Our Work, April 2018 - January 2020

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January 7, 2020--“Attorney-client privilege is essential to an effective representation of criminal defendants,” said Shana-Tara O’Toole, President of Due Process Institute. “The Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act establishes the necessary constitutional protections to electronic messages between incarcerated clients and their attorneys. This bipartisan, commonsense reform brings Bureau of Prisons policy into the 21st century and applies the norm of confidentiality to one of the most prevalent forms of communication today.”

December 20, 2019--“Due Process Institute views the Fair Chance Act as a law that will hopefully continue the momentum of providing meaningful second chances to those who need them,” said Shana-Tara O’Toole, President of Due Process Institute. “And we continue to encourage Congress to consider additional much-needed important next steps—supported by Members on both sides of the aisle—to improve the criminal legal system.”

December 7, 2019--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. Due Process Institute continues its support for this reform, which will help to fully implement one of the many goals of the First Step Act.

November 27, 2019--The leading Florida newspaper the Sun Sentinel quotes the amicus brief of Due Process Institute to highlight the importance of the 4th Amendment.  

October 26, 2019--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.

October 18, 2019--Along with 30+ other organizations, Due Process Institute urges Congress to correct a drafting error that would improperly limit the eligibility of federal inmates for the Elderly Home Detention Pilot Program. 

October 17, 2019--Due Process Institute is part of a bipartisan advocacy effort to convince Congress to curtail FISA Section 702 abuse by the FBI and others. 

October 16, 2019--Due Process Institute joins 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 Due Process Institute 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 [Senators] 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 Due Process Institute. "It's a little odd the clemency process happens within the same department."

Due Process Institute has supported many individuals in their petitions for clemency.

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

“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, 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 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.” 

September 17, 2019--Due Process Institute President 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!).

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." 

August 14, 2019--Due Process Institute has joined with dozens of other civil liberties organizations to urge the House Judiciary Committee to adopt important reforms to the re-authorization of Section 215. Chief among those reforms is the elimination of the Call Detail Records program. This program, run by the National Security Agency, was found to have illegally collected data on millions of Americans over a three year period. 

August 1, 2019--Due Process Institute supports the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act (H.R. 3884) because it would deschedule 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. 

May 17, 2019--"Joe Luppino-Esposito, Director of Rule of Law Initiatives at Due Process Institute, said the size of the wave is important to keep in context. 'There are 3,000 to 4,000 inmates released every month as their sentences end,' he said.

"Still, Luppino-Esposito said that 'it will be important for advocates around the country to step up and help these people return to society and lead productive, crime-free lives.'  "Matthew Charles, a guest of Trump’s at the State of the Union, had trouble finding housing after his release under the First Step Act, Luppino-Esposito noted."

May 7, 2019--Due Process Institute, the American Civil Liberties Union, and FreedomWorks oppose certain provisions of H.R. 2513,  the 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 10, 2019--Due Process Institute President and Founder Shana-Tara O'Toole was one of the featured speakers at the ABA's Section of International Law 2019 Annual Conference held in Washington DC.  O'Toole spoke on the panel titled, "Corporate Requirement or Getting Thrown Under the Bus? The Prosecution of Individuals in the Anti-Corruption Boom." Her comments specifically  addressed the existence of compliance defenses used in certain OECD countries and how that may have an effect on the prosecution of individuals. 

April 9, 2019--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 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--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 Due Process Institute.

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

February 5, 2019--Due Process Institute joined several civil liberties and tech organizations in asking Congress to refrain from funding certain invasive surveillance technology as a security measure to protect the nation's border. These proposals have included biometrics, mass surveillance, license plate readers, and DNA data, among others.

January 22, 2019--Indiana legislators are now considering changes to the state's public defense system in order to address serious shortcomings in the right to counsel as guaranteed in the Sixth Amendment. This has been especially true in misdemeanor cases. Due Process Institute urges Indiana legislators to take up this important issue.

December 21, 2018--Following overwhelming votes of support in the Senate (87-12) and the House (358-36), President Trump signed The First Step Act into law on December 21, 2018. Due Process Institute has been a leader in the lobbying and education regarding this historic piece of criminal justice reform legislation.  "This is a remarkable culmination of years of effort by reformers to get Congress to recognize the need for change," said Director of Rule of Law Initiatives Joe Luppino-Esposito. "The First Step Act will go a long way towards improving public safety and making the federal prison system a place for actual 'corrections', rehabilitation, and redemption. This is the type of reform that stresses justice and effectiveness above all else. I look forward to seeing more bipartisan support for reform in the near future as we think about what our next steps ought to be."

December 18, 2018--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. 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."

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.

December 11, 2018--Due Process Institute is heartened by the news that the US Senate will take up the First Step Act and consider it on the floor as early as this week. The First Step Act is supported by Due Process Institute and dozens of organizations from both sides of aisle because it recalibrates the federal criminal justice system to focus on rehabilitation and redemption, rather than punishment for its own sake. The bill would also change some particularly long sentences.

July 16, 2018--Thanks in part to our efforts, the House of Representatives including the E-mail Privacy Act when it passed the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.  This is an important step towards updating our laws to reflect certain technological advances with respect to the Fourth Amendment.

June 19, 2018--Commenting on banks sharing customer information, Due Process Institute President Shana O'Toole explained:  “My concern with this program is what customer information is being shared... Efficiency is great, but constitutional protections are mandated.”  

June 1, 2018--Due Process Institute urges the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to report important data regarding the government's collection of details of phone calls, as required under the USA FREEDOM Act.  Obtaining this data is particularly important given that the number of call detail records collected under surged to over 540 million in 2017--more than triple what was reported for 2016. 

May 31, 2018--Due Process Institute, in conjunction with NACDL, hosted a screening of Abacus: Small Enough to Jail at the E Street Cinema in Washington DC.  Afterwards, President + Founder Shana O'Toole moderated a Q&A Session with members of the Sung Family and one of the documentary's producers, Mark Mitten. Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this year's Academy Awards, the film centers on a small family-owned bank in New York City's Chinatown that was the only financial institution to face criminal charges following the subprime mortgage crisis. The documentary serves as an engrossing legal thriller, as well as a compelling portrait of the Chinese-American community in New York City as it intersects with a deeply flawed criminal legal system.

May 24, 2018--The U.S. Senate considered taking up amendments to current law regarding the quantity of drugs required to trigger mandatory minimum sentences and also considered increasing the length of those sentences. Due Process Institute joined an effort that successfully convinced the Senate to refrain from pursuing this unhelpful legislation.

May 22, 2018--Our organization's top priority H.R. 5682, the FIRST STEP Act, passed the House 360-59--a resounding vote for reform. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration. 

April 17, 2018--Due Process Institute joined several other groups, notably the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, to advocate for changes to Virginia's discovery rules, which will lead to a more just legal system.