Due Process Institute

The Due Process Institute is a bipartisan nonprofit that works to honor, preserve, and restore principles of fairness in the criminal legal system.

Founded by a public policy professional with 20 years of project management, lobbying, legal defense, and teaching experience, guided by a bipartisan Board of Directors, and supported by bipartisan staff, the Due Process Institute creates and supports achievable bipartisan solutions for challenging criminal legal policy concerns through advocacy, litigation, and education.

We are lobbyists for the Constitution, working with an incredibly diverse coalition of lawmakers, public policy organizations, lawyers, business leaders, the formerly incarcerated and their families, and the public to help bring more fairness to the criminal legal system.

Latest News

O'Toole Published in The Hill: Amidst Impeachment, Focus on Acquitted Conduct Sentencing

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."

Read the article

Luppino-Esposito Quoted by CBS News on Clemency

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."

Learn More

DPI Endorses Landmark Bipartisan Legislation Abolishing Acquitted Conduct Sentencing

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.

The "Definitely Not For Idiots" Brief Guide to Recent Supreme Court Criminal Law Jurisprudence

September 17, 2019--DPI's Shana O'Toole has prepared a Brief Guide to the recently decided and upcoming US Supreme Court criminal law cases who find this sort of stuff to be fun, informative, or compelling (like us!).

The Guide is Here

DPI Joins BiPartisan Allies to Urge First Step Act Funding

September 10, 2019--"Research indicates that approximately 97% of people incarcerated within the BOP will one day return home to the community. It is important that time spent while incarcerated is rehabilitative and prepares people for successful reentry. Congress made a firm commitment to criminal justice reform when it passed the First Step Act — it is time for Congress to reaffirm this commitment by fulling funding its implementation."

media coverage here

Read the letter here

DPI Joins More than 100 Other Orgs to Support MORE Act

August 1, 2019--DPI supports the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act (H.R. 3884) because it would de-schedule marijuana, removing it from the Controlled Substances Act, and would provide a process for courts to expunge marijuana convictions and re-sentence people with marijuana convictions.

Read the Coalition Letter

DPI Expresses Concerns with the "ILLICIT CASH" Act

July 19, 2019--The Due Process Institute supports reasonable and necessary measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, but oppose those efforts that undermine due process rights, privacy protections, the attorney-client privilege, and other sound public policies. We hope lawmakers share our concerns and work to make meaningful improvements to the draft legislation before it is introduced.

Read Our Letter

DPI Commentary on Treasury Dept's Renewal of Financial Surveillance Program Under the PATRIOT Act

July 8, 2019--In our opinion, the existing statutory framework of Section 314 and its implementing regulations already give significant cause for concern and fail to adequately protect Americans’ Fourth Amendment and privacy rights. Previous attempts to expand this program through statutory or regulatory means are even more concerning. It is our hope that FinCEN will reevaluate the necessity and efficacy of the Section 314 program and ultimately abandon the practice of warrantless bulk searches and seizures of financial records, or at the very least, adopt clear legal standards and procedural measures consistent with our foundational Constitutional rights. It is also our hope that FinCEN will discontinue its attempts to expand this program by lobbying Congress to amend the authorizing statute or via pursuing additional rulemaking.

Read Full commentary Here

O'Toole Quoted in Law360 on Haymond Case

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."

Read the article here

DPI Shares its Concerns on Beneficial Ownership Reporting with Senate Banking Committee

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.

Read our Letter

Due Process Institute Recognized by Congress for Leading Role in Passing the First Step Act

Former Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley addressed the Senate in December to recognize the imminent passage of the First Step Act, the most significant criminal justice reform legislation passed in a decade. The Due Process Institute was among the core organizations responsible for the bill's ultimate success. Senator Grassley explained:

"A diverse group and a broad coalition of other groups, from the ACLU to the American Conservative Union, supported this bill. I can't list all the groups that offered their key support, but they include FreedomWorks, Justice Action Network, Americans for Tax Reform, Heritage Action, the Due Process Institute, Faith & Freedom Coalition, R Street, Right on Crime, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Prison Fellowship, and members of the Interfaith Criminal Justice Coalition."

The Due Process Institute is proud to be recognized for our efforts, and prouder still that we were part of such an impactful, bipartisan piece of legislation.

Due Process Institute Joined by ACLU and FreedomWorks to Oppose Beneficial Ownership Changes

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.

See our alert

DPI Endorses the REAL Act

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.”

Press Release

The Due Process Institute Endorses The FAIR Act

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.”