Ross Ulbricht is a peaceful first-time offender serving a double life sentence plus 40 years without parole for all non-violent charges associated with creating the Silk Road e-commerce website. He was a 26-year-old idealistic libertarian—passionate about free markets and privacy—when he made the site. Ross was not prosecuted for causing harm or bodily injury and no victim was named at trial. This is a sentence that shocks the conscience.
ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY
In prison since 2013, Ross Ulbricht has both publicly and privately expressed heartfelt remorse for creating the Silk Road website and he accepts responsibility for the mistakes he made. Now much wiser and more mature, Ross has vowed that, should he be released, he would never come close to breaking the law again.
Silk Road was an online anonymous marketplace that maintained user privacy and used Bitcoin as the means of exchange. Based on the libertarian non-aggression principle, it allowed people to voluntarily buy and sell what they chose as long as no third party was harmed. Consequently, the site prohibited child pornography, violent services, stolen property, and generally anything used to “harm or defraud” others. Although some legal items were also sold, many vendors realized that site’s anonymity made it an attractive platform for selling many different types of illegal drugs (the most common transactions were for personal-use amounts of marijuana, as shown by a Carnegie Mellon University study).
Ross was not tried for selling drugs or illegal items himself, nor did he launder money or hack computers, but was held responsible for what others listed on Silk Road.
“At 26, I made an e-commerce website called Silk Road that allowed people to buy and sell anonymously online. I thought at the time that I was promoting my ideals, but I have since learned what a terrible mistake I made. It was supposed to be a place where anyone could buy or sell whatever they chose so long as they weren’t hurting someone else. […] Over countless hours, I have searched my soul and examined the misguided decisions I made when I was younger. I have dug deep and made a sincere effort to not just change what I do, but who I am. I am no longer the type of man who could break the law and let down so many.” – Ross Ulbricht in letter to the President [PDF]
UNCHARGED CONDUCT and SENTENCING DISPARITY
Ross was smeared with unprosecuted, false allegations of planning murder-for-hire that never occurred, were never proven, never ruled on by a jury, and were ultimately dismissed with prejudice. Ross was never tried for these allegations. His case was also tainted by corrupt federal agents (later sent to prison).
All the other Silk Road defendants received sentences of six years on average. That includes the actual drug sellers, the men who helped run Silk Road, and the men who built and ran Silk Road 2.0, a larger replica. All but one are free today.
In 2018, Ross and his legal team at Williams & Connolly, supported by 21 organizations, petitioned the Supreme Court, challenging important Fourth and Sixth Amendment violations in the case, but the Court declined to hear it.
WIDESPREAD SUPPORT FOR CLEMENCY
There is a strong consensus from across the political spectrum that Ross Ulbricht deserves clemency and his sentence should be commuted. This encompasses current and former legislators, former federal prosecutors, criminal justice reform advocates, academics, clergymen, respected businessmen, and more. Over 250 organizations and eminent individuals have voiced their support.
Ross’s online clemency petition is steadily growing with over 600,000 signatures and is the largest clemency petition to the President on Change.org.
Over 300 people who personally know Ross have written and signed letters/testimonials, testifying to his excellent character and how much he has helped others.
EXEMPLARY PRISON CONDUCT
Ross Ulbricht is currently serving his 12th year in prison. He has been recognized by BOP staff as a model prisoner. He has never received a disciplinary sanction and has led classes, facilitated support groups, mediated conflicts, and served as a Suicide Watch Companion. Ross has also dedicated part of the sale of his art to charity through a fund called Art4Giving. So far, over $765,000 has been donated to charity, thanks to Ross’s art.
Based solely on the length of his sentence, and despite his non-violent history and low security score, Ross is being held at a maximum-security facility. Throughout his ordeal, Ross has remained a fundamentally positive and compassionate human being. He clings to the hope of a second chance and dreams of a future where he can start a family with his fiancée, and make positive contributions to society with his education and skills.
