Opinion | Why Life Without Parole Isn’t Making Us Any Safer – The New York Times

Video by Mark Boyer, Asaf Kastner and Brian Dawson

“Robert Richardson robbed a bank of about $5,000 in 1997 and was sentenced to 60 years in prison without the possibility of probation or parole. He was 30 years old when he was locked away in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, making his penalty a virtual life sentence.

Mr. Richardson doesn’t deny that he did wrong. He concurs with the adage “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”

But in the video guest essay above, he contends that life sentences without parole are counterproductive — for the prisoner and society alike — and should be prohibited. He is joined in the video by his wife, Sibil Fox Richardson, whose decades-long effort to secure his release was documented in the film “Time,” and by one of their sons, Freedom.

Mr. Richardson focuses his lobby on Louisiana, one of the states with the most prisoners serving life sentences without parole. Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana has sought to shed the state’s reputation as the nation’s incarceration capital, signing into law a package of criminal justice reform bills intended, in part, to reduce the size of the prison population.”

David Lindsay Jr.

Hamden, CT | NYT comment:

Excellent video work NYT. I agree with this ex con and his cause. Some of the Europeans are way ahead of us in this embarringly bad area of US justice. “21 years The longest sentence allowed in a Norwegian prison is 21 years, although the new penal code allows for a 30-year maximum sentence for crimes related to genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. Incarceration in Norway – Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › Incarceration_in_Norway”

Opinion | 36 Years in Prison for a $50 Robbery – The New York Times

By Carla Crowder

Ms. Crowder is a public-interest lawyer.

• Sept. 5, 2019

Alvin Kennard, 58, was ordered to be released from prison Wednesday after serving 36 years and is set to be processed out by the Alabama Department of Corrections.CreditCreditIvana Hrynkiw/The Birmingham News, via Associated Press

“MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alvin Kennard, a 58-year-old Alabama man who spent most of his life behind bars for a $50 knife-point robbery at a bakery, walked free last Friday. He felt the warm embrace of his family, attended church and ate a home-cooked meal for the first time in 36 years.

The State of Alabama fully intended for Mr. Kennard to die in prison for this crime. He was one of more than 250 people in the state serving life without the possibility of parole for robbery, according to a document provided in a legal proceeding this year by the Alabama Department of Corrections. Many of them have been behind bars since the 1980s.

This year, David Carpenter, a Jefferson County judge, examined a long-shot court pleading Mr. Kennard had submitted, with help from a jailhouse lawyer. Judge Carpenter appointed me to represent Mr. Kennard and look into options for resentencing him.”

Opinion | The Case for Expunging Criminal Records – By J.J. Prescott and Sonja B. Starr – The New York Times

By J.J. Prescott and Sonja B. Starr
Professors Prescott and Starr teach at the University of Michigan Law School.

March 20, 2019

Credit
Anthony Russo

“The consequences of a run-in with the law can persist for decades after the formal sentence has been served. People with records face major barriers to employment, housing and education, effectively condemning them to second-class citizenship.

In recent years, criminal justice reform efforts have increasingly focused on finding policy tools that can lower these barriers. The most powerful potential lever is the expungement of criminal convictions, which seals them from public view, removes them from databases, and neutralizes most of their legal effects.

At least 36 states have laws allowing expungement, but they tend to be narrow in scope. Whether it’s allowed typically depends on the number of convictions and the type of crime; people usually have to wait years after completing their sentences and go through an elaborate process to have their records cleared.

In the past year there’s been an explosion of activity on this front, however. In late February, an especially ambitious bill was introduced in the California Legislature, allowing automatic expungement of misdemeanors and minor felonies after completion of a sentence. In Utah, an automatic expungement bill is awaiting the governor’s signature. These developments follow on the heels of the first major automatic expungement law, which passed in Pennsylvania last summer.”

Supreme Court Puts Limits on Police Power to Seize Private Property – By Adam Liptak – The New York Times

By Adam Liptak
Feb. 20, 2019, 24
“WASHINGTON — Siding with a small time drug offender in Indiana whose $42,000 Land Rover was seized by law enforcement officials, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Constitution places limits on civil forfeiture laws that allow states and localities to take and keep private property used to commit crimes.

Civil forfeiture is a popular way to raise revenue, and its use has been the subject of widespread criticism across the political spectrum.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Eighth Amendment, which bars “excessive fines,” limits the ability of the federal government to seize property. On Wednesday, the court ruled that the clause also applies to the states.

