review (forthcoming), and Does International Law Matter?, Minnesota Law Review (forthcoming). She serves on the AALS Criminal Justice Section Executive Committee and as the Chair of the ABA Pretrial Justice Taskforce and Co-chair of the Committee on Crime Prevention, Pretrial Release & Police Practices.
Before joining the law faculty at BYU, Professor Baradaran served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar researching pretrial detention in Malawi and lecturing in criminal law at the University of Malawi. While in Malawi she worked as a justice advisor to the British Department for International Development managing a national justice reform project, advised a coalition of international nongovernmental organizations on draft legislation attempting to criminalize HIV transmission, and represented criminal defendants in felony cases as a Senior Legal Aid Advocate.
Professor Adele Bernhard began practicing law as a public defender with the Legal Aid Society in the South Bronx and has concentrated on criminal law for most of her career. In 1988, she started a grant-funded project providing training and resources for private court-appointed counsel assigned to represent the indigent accused of crimes. The project successfully convinced New York City to establish the first permanent citywide training unit for court-appointed counsel, where she served for three years as the director of training. She was one of the original members, and subsequently chaired, the First Department Indigent Defense Organization Oversight Committee, which monitors the provision of defense services by organizations in New York City. Bernhard is the recipient of the First Annual Shanara Gilbert Emerging Clinician Award, AALS Clinic Section. She was appointed to the Task Force on Criminal Justice of the New York County Lawyers’ Association. She is also a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Pretrial Justice Task Force and its Problem-Solving Courts Task Force. Professor Bernhard is nationally recognized for her efforts to create a right to compensation for those who have been unjustly convicted and later exonerated.
Spike Bradford is a data analyst, project manager, and educator with experience in public health, drug policy, and criminal justice. Prior to joining the JPI team as their Senior Research Associate, Spike lived in Kenya, where he taught English as a Foreign Language to adult learners and applied his data analysis skills to public health issues, especially related to women’s health. Spike has also worked at the Department of the Attorney General of Hawai`i to evaluate a variety of criminal and juvenile justice initiatives and oversee the collection of data for the Uniform Crime Reports. Spike holds a Master of Education from Bowling Green State University, a Master of Arts from the University of Hawai`i, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi.
September 12, 2012 National Advocacy Call on Developing Legislation (NACDL) a discussion on Prison-Based Gerrymandering
Featured a discussion on prison-based gerrymandering. Our presenters were Peter Wagner, Executive Director of the Prison Policy Initiative and Maryland Delegate Joseline Peña-Melnyk. Please visit www.prisonersofthecensus.org for more information about prison-based gerrymandering. Please find language for model bill here.
The Prison Policy Initiative’s (PPI) main focus is on ending prison-based gerrymandering, which is a distorted practice of counting people where they are confined, not where they come from. Delegate Peña-Melnyk sponsored the “No Representation Without Population Act” that passed the Maryland legislature in January 2010 and was subsequently signed by the Governor on April 13, 2010
Inspired by PPI’s work, Maryland, Delaware, New York, and California recently passed laws that end prison-based gerrymandering by counting incarcerated people at home for state and local redistricting purposes. In August, the New York Times hailed the New York law in an editorial declaring that ending prison-based gerrymandering will bring benefits to all, and calling for the new law to be emulated around the country. The editorial cites PPI’s research on prison-based gerrymandering in the New York Senate, in upstate counties, and in the upstate city of Rome.
Presenters
Delegate Peña-Melnyk has been a Member of the House of Delegates since January 10, 2007. She was born in the Dominican Republic and attended Buffalo State College, receiving a B.A. in criminal justice, and a J.D. from the State University of New York School of Law. She was previously an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, U.S. Department of Justice, 1997-99.
Peter Wagner, JD, is the Executive Director of the Prison Policy Initiative. Peter Wagner teaches, lectures, and writes about the negative impact of mass incarceration in the United States. His current focus is on demonstrating - through graphics, legal research, and state-by-state analyses - how the U.S. Census Bureau's practice of counting the nation's mostly urban prisoners as residents of the often remote communities in which they are incarcerated distorts the democratic process.
National Advocacy Call on Developing Legislation (NACDL) a discussion on Discovery Reform.
In 1963, the Supreme Court decision in Brady v. Maryland required prosecutors to provide evidence to the defense that could potentially save a client from a conviction and help discourage prosecutorial misconduct. More and more cases, however, are being overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct. Witness the case of Mr. Juan Smith of New Orleans whose life sentence was recently overturned by the Supreme Court, primarily due to the fact that his conviction was based solely on eyewitness testimony. Another case in Texas was overturned after DNA evidence cleared Michael Morton, who spent 25 years in prison after being convicted of killing his wife. In Mr. Morton’s case, the prosecutor withheld evidence from the defense that would have in essence led them to another perpetrator.
Attorneys Ellen Yaroshefsky, (NY); Ian Friedman, (OH); and Brad Bannon (NC), presented on the January’s National Advocacy Calls on Developing Legislation (NACDL) for a discussion about discovery reform efforts around the country. Please see documents referenced in the call, as well as NACDL’s proposal on discovery reform.
NACDL will be working on this issue extensively, so if you are interested in discovery reform in your jurisdiction please contact Angelyn for additional information on how to get involved at afrazer@nacdl.org or (202) 465-7642.
Documents
November's Conversation
On Wednesday November 16, 2011 from 2:00-3:00 pm (EST), our National Advocacy Call on Developing Legislation featured Lori Albin, Director of National Juvenile Justice Network’s Fiscal Policy Center. The call was designed to provide advocates with an understanding of state budget processes.
September’s Conversation
On Wednesday, September 21, 2011, from 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time. NACDL's State Criminal Justice Network resumed the National Advocacy Calls on Developing Legislation. The conversation focused on the Justice Policy Institute’s recent report, Gaming the System: How the Political Strategies of Private Prison Companies Promote Ineffective Incarceration Policies.
Gaming the System explores how private prison companies may try to present themselves as just meeting existing demand for prison beds and responding to current market conditions, but they have in fact worked over the past decade to create markets for their product. As revenues of private prison companies have grown over the past decade, the companies have had more resources with which to build political power, and they have used this power to promote policies that lead to higher rates of incarceration.