To learn more about Ross Ulbricht and to offer your support visit https://freeross.org/
Ross (bottom row immediate left) and others serving life sentences for non-violent drug offenses.
Missouri executes Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors and the victim’s family asking that he be spared
By Cindy Von Quednow and Holly Yan, CNN | Updated 12:23 AM EDT, Wed September 25, 2024
Marcellus Williams, whose murder conviction was questioned by a prosecutor, died by lethal injection Tuesday evening in Missouri after the US Supreme Court denied a stay.
The 55-year-old was put to death around 6 p.m. CT at the state prison in Bonne Terre. Williams’ attorneys had filed a flurry of appeal efforts based on what they described as new evidence – including alleged bias in jury selection and contamination of the murder weapon prior to trial. The victim’s family had asked the inmate be spared death. The US Supreme Court’s action came a day after Missouri’s supreme court and governor refused to grant a stay of execution. The high court offered no explanation for its decision, which is common for cases on its emergency docket. There were no noted dissents in two of Williams’ appeals. In a third, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have granted the request to pause the execution.
Williams was convicted in 2001 of killing Felicia Gayle, a former newspaper reporter found stabbed to death in her home in 1998.
“We hope this gives finality to a case that’s languished for decades, re-victimizing Ms. Gayle’s family for decades,” Gov. Mike Parson said in a statement read by Trevor Foley, director of the Missouri Department of Corrections. “No juror no judge has ever found Williams’ innocence claim to be credible. Two decades of judicial proceedings and more than 15 judicial hearings upheld his guilty conviction. Thus the order of execution has been carried out.”
In a statement after the execution, one of Williams’ attorneys, Larry Komp, said his client maintained his innocence to the end. “While he would readily admit to the wrongs he had done throughout his life, he never wavered in asserting his innocence of the crime for which he was put to death tonight,” Komp said. “Although we are devastated and in disbelief over what the State has done to an innocent man, we are comforted that he left this world in peace.”
Moments after the high court decision was made, another of Williams’ attorneys, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, told CNN’s Jake Tapper the state was prepared to kill an innocent man. “They will do it even though the prosecutor doesn’t want him to be executed, the jurors who sentenced him to death don’t want him executed and the victims themselves don’t want him to be executed. We have a system that values finality over fairness, and this is the result that we will get from that.”
“It is news to all of us, and I think that it should be a shame to all of us, that we have a system that will let a man be executed in spite of all of this, really is not a system of justice,” the attorney said.
In a statement posted on X, the NAACP said “Missouri lynched another innocent Black man. Governor Parson had the responsibility to save this innocent life, and he didn’t … We will hold Governor Parson accountable. When DNA evidence proves innocence, capital punishment is not justice – it is murder.”
Recently, the top prosecutor in St. Louis County joined Williams’ attorneys in asking for the conviction to be overturned after new testimony from the 2001 trial prosecutor and recent DNA testing showed evidence contamination. The case highlighted the issue of potentially putting an innocent person to death – an inherent risk of capital punishment. At least 200 people sentenced to death since 1973 were later exonerated, including four in Missouri, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Williams’ Last Moments
Williams’ last statement, witnessed on September 21, was “All Praise Be to Allah In Every Situation!!!” Williams was a devout Muslim, an imam for prisoners and a poet, according to his legal team. Williams’ last meal included chicken wings and tater tots, said Karen Pojmann, spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Corrections. He had a final visit with Imam Jalahii Kacem from around 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CT.
Around 4:50 p.m., the Department of Corrections received word that all petitions had been denied by the US Supreme Court, and about an hour later, witnesses, including Williams’ son and two of his attorneys, were moved into the viewing area of the prison, Pojmann said at a news conference.
At 6 p.m., state Attorney General Andrew Bailey notified the Department of Corrections that there were no legal impediments to the execution. The lethal injection was administered at 6:01 p.m. and Williams was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m., Pojmann said. Around 100 demonstrators were present on the prison grounds protesting capital punishment and Williams’ execution, Pojmann said.