Previously, the Supreme Court had never squarely addressed that question. It had addressed the status of the Excessive Fines Clause, but only in the context of the federal government. The court had, however, previously ruled that most protections under the Bill of Rights apply to the states — or were incorporated against them, in the legal jargon — under the 14th Amendment, one of the post-Civil War amendments.”

Senate Passes Bipartisan Criminal Justice Bill – By Nicholas Fandos – The New York Times

By Nicholas Fandos
Dec. 18, 2018, 91c
“WASHINGTON — The Senate overwhelmingly approved on Tuesday the most substantial changes in a generation to the tough-on-crime prison and sentencing laws that ballooned the federal prison population and created a criminal justice system that many conservatives and liberals view as costly and unfair.

The First Step Act would expand job training and other programming aimed at reducing recidivism rates among federal prisoners. It also expands early-release programs and modifies sentencing laws, including mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, to more equitably punish drug offenders.

But the legislation falls short of benchmarks set by a more expansive overhaul proposed in Congress during Barack Obama’s presidency and of the kinds of changes sought by some liberal and conservative activists targeting mass incarceration.

House leaders have pledged to pass the measure this week, and President Trump, whose support resuscitated a yearslong overhaul effort last month, said he would sign the bill.”

How a Bad Law and a Big Mistake Drove My Mentally Ill Son Away – by Norman Ornstein – NYT

“Ever since the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., law enforcement and other officials have been calling for changes in the Baker Act, a Florida law that allows involuntary commitment for 72 hours of people who are an imminent danger to themselves or others. If the Baker Act had been easier to deploy, they think, Nikolas Cruz, the accused shooter, would have been taken and treated before his horrible act.

However this law may be reformed, it will never be able to get people with serious mental illness the treatment they need.

I know something about the Baker Act. About halfway through my son Matthew’s decade-long struggle with serious mental illness, my wife and I invoked the Baker Act against him.”

Here is the top comment, I recommended:

A Mom

Albany, NY, area 15 hours ago

Dear Prof. Ornstein, I am so sorry for your loss. I am writing this as I sit in the hospital next to the bed of my 25-year-old daughter, who suffers from mental illness. They are kicking her out (sending her home) after an emergency psych evaluation. You are correct the system is broken. In just a few months she will no longer have my health insurance. The job she has doesn’t provide anything like what she needs. And I am terrified for her. You are correct, 90 days isn’t enough time. She’s only had a week of intensive inpatient care. Once. She managed to flit from one provider to another, none of whom has had her long enough to find out who she is let alone what her problems are. None of them ever asked her family about her history. This time it’s just an evaluation and home we go. Take your meds. Make a safety plan. We need comprehensive care, not nickels and dimes. And it sure won’t happen under this administration. Best wishes for your own healing.

• 840 Recommended

The Problem With Parole – The New York Times

“Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called on the State Legislature to make changes that would help those in custody for parole violations, such as abolishing money bail for people accused of misdemeanors, eliminating state supervision fees for people on parole and reviewing how child support is calculated for people incarcerated for more than six months.

But the Columbia study calls on the Legislature to do a lot more. It recommends that the state adopt several common-sense reforms, most of which have already shown promise in other states. These include: adopting a system of graduated sanctions and rewards, instead of automatically dumping people into jail for minor infractions; capping jail terms for minor parole violations; requiring a judicial hearing before parole officers can jail people accused of technical violations; shortening parole terms for people who stay out of trouble for specified periods of time; and using the savings reaped from cutting the prison population to expand education, substance abuse and housing opportunities for parolees, who need considerably more help than they’re getting to forge stable lives in their communities.”

David Lindsay Jr. Hamden, CT Pending Approval
Young men going back to jail for small infractions of probation is also a serious problem in Connecticut. I allowed a 30 year old ex con, black man to become my handyman. He had spent 6 years in jail for breaking and entering when he was about 20. Two years ago, a friend of his convinced him he could skip his parol meeting, which was onerous, and he was dumb enough to take the bad advice. He was back to jail for 17 months, for not showing up for his parole meeting. I was shocked. This appears to be a form of jim crow. It also interrupted the young man’s attempt to succeed in society with a variety of part time jobs. Most of his time in back in jail he watched TV and worked out a little. He got no job training or education.
x
David Lindsay Jr. is the author of “The Tay Son Rebellion,” and blogs at TheTaySonRebellion.com and InconvenientNews.wordpress.com

Prosecutors Had the Wrong Man. They Prosecuted Him Anyway. – The New York Times

“In the robbery, kidnapping and rape that began in the French Quarter of New Orleans on April 6, 1992, much of the evidence pointed to a man named Lester Jones.He fit the description of the attacker down to his round-rimmed glasses. His car looked like the perpetrator’s. The rape took place near the housing project where he lived. And after the police arrested him on suspicion of other crimes in the French Quarter that same month, they found jewelry from the robbery in his possession.

