The Due Process Institute Launches #JuriesDecide Campaign

After passing the House with a unanimous voice vote, H.R. 4018, which fixes an oversight in an Elderly Home Detention Pilot Program, is now moving in the U.S. Senate. The Due Process Institute reiterated its support for this reform, which will help to fully implement one of the many goals of the First Step Act.

The leading Florida newspaper the Sun Sentinel quotes the amicus brief of the Due Process Institute to highlight the legal support for Robert Kraft in his pursuit to strike improper video recordings made by police. 

Director of Rule of Law Initiatives Joe Luppino-Esposito was quoted in the Danville Register & Bee discussing the push towards discovery reform in Virginia and around the country.
 

“A lot of prosecutors aren’t going to know what’s material to a defendant’s case because they don’t know what a defendant’s case is going to be,” he said. 

Along with 30+ other organizations, the Due Process Institute is calling on Congress to correct a drafting error that would improperly limit the eligibility of federal inmates for the Elderly Home Detention Pilot Program. A vote is expected in November.

Due Process Institute joined a bipartisan letter telling Congress to take notice of reports regarding how the federal government engaged in "wrongful use of this powerful tool for personal purposes, queries that violated both the statute and the Fourth Amendment, and efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to evade laws designed to access how often this tool is turned against people in the United States." 

The Due Process Institute joined a bipartisan coalition of advocates who support the Inspector General Access Act (S. 685). This bill would shift investigations of professional responsibility to the Department of Justice's Inspector General, rather than the current DOJ apparatus that exists today, which is internal to the department. This independent oversight would be more effective in ensuring that the attorneys representing the federal government are held to high standards for professional conduct. 

The House companion bill has already passed in that chamber.

October 1, 2019--The Hill published an opinion article by DPI President Shana O'Toole encouraging both chambers of Congress and both parties to turn their focus to abolishing acquitted conduct sentencing. 

"Justice is not a partisan issue and every American wants a fair and  effective criminal justice system. That requires respect for due  process, restoring the primacy of the citizen jury, and adhering to the core principles of our Constitution. We applaud Grassley and Durbin for leading the effort to reach across the aisle in a difficult political  environment to affirm that Americans should not serve prison time for crimes they did not commit."

September 27, 2019--"The DOJ is comprised of the people that put these people behind bars in the first place," said Joe Luppino-Esposito, the director of Rule of Law initiatives at the Due Process Institute. "It's a little odd the clemency process happens within the same department."

The Due Process Institute has also joined 130 organizations and prominent individuals who have called for clemency for Ross Ulbricht. See the list here.

September 26, 2019 Statement of Due Process Institute President + Founder Shana-Tara O'Toole

“The Due Process Institute is proud to endorse the bipartisan Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act of 2019 (S. 2566). The Act will abolish acquitted conduct sentencing in federal criminal cases and thus restore to the people, sitting together as a jury, the exclusive power to decide guilt or innocence. 

In conjunction with the bill’s introduction, the Due Process Institute has initiated a #JuriesDecide education, advocacy, and litigation campaign. 

Everyone learns in grade school that juries decide who is guilty of crimes and who is not. In recent decades, misguided tough-on-crime policies have eroded this fundamental American principle of justice, resulting in vastly longer prison sentences that are based on accusations that juries in fact rejected. We are thrilled that Congress is taking a significant step today to begin to fix our failing criminal justice system. 

It is important that we recognize the fundamental principle that juries decide guilt or innocence. Along with the First Step Act, which the Due Process Institute also worked to pass, this bill takes another step toward ending our incarceration epidemic. This is why a large and diverse group of people and organizations from across the ideological spectrum has joined the Due Process Institute’s campaign to abolish acquitted conduct sentencing. 

We applaud Senators Durbin and Grassley for once again serving as lead sponsors of a landmark bipartisan criminal justice reform bill, as well as co-sponsors Senators Leahy, Lee, Booker, and Tillis, for putting their political differences aside and working together for the good of the country.” 

Learn more about acquitted conduct sentencing and the Due Process Institute’s reform campaign by visiting www.idueprocess.org/juriesdecide and following the #JuriesDecide hashtag on social media. 

June 26, 2019--DPI President Shana O'Toole was quoted in Law360 regarding the recently decided criminal law Supreme Court case Haymond v. United States:

     "Shana-Tara O'Toole, founder and president of the nonprofit Due Process   

     Institute, which filed a brief supporting Haymond, said the ruling protected the 

     rights of criminal defendants and may point the way to more robust 

     jurisprudence on the limits of sentencing.

     One example O'Toole raised is the 'long-standing question' of whether judges 

     may factor in conduct that has led to an acquittal in sentencing defendants for 

     a charge where they have been convicted.

     'We are pleased to see Justice Gorsuch and the majority of the court recognize 

     the importance of the right to jury trial in our constitutional system and hope 

     that it is a signal of where a majority of the court might be on similar 

     questions,' O'Toole said."

May 20, 2019--The Due Process Institute sent a letter to Sens. Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Sherrod Brown, (D-OH), the Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, sharing concerns regarding proposed new criminal laws and unintended consequences of proposed beneficial ownership reporting requirements. 

The Due Process Institute, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and FreedomWorks, has issued a Hill Alert opposing H.R. 2513,  Corporate Transparency Act of 2019 , because of serious concerns regarding privacy and the use of criminal penalties. Five new federal crimes would be created for first-time paperwork violations, using vague terms and complicated reporting regimes that are likely to trap many small business owners.    

April 9, 2019--The Due Process Institute is endorsing the Restoring Education And Learning (REAL) Act [S. 1074; H.R. 2168] that has been proposed in both the Senate and the House. The original cosponsors are Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Reps. Danny Davis (D-IL), Jim Bank (R-IN), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and French Hill (R-AR). 

“Our justice system fails us if the people returning back into our communities after incarceration do not succeed and the REAL Act takes an important step towards addressing an existing failure,” said Shana O’Toole, President of the Due Process Institute. “Education is a critical piece of preparing incarcerated individuals for reentry. After our work on the First Step Act, we know how important Pell eligibility is for establishing much-needed educational programs and learning behind the wall.

“Incarcerated individuals deserve a meaningful opportunity to educate themselves in order to prepare to rejoin us as productive members of society—and we are grateful to see that providing this kind of support is a bipartisan cause.”

March 27, 2019--The Due Process Institute is endorsing the FAIR Act, H.R. 1895, co-sponsored by Republican Reps. Tim Walberg, Tom McClintock, and Thomas Massie, and Democrat Reps. Jamie Raskin, Tony Cardenas, and Bobby Rush. The FAIR Act protects Americans against civil asset forfeiture practices that deprive citizens of their property without proper legal processes.

“The FAIR Act restores basic due process rights that have been undermined for decades because of abusive civil asset forfeiture practices. These meaningful reforms have been supported by policymakers and advocates on both sides of the aisle, and we are proud to count ourselves in that group,” said Shana O’Toole, President of the Due Process Institute.

“These are sensible, impactful reforms, and we look forward to advancing the FAIR Act to the President’s desk.”