No one from Gayle’s family was present for Tuesday’s execution.
Attorneys on Both Sides Tried to Intervene
Williams’ lawyers and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filled a joint brief Saturday asking the Missouri Supreme Court to send the case back to a lower court for a “more comprehensive hearing” on Bell’s January motion to vacate Williams’ 2001 conviction and sentence.
The St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which handled the trial against Williams, argued in the motion that DNA testing of the knife used in the killing might suggest Williams was not Gayle’s killer. But that effort unraveled at a circuit court hearing last month, after new DNA testing revealed the murder weapon had been mishandled prior to the 2001 trial – contaminating the evidence meant to exonerate Williams and complicating his quest to prove his innocence.
Attorneys “received a report indicating the DNA on the murder weapon belonged to an assistant prosecuting attorney and an investigator who had handled the murder weapon without gloves prior to trial,” the state’s judicial branch said. But the Missouri Attorney General’s Office said the new DNA findings released last month don’t exonerate Williams.
“In this case, a new round of DNA testing proved the office was right all along; the knife in question has been handled by many actors, including law enforcement, since being found,” Bailey said.
“In addition, one of the defense’s own experts previously testified he could not rule out the possibility that Williams’s DNA was also on the knife. He could only testify to the fact that enough actors had handled the knife throughout the legal process that others’ DNA was present.”
Other evidence that helped convict Williams “remains intact,” the attorney general said.
“The victim’s personal items were found in Williams’s car after the murder. A witness testified that Williams had sold the victim’s laptop to him. Williams confessed to his girlfriend and an inmate in the St. Louis City Jail, and William’s girlfriend saw him dispose of the bloody clothes worn during the murder,” the attorney general’s office said.
New Testimony From the Trial Prosecutor
Williams’ attorneys had asked the US Supreme Court to stay the execution, citing “newly-discovered evidence from the trial prosecutor’s testimony” last month. During a motion-to-vacate hearing August 28, a prosecutor from Williams’ 2001 trial “admitted that he had struck (a potential juror from the jury pool) because like Mr. Williams, (the potential juror) was Black,” Williams’ attorneys wrote in an emergency request for the US Supreme Court to intervene.
“There was a racial component to this,” attorney Jonathan Potts said at a Missouri Supreme Court hearing Monday. But the Missouri Attorney General’s Office disputed that interpretation of the trial prosecutor’s testimony. “He said they look like brothers,” Assistant Attorney General Michael Spillane said at the hearing.
“What did he say when asked directly, ‘Did you strike someone … with part of the reason for striking someone because (you’re) Black?’ He said no, absolutely not,” Spillane said. “And he explained that that would be a violation.”
In the end, the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously decided not to halt Williams’ execution because his team “failed to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence Williams’ actual innocence or constitutional error at the original criminal trial that undermines the confidence in the judgment of the original criminal trial,” the court’s opinion read. And “because this Court rejects this appeal on the merits, the motion for stay of execution is overruled as moot.”
Republican Gov. Parson, who also had the power to halt Williams’ execution, said he would not intervene.
“Mr. Williams has exhausted due process and every judicial avenue, including over 15 hearings attempting to argue his innocence and overturn his conviction,” Parson said after the state Supreme Court’s decision.
“No jury nor court, including at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court levels, have ever found merit in Mr. Williams’ innocence claims. At the end of the day, his guilty verdict and sentence of capital punishment were upheld. Nothing from the real facts of this case have led me to believe in Mr. Williams’ innocence, as such, Mr. Williams’ punishment will be carried out as ordered by the Supreme Court.”
Victim’s Family Supported Life in Prison
The St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said it reached an agreement with Williams last month. Under the consent judgment – approved by the court and Gayle’s family – Williams would enter an Alford plea of guilty to first-degree murder and be resentenced to life in prison. But the state attorney general’s office opposed the deal and appealed to the state Supreme Court, which blocked the agreement.