Yet the Orleans Parish district attorney’s office chose to arrest a different man, 19-year-old Robert Jones — no relation — for the crime. Mr. Jones not only was convicted, but spent more than 23 years in jail before being cleared of those crimes and a murder he did not commit.On Tuesday, Mr. Jones sued, charging that prosecutors had deliberately and repeatedly covered up evidence that would have undermined the case against him. More than that, he charged that he was neither the first nor the last victim of such treatment — that prosecutors had an unwritten policy of hobbling the legal defenses of accused citizens without their knowledge.

The New Orleans district attorney’s office has chalked up legal black marks for years, including a string of Supreme Court cases involving prosecutorial misconduct. But the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, is perhaps the most damning compilation of misconduct accusations to date.”

Here is the top comment, which I recommend, and my reply to the following comment.

Marcus

San Antonio 1 hour ago

Rather amazing that this article fails to even mention the name of the Orleans Parish District Attorney, Harry Connick Sr., who held that position from 1973 to 2003. As a longtime resident of New Orleans, I am not alone in being aware of the vast corruption that infused that office for decades, including at the very top. Your story is about cover-ups, yet by not even mentioning Connick’s name, this article itself is covering up the truth.

• Reply
• 30 Recommended

David Lindsay Jr. Hamden, CT Pending Approval
Heartbreaking and disgusting. In ancient China, acccording to Robert van Gulik, if a Magistrate sent a person to jail, concentration camp or death, and it was detemined later to be a mistake, the magistrate had to undergo the same penalty he had administered incorrectly. We should return to those good old days. There is a great comment below, about making prosecutors reveal all evidence as they receive it. Severe penalties for sending innocent people to prison would do wonders to reduce this problem.
David Lindsay Jr. is the author of “The Tay Son Rebellion, Historical Fiction of Eighteenth-century Vietnam,” and blogs at The TaySonRebellion.com and InconvenientNews.wordpress.com

Justice Shouldn’t Come With a $250 Fine – The New York Times

“Too often, this is the case. The fine for a misdemeanor is typically about $1,000, which can be unmanageable for a low-income person. This comes on top of many other costs. The application fee a defendant must pay to hire a public defender (appointed because a person charged with a crime cannot afford to pay for an attorney) can be as high as $400. Jail booking fees range from $10 to $100. In some states, defendants can be made to pay fees upward of $200 for the juries who hear their cases. After conviction, victim’s panel classes, where some defendants are mandated to hear about victims’ experiences and loss, can cost up to $75. Drug courts can and often do make people pay for their own assessment, treatment and frequent drug testing.”

DL: Yes. Jim Crow is alive and well, and for poor whites as well.
Here is the top comment, I endorse:

Mark Thomason is a trusted commenter Clawson, MI 14 hours ago
A family member was wrongly accused of shoplifting. There was video. It clearly showed no shoplifting. She won.

Then she got the bill from the court for the assigned public defender — four times more than the fine would have been, over a thousand dollars.

The fine print in Michigan says that the public defender “provided” as required by the US Supreme Court “if you can’t afford one” will bill you after the case, even if you win, and that becomes a court judgment against you.

You can be jailed for non-payment of the defense attorney bill for a case you won, or so the judge threatened her.

Flag Reply 117 Recommended

Courts Sidestep the Law and South Carolina’s Poor Go to Jail – The New York Times

“SUMTER, S.C. — Larry Marsh has a history of mental illness and drug addiction. Homeless, he has no place to go. The police in this city have arrested or cited him more than 270 times for trespassing. In December, they got him four times in one day.

For this misdemeanor offense, Mr. Marsh, 58, has repeatedly served time in jail, and was even sent to prison. Not once has he had a lawyer.Being represented by a lawyer is a fundamental right, enshrined in the Sixth Amendment and affirmed by the Supreme Court, which has ruled that anyone facing imprisonment, even for a minor offense, is entitled to legal counsel. But the promise has been a fragile one, with repeated complaints that people without means are stuck with lawyers who are incompetent, underfunded or grossly overworked.

In municipal courts that handle low-level crimes, poor defendants can face a worse problem: no lawyer at all. Recent reports detail a failure to provide lawyers in Nashville and Miami-Dade courtrooms, and in 2015, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, held hearings on the issue, saying the right to a lawyer was frequently ignored in misdemeanor cases.”