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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 envisions a society where all individuals receive fair, rational, and humane treatment within the criminal legal system.
NACDL’s mission is to serve as a leader, alongside diverse coalitions, in identifying and reforming flaws and inequities in the criminal legal 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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The goal of trying to put an end to child sex offenses is one on which everyone can agree. The best way to meet that goal, however, is debatable. Individuals that children know are responsible for 90% of sex crimes against them. Alix Deschamp discusses the origins of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act and shows how the original legislation developed into not only a law enforcement tool but also a punitive measure.
Cases alleging child sex abuse often hinge on the forensic interview of the alleged victim, and thus the forensic interview should be the first place defense counsel looks. In this article, a forensic psychologist and a criminal defense lawyer discuss the forensic interview and how failure to follow best practices may encourage false allegations and elicit misinformation.
Comments to the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs SMART Office regarding sex offender registration and community notification.
Report of the Sex Offender Policy Task Force reflecting NACDL's policy on sex offender registries and other practices as adopted by the Board of Directors.
Guide for Child Porn Cases - There are common issues with child pornography cases that can be dealt with to make the case go more smoothly for you and your client.
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).
Explore law and sentencing issues in the child pornography context.
Amicus curiae brief of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Argument: The federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) imposes criminal penalties of up to ten years imprisonment on anyone who “is required to register … travels in interstate or foreign commerce … and knowingly fails to register or update [sex offender] registration.” In 2007, a federal regulation made the registration requirements retroactive. The defendant was released from prison in Alabama in 2004 and registered as a sex offender; a few months later he moved to Indiana, but failed to register as a sex offender in that state. The brief argues that the retroactive application of SORNA’s criminal provisions raises constitutional concerns under the Ex Post Facto Clause and the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution and that construing SORNA to avoid those concerns would not undermine the law’s objective of reducing recidivism of registered sex offenders.