Williams’ team filed a clemency petition to the US Supreme Court last week, noting Missouri’s previous governor had postponed Williams’ execution indefinitely amid questions about the integrity of Williams’ trial.
Former GOP Gov. Eric Greitens previously halted Williams’ execution and formed a board to investigate his case and determine whether he should be granted clemency.
“The Board investigated Williams’ case for the next six years — until Governor Michael Parson abruptly terminated the process,” Williams’ attorneys wrote.
After Parson took office, he dissolved the board and revoked Williams’ stay of execution, the inmate’s attorneys said. That decision deprived Williams of his right to due process, his lawyers argued.
“The Governor’s actions have violated Williams’ constitutional rights and created an exceptionally urgent need for the Court’s attention,” Williams’ attorneys said in court documents. Parson defended his decision.
“This Board was established nearly six years ago, and it is time to move forward,” Parson said last summer. “We could stall and delay for another six years, deferring justice, leaving a victim’s family in limbo, and solving nothing. This administration won’t do that.”
SOURCE: CNN (www.cnn.com)
ARTICLE: How Efforts to Cut Long Prison Sentences Have Stalled
Crime victim advocates and conservative groups are resisting moves to revisit “truth-in-sentencing” laws.
People walk through the exercise yard at California State Prison in Sacramento, in February 2013. Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters.
When a 2016 California law made it possible for Lance Gonzalez to shorten his prison sentence by completing more rehabilitation programs and education, he hit the ground running.
His efforts seemed to pay off. Under the law, the state corrections department awarded Gonzalez enough time credits to move up his first parole hearing from 2028 to 2023. He was granted parole on his first try — a rare feat.
As Gonzalez was planning for his first hours as a free man last spring, a lawsuit pulled the rug out from under him. In May, a judge agreed with the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation — a conservative nonprofit organization — that the corrections department didn’t have the authority to advance parole for people serving life sentences. The state has appealed the ruling.
The two stalled efforts in the Golden State are indicative of a tension visible across the country, as reform efforts aimed at paring back long sentences bump up against resistance from victims' rights groups and a resurgence of “tough-on-crime” politics.
Even as the state reduced arrests and prosecutions during the 2000s, there was no “release valve,” experts told Wisconsin Watch, causing the number of people incarcerated to continue to grow, even as fewer people were sentenced. At present, the state’s prison population is 5,000 people over capacity.
A few years after Wisconsin’s 1997 sentencing law passed, Gawaine Edwards was convicted of felony murder and armed robbery at age 23. Under the law, Edwards isn't eligible for release for another 12 years, when he will be 57. Last week, Edwards told Wisconsin Watch that he feels he’s “stuck here doing all this dead time,” in a prison that isn’t offering legitimate rehabilitation or educational programming.
Truth-in-sentencing laws can also limit how people seek rehabilitation programming in prison. As one incarcerated writer put it in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week: “When I ask young inmates about behavioral change, they often respond, ‘Why should I?’ Without incentives, they see no reason to change.”
More general second-look legislation is often opposed by some victim advocacy groups, which argue that the bills rob people affected by crime of closure. A second-look effort in Virginia led to heated and emotional legislative hearings earlier this year, before the bill was postponed to next year.
“The impact — it’s with us every day,” said Michael Grey, whose son was killed during a cell phone sale. “Why have a justice system if we’re going to circumvent these decisions,” he said of the sentences imposed, “and try to come back and let these people get out of jail?”
An unrelated good-time credit law did go into effect in Virginia last month, leading to the release of more than 800 people from state prisons. The law roughly tripled how much time off their sentences incarcerated people can earn for good behavior.
Other states may be going the other way. This November, voters in Colorado will decide whether people convicted of violent crimes should be required to serve at least 85% of their sentence before being eligible for parole or reductions for good behavior. Currently, that number is 75%.
