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NACDL is committed to enhancing the capacity of the criminal defense bar to safeguard fundamental constitutional rights.
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NACDL’s mission is to serve as a leader, alongside diverse coalitions, in identifying and reforming flaws and inequities in the criminal justice system, and redressing systemic racism, and ensuring that its members and others in the criminal defense bar are fully equipped to serve all accused persons at the highest level.
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Comments to the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs SMART Office regarding sex offender registration and community notification.
Comments to the Department of Justice regarding implementation of provisions of the Adam Walsh Act to affect individuals with past sexual offense convictions.
President John Wesley Hall and NACDL Sex Offender Policy Task Force chair Michael Iacopino's letter to the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security regarding the difficulties of state compliance and other concerns with the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (H.R. 4472).
Brief of Amici Curiae the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the National Association for Public Defense, and the Ohio Public Defender.
Argument: Imposing additional sanctions on previously-convicted criminal defendants by retroactive application of a new law or new reporting is contrary to due process and injects wide spread uncertainty into the plea bargaining process. Such practice makes it difficult if not impossible for defense counsel to advise clients consistently with their Sixth Amendment duties. When the rules that drastically increase the consequences of convictions are changed and applied, sometimes long after the plea bargain process is complete, the result is a fundamental unfairness with no redress.
Brief of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan, and National Association for Public Defender as Amici Curiae Supporting Affirmance.
Argument: Due process bars the state from prosecuting a person for otherwise-innocent conduct—including convicted persons' failure to register their presence with law enforcement—without proof of wrongful intent. SORA criminalizes conduct that is ordinarily innocent, and even law enforcement officials disagree on what otherwise-innocent conduct SORA makes criminal. Notice provisions do not replace the due process requirement of proving wrongful intent. Prosecutorial discretion adds to SORA's due process problems.
