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Showing 1 - 15 of 133 results

    • Brief

    United States v. Rutherford

    Brief of Amici Curiae National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, FAMM, and Federal Public Defenders and Community Defenders for the Judicial Districts of the Third Circuit in Support of Appellant and Reversal
    • Map

    Excessive Sentencing: NACDL's Proportionality Litigation Project

    NACDL is pleased to offer, as a resource for its members and as a service to the public, a collection of resources that summarize for each U.S. state the key doctrines and leading court rulings setting forth constitutional and statutory limits on lengthy imprisonment terms and other extreme (non-capital) sentences.
    • Document

    Comments to USSC on Proposed Amendments to Guidelines, Policy Statements & Commentary (March 2023)

    NACDL supports the Commission’s proposed amendment to §1B1.13, with some suggested modifications, and supports Option 3 to (b)(6). After reviewing the Commission’s recent hearings on this proposed amendment as well as the submitted written testimony, NACDL focuses its comments on proposals (b)(5), (b)(6), and (b)(4).
    • Content Page

    Race and the Death Penalty

    “Even under the most sophisticated death penalty statutes, race continues to play a major role in determining who shall live and who shall die. Perhaps it should not be surprising that the biases and prejudices that infect society generally would influence the determination of who is sentenced to death.” – Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun (1994)

    • Content Page

    Race and the War on Drugs

    "Nothing has contributed more to the systematic mass incarceration of people of color in the United States than the War on Drugs."

    Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow (2010)
    • Content Page

    Race and Collateral Consequences

    It is legal today to discriminate against individuals with criminal records “in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discrimination against African Americans,” says Michelle Alexander in The New Jim Crow. “Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of education opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal.”

    • Content Page

    Race and Policing

    Racially biased policing takes many different forms, from elevated police presences in the neighborhoods of marginalized communities, to disproportionate street and vehicle stops and searches, to use of force, to outright expressions of racism within some police departments.
    • Content Page

    Race and Juvenile Justice

    “Today, 50 years after Gault, youth of color continue to be disproportionately suspended and expelled, arrested, processed in courts rather than diverted, detained in secure facilities and transferred to adult court for prosecution.” — Professor Kristin Henning, reflecting on racial disparities in the juvenile justice system 50 years after the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the right to due process, including to defense counsel, for juveniles in delinquency proceedings.

    • Content Page

    Race and Sentencing

    The combined impacts of biased policing, discretionary charging decisions, sentencing enhancements, and the continuing impacts of the tough-on-crime movement have created and bolstered a criminal legal system in which people of color, particularly Black people, are more likely to be sentenced to prison and are subject to lengthier periods of incarceration.  
    • Content Page

    Calling for the Immediate Implementation of the First Step Act of 2018

    NACDL urges enactment of legislation to explicitly make all sentencing reform provisions of the First Step Act retroactive; to support commutation; and to support pro bono representation for inmates who might qualify for commutation pursuant to any systematic program announced by the Executive Branch.
    • Document

    Excessive Sentencing State Comparison Chart

    NACDL’s 50-state (plus DC) proportionality chart, which offers for each jurisdiction consolidated detail concerning (i) individual constitutional provisions, (ii) whether each is broader than the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, (iii) important holdings, (iv) important case law citations to Graham, (v) whether parole is discretionary, and (vi) whether LWOP and JLWOP sentences are currently available.
    • Brief

    Wise v. United States, No. ELH-18-72, 2020 WL 2614816 (D. Md. May 22, 2020)

    Memorandum Opinion Granting Motion for Compassioante Release 
    • Brief

    US v. Hernandez, 2021 WK 3192161 (C.D. Ill. July 28, 2021)

    Amended Motion (Nov. 19, 2020)

    Order (July 28, 2021)
    • Brief

    United States. v Ford 2020 WL 4207092 July 22, 2020

    Opinion and Order Granting Motion to Sentence Reduction 
    • Brief

    United States v. Walden, No. 2:92-cr-00366-MCS (C.D. Cal. Feb. 11, 2021)

    Amended Order Granting Motion for Modification of Term of Imprisonment