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Jamiles Lartey is a New Orleans-based staff writer for The Marshall Project. Previously, he worked as a reporter for the Guardian covering issues of criminal justice, race and policing. Jamiles was a member of the team behind the award-winning online database “The Counted,” tracking police violence in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, he was named “Michael J. Feeney Emerging Journalist of the Year” by the National Association of Black Journalists.
Source: The Marshall Project (www.themarshallproject.org)
ARTICLE: Senate Sends Prison Oversight Reform to President Biden, Proves Bipartisan Public Safety Policy Should Be High Priority
Senate’s unanimous passage of critical prison reform legislation is a timely reminder that bipartisan public safety policy is not just possible but popular and effective.
Washington DC – The U.S. Senate voted unanimously to send the Federal Prison Oversight Act to President Biden’s desk on Wednesday evening. The move follows overwhelming passage in the House in May, and comes amid months of investigations that have revealed shocking human rights abuses in federal prison facilities across the nation.
JC Hendrickson, Federal Affairs Director for Justice Action Network, the nation’s leading bipartisan criminal justice organization, released the following statement after the senate passage:
“People who have committed crimes require rehabilitation, and that cannot be accomplished when they are subjected to neglect and abuse in federal facilities without recourse or oversight. The Federal Prison Oversight Act is critically needed in light of mounting evidence of rights abuses and failures in federal facilities, and on-going staff shortages that put both corrections staff and the incarcerated people they oversee at risk. The Senate’s unanimous passage of critical prison reform legislation is a timely reminder that bipartisan public safety policy is not just possible but popular and effective. We urge President Biden to sign this bill, and we congratulate its authors in both the House and Senate, including Representatives McBath and Armstrong, and Senators Ossoff and Braun. Both Congress and the administration should actively pursue other bipartisan solutions to the public safety issues that are top of mind for voters this election season.”
The Federal Prison Oversight Act was among policies and executive actions highlighted in a new report Justice Action Network released earlier in the day Wednesday. Federal Criminal Justice Reform: Options for Policymakers 2025-2029 includes policy options for addressing inefficiencies throughout the criminal justice system – from crime prevention to reentry after a period of incarceration – through the lens of bipartisan cooperation, focusing on policies that have already attained strong support from both elected officials and citizens on both sides of the political aisle.
ARTICLE: Criminal Justice Gaps Between Women and Men Narrow on Violence, Other Key Measures
Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch leads new national commission developing findings and recommendations to enhance women’s safety, health, and justice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
5:00 a.m. ET, July 9, 2024 Contact: Brian Edsall bedsall@counciloncj.org
845-521-9810
WASHINGTON – Women are now just as likely as men to be victims of violent crime. They now account for more than a quarter of adult arrests. The rate of women’s jail incarceration has been edging up; the men’s rate has been going down.
While men still make up a disproportionate share of people in the criminal justice system, these troubling trends for women underlie the launch today of a new Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) initiative to document and raise awareness of the distinctive needs of women in the criminal justice system and build consensus for evidence-based reforms that enhance safety, health, and justice.
The nonpartisan national panel, the Women’s Justice Commission, is chaired by Loretta Lynch, who championed women’s justice issues as U.S. Attorney General, and includes 15 other ideologically diverse leaders representing law enforcement, legislative offices, courts, corrections, medicine, research, advocacy, and directly impacted individuals. Oklahoma First Lady Sarah Stitt, a longtime advocate for breaking generational trauma among women due to substance abuse and mental health issues, is serving as Senior Adviser. The Commission is scheduled to hold its first formal meeting today in New York City, including a visit to Brooklyn program for justice-involved women.
“The unique challenges faced by women moving through our criminal justice system all too often go unseen and unheard,” said Lynch, who co-chaired CCJ’s National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice. “We can and must do better to reduce the flow of women into the justice system, help them maintain relationships with children and families during incarceration, and provide the support they need to thrive after release.”
