In 2012, the FBI and DOJ, in conjunction with the Innocence Project and NACDL, began a review of criminal cases in which FBI microscopic hair comparison analysts gave testimony or conducted lab work. As a result of that effort, the FBI has admitted that the agents in the elite Hair and Fiber Unit of the FBI Crime Lab gave erroneous testimony in at least 90% of the hundreds of microscopic hair comparison cases reviewed. Although the results of the FBI Review are staggering, they only represent a fraction of the problem caused by flawed microscopic hair comparison analysis testimony.

The U.S. government launders the original source of evidence in criminal cases in a practice known as “parallel construction.” In order to keep certain investigative activity hidden, agents simply arrange for an alternate evidentiary path. This practice allows the government to obscure secret surveillance technologies and programs or potentially illegal investigative methods from those accused in criminal cases, and the public at large. This webinar will educate members of the defense community about the practice of "parallel construction" and prepare them to fight it in the courtroom.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) searches the digital devices of people at border crossings and at ports of entry without a warrant and without suspicion. Criminal defense lawyers are uniquely exposed to abuse in this context, as their devices store privileged communications and work product. NACDL recently released a primer on the border searches of electronic devices. Drawing from the primer, this webinar will empower members of the defense community to be proactive in protecting their sensitive documents and communications when re-entering the country.

Recent legislative changes to Virginia Code 16.1-272 give the judiciary greater guidance and discretion in sentencing youth convicted of felony offenses in Virginia. This program features an overview of the blended sentencing provisions for juveniles transferred to circuit court followed by a discussion of the new sentencing provisions passed earlier this year.

This webinar is a rapid-fire overview of the compassionate release legal framework, the process, best practices, and the latest legal developments. Practitioners in the field and long-time experts discuss grounds for compassionate release including COVID-19 and other sentencing developments; the compassionate release exhaustion requirement; getting and analyzing clients’ medical records; how to strategize when filing motions outside of your home district; helping create a reentry plan; and dealing with detainers.

A key pillar of the First Step Act, a bipartisan federal criminal reform bill signed into law in December 2018, was the creation of a risk and needs assessment tool for federal prisoners.  In July 2019, the Department of Justice first published this tool, the Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs (“PATTERN”) and began using it to place prisoners in recidivism reduction programming and award certain benefits. This webinar discusses the origins of PATTERN as well as the many questions that remain about its design and implementation, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Because the full implications of First Step Act measures may not be immediately apparent, NACDL hosted a live webinar on January 29, 2019. Sentencing expert Amy Baron-Evans discusses the ins and outs of the new law, with emphasis on potentially overlooked aspects of the most significant provisions. Amy is the Sentencing Resource Counsel for the Federal Public and Community Defenders, and the go-to lawyer among federal defenders for difficult sentencing questions.

Long underused and unfairly applied by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, federal compassionate release is seeing a revival under the First Step Act. That law not only corrected many of the flaws in the way the BOP handled compassionate release requests, but allows prisoners direct access to the courts. The new law clarifies the broad range of circumstances related to age, illness, and family circumstances that might trigger eligibility for relief and further opens up exciting new opportunities to seek reconsideration of sentences that are no longer appropriate for a variety of other reasons.

NACDL released its report Policing Body Cameras: Policies and Practices to Safeguard the Rights of the Accused in March 2017, outlining NACDL’s position on the introduction and use of body cameras by law enforcement. This webinar walks through the recommendations and talks about how to negotiate stronger body camera policies in your jurisdiction, the technical aspects of body cameras, and strategies and tactics for defending clients in body camera jurisdictions.

Presented by NACDL President Nina Ginsberg, DiMuro Ginsberg, PC, Alexandria, VA; Stephen Ross Johnson, Ritchie, Dillard, Davies & Johnson, P.C., Knoxville, TN; Todd Pugh, Breen & Pugh, Chicago, IL; and Martín Sabelli, Law Offices of Martín A. Sabelli, San Francisco

From encrypting your documents, texts and emails to using a private Internet browser, this webinar walks through a curated list of tools and tricks designed to protect your work product, your technology, your clients, and your cases.

This webinar draws from legal and technological expertise to ensure that the defense community is prepared to challenge hacking as an investigative technique. The webinar also addresses the technological aspects of government hacking and the changes to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that open the door to wider use of government hacking.

During this webinar, we discuss representing clients with intellectual and/or developmental disability (I/DD). Topics include an overview of disability culture, how to identify potential disability, communication with people with disabilities, and the various pitfalls in the criminal justice system where those with I/DD in particular can get lost in the system. We also provide an overview of attorney obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and how attorneys can accommodate their clients with disabilities before, during, and after a trial or plea negotiation.

Silicon Valley De-Bug’s Albert Cobarrubias Justice Project has developed an approach for clients, their families, and their communities to partner with public defender offices to change the outcome of cases and policies that govern the local criminal justice system. Raj Jayadev shares the model called “participatory defense” and ways defender offices could employ the approach locally with their communities.

This webinar provides a medical primer about the current state of medicine with regard to HIV research and treatment. This primer is be coupled with a discussion on how to use medical research to develop defenses, present the court with mitigation, negotiate favorable pleas for clients, and litigate constitutional, evidentiary, and discovery issues. There is also a section exploring the ethical issues that attorneys must grapple with when handling these cases.