Females report that they make up a larger share of violent crime victims: 51% of all violent victimizations in 2022 compared to 41% of all victimizations in 1993, the start of the data series. (This figure is drawn from the National Crime Victimization Survey; it excludes homicides and includes simple assaults.)
Growth in arrest rates for women (41% higher in 2019 than in 1980) is due in part to a rise in arrest rates for violent crimes (317% higher in 2019 than 1980) and drug crimes (63% higher in 2019 than 1980).
The incarceration rate for women in U.S. prisons and jails increased dramatically (+431%) from 1982 through 2007, and then flattened as the number of incarcerated men began to fall. Between 2010 and 2019, the year before the COVID pandemic jolted the criminal justice system, the female jail incarceration rate went up by 12%, while the male rate fell by 10%. As overall incarcerated populations rebounded in 2021 and 2022 after COVID-related reductions, the increase of the female populations outpaced those of men.
More than half of the women in state and federal prisons are parents to minor children, and an estimated three of four women in local jails are mothers. Prior to incarceration, mothers were more than twice as likely as fathers to be the sole or primary caretaker of their children.
Most justice-involved women come from backgrounds of poverty and trauma, and they are more likely than justice-involved men to be victims of physical and sexual abuse, suffer severe substance use and mental health issues, and to have experienced homelessness in the year prior to incarceration.
“This Commission brings together people with the experience, expertise, and passion needed to create tangible, evidence-based solutions to the unique challenges faced by women in our criminal justice system,” said Commission Director Stephanie Akhter. “Building off the efforts of others who came before us, we will produce a roadmap to not only improve the lives of women and strengthen families, but also prevent crime and break intergenerational cycles of victimization and incarceration.”
Akhter said the Commission’s work will span the full scope of the adult justice system—from arrest and diversion through prosecution, incarceration, release, community supervision, and reentry—with a particular focus on trauma-informed and gender-responsive prevention and intervention strategies. While the Commission will focus on challenges in the adult criminal justice system, it will also explore how girls and their involvement with the juvenile justice system influence those outcomes.
Support for the Women’s Justice Commission comes from Ford Foundation, George Kaiser Family Foundation, the Joan Ganz Cooney & Holly Peterson Fund, The Just Trust, Ms. Foundation for Women, the Navigation Fund, the NFL, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Southern Company Foundation, and the Tow Foundation. The Commission also receives support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and other CCJ general operating contributors.
Loretta Lynch (Chair) – Former U.S. Attorney General; Partner, Paul, Weiss LLP
Courtney Bryan – Executive Director, Center for Justice Innovation
Chris Mathias – Representative, Idaho State Legislature
Anne Precythe – Owner, Precythe Sturm Advisory Group, LLC; Former Director, Missouri Department of Corrections
Emily Salisbury – Associate Professor of Social Work and Director, Utah Criminal Justice Center, University of Utah
Topeka K. Sam – Founder, The Ladies of Hope Ministries
Brenda V. Smith – Professor, American University Washington College of Law; Director, Project on Addressing Prison Rape
Jillian Snider – Policy Director, Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties, R Street Institute; Retired Officer, NYPD
Carolyn Sufrin – Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics; Founder and Director, Advocacy and Research on Reproductive Wellness of Incarcerated People
Tori Verber Salazar – Founder/CEO, Law Offices of Tori Verber Salazar; Former District Attorney, San Joaquin County
Pamela Winn – President and CEO, RestoreHER US.America
About the Council on Criminal Justice
The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) is a nonpartisan invitational membership organization and think tank that advances understanding of the criminal justice policy challenges facing the nation and builds consensus for solutions based on facts, evidence, and fundamental principles of justice.
Source: Council on Criminal Justice (www.counciloncj.org)
ARTICLE: Racial Inequality Over Long US Prison Sentences Growing
Racial inequality over long US prison sentences growing, report finds
Black Americans increasingly more likely to receive long prison sentences than white Americans, thinktank analysis suggests
Thu 21 Jul 2022 08.00 EDT
The gap between Black and white Americans serving time in state prison for long prison sentences is growing, a new analysis of state data shows.
Between 2005 and 2019, the share of Black Americans newly sentenced to state prison for more than 10 years grew from about 13% in 2005 to 19% in 2019. By comparison, during that same period, white Americans taken to state prison for long sentences grew from about 12% to 15%, according to a new report by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan thinktank.
Researchers found that, in 2019, 17% of people were sentenced to prison on new charges for longer than 10 years. Of those released, just 3% had sentences longer than 10 years. Yet those numbers compound over time. The report, the first in a series by the council, analyzed data from 29 states reported to the Justice Department’s National Corrections Reporting Program, accounting for more than half of the US population.
“Long sentences accounts for one of the key ways we use incarceration,” John Maki, director of the Council on Criminal Justice’s task force on long sentences, said in a briefing. “This is a ground-level understanding of what we know but it points to how much we don’t know about long sentences. There’s a lot more work to do.”
It found that by the end of 2019, more than half of people in prison – 57% – were serving sentences longer than 10 years, an increase from 46% in 2005, researchers discovered. During that time, the average length grew from almost 10 years to nearly 16 years.
Black Americans were more likely than white Americans to receive long prison sentences for violent crimes such as murder, rape and sexual assault, as well as robbery and burglary. For drug sentences, a shift occurred between 2005 and 2019: white Americans were more likely to receive extended prison sentences in 2005, but by 2019 Black Americans account for the larger share.
“People of color are getting harsher sentences for the same crime,” says Amy Fettig, a task force member and executive director of the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit advocating for the reduction of bias in the criminal justice system.
She said that even as crime overall has declined for decades, disparities in extended prison sentences have gone up, not just within the state prison system but also in the juvenile justice system.
“Even as crime went down, extreme sentences went up. The harshness of our sentences isn’t related to public safety,” Fettig says. “It’s politics in America and it’s racism. Anyway you slice, if you don’t account for racism, you don’t understand what’s truly going on.”
The report did not analyze how disparities broke down across race, age, and sex. But researchers also found that men were 72% more likely to receive long prison sentences than women. The percentage of people older than 55 sentenced to prison more than doubled from 2005 to 2019, from 8% to 19% in 2019. At the same time, the percentage of people between 18 and 24 fell 35%.
“We are guarding grandpa and grandma even though we know they are not a public safety risk,” Fettig says. “[The prison system] isn’t equipped to be an elder care institution. It’s not equipped for long-term care.”
The council formed a Task Force on Long Sentences, co-chaired by former US attorney general Sally Yates and former Republican congressman Trey Gowdy, in April, to examine the impact extended prison sentences have on public safety, communities and incarcerated families. The task force plans to offer recommendations by December.
SOURCE: The Guardian (www.theguardian.com)
ARTICLE: New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy Announced a Historic Clemency Initiative (June 16, 2024)
NEWARK, N.J. (CBS) - New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced a historic clemency initiative on Wednesday. The new program will allow some young and nonviolent offenders, along with domestic violence victims and others, to apply to leave prison early.
by Ainsley Vetter
The program is designed to address mass incarceration, racial injustice and parole rules that make it difficult for people to get a new start when they leave prison, supporters said. A clemency board will review petitions and make recommendations to Murphy on pardons and commutations.
Cases that may gain expedited considerations for pardons?
Non-violent convictions if the convicted person has remained free from justice system involvement for "sufficient time."
People serving sentences that reflect an excessive trial penalty.
Victims of domestic or sexual violence who are incarcerated for a crime made against the perpetrator.
Murphy announced the order at the Saint James A.M.E. Church in Newark. He noted the significance of announcing this on Juneteenth, saying it is a pledge to make these decisions in a responsible and equity-driven way.
"As we celebrate Juneteenth and reflect on our nation's ongoing journey toward racial justice for Black and Brown Americans, I am proud to sign this executive order to help address inequities and unfairness in our system of justice in New Jersey," said Governor Murphy. "This new clemency initiative is a cornerstone of our administration's efforts to make New Jersey the state of second chances."
"Making an announcement of this magnitude in a Black Methodist church on Juneteenth is especially significant. Saint James wholeheartedly believes that all have sinned and fallen short, but there is room and appropriateness for forgiveness, love, and mercy," said Reverend Ronald Slaughter, the Senior Pastor at Saint James A.M.E. Church. "On this day that celebrates freedom, the Governor's initiative confirms that forgiveness, love, and mercy are alive in this state, paving the way for a more just and inclusive future for all."
Rapper Robert "Meek Mill" Williams and activist and entrepreneur Wallace "Wallo267" Peeples were present for the announcement. Both spent years enmeshed in the justice system in Philadelphia. Peeples said he was first arrested, for robbery, at age 11.
"Since that day, June 30, 1990, I've never been off of probation, parole, out of the system. I get out of parole in 2040," he said.
He has nonetheless found success in music, business and entertainment, he said, leading him to become a proud entrepreneur — and taxpayer — in New Jersey.
"I'm saying that to say this: The possibilities after prison are amazing," Peeples said.
Justin Dews, a lawyer who will serve as chairperson of the Clemency Advisory Board, said the process would be fair to both petitioners and victims and their families.
"Our work will be grounded in fairness and not influence. Clemency is not reserved for the favored and well-connected," Dews said.
The board includes a designee of the attorney general, along with public members from various backgrounds.
The board:
Chair: Justin Dews, Counsel at King & Spalding
Attorney General's Designee: Michael Zuckerman, Deputy Solicitor General
Public Member: Jessica Henry, Professor of Justice Studies at Montclair State University
Public Member: Bishop Joshua Rodriguez, Bishop and Founding Partner of Cityline Church and Police Chaplin at Jersey City Police Department
Public Member: JoEllyn Jones, Founding Partner at Jones & Ortiz P.A.
Public Member: Ed Neafsey, Adjunct Professor at Rutgers Law School – Newark
"In New Jersey, we believe in second chances and giving our residents every opportunity to succeed," said Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin. "Governor Murphy's creation of a Clemency Advisory Board and plan to ensure expedited consideration for a large number of worthy applicants demonstrates this administration's commitment to those principles."
"Clemency offers a chance for individuals to accept responsibility for their actions and to learn, grow, and become contributing members of society once again," said Corrections Commissioner Victoria Kuhn.
New Jersey launched a website where people can access the application materials for executive clemency. The applications can be submitted online or by mail.
Murphy had not granted any clemency petitions since taking office in 2018.
Source: CBS News (www.cbsnews.com)
ARTICLE: Justice Department Strengthens Efforts, Builds Partnerships to Address the Crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons (Release #24-570)
In recognition of MMIP Awareness Day, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland highlighted ongoing efforts to tackle the MMIP and human trafficking crises in American Indian and Alaska Native communities, and other pressing public safety challenges, like the fentanyl crisis, in Tribal communities.
“There is still so much more to do in the face of persistently high levels of violence that Tribal communities have endured for generations, and that women and girls, particularly, have endured,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “In carrying out our work, we seek to honor those who are still missing, those who were stolen from their communities, and their loved ones who are left with unimaginable pain. Tribal communities deserve safety, and they deserve justice. This day challenges all of us at the Justice Department to double down on our efforts, and to be true partners with Tribal communities as we seek to end this crisis.”
“The FBI remains unwavering in our pledge to work with our law enforcement partners to address the violence that has disproportionately harmed Tribal communities and families,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “We will continue to prioritize our support of victims and will steadfastly pursue investigations into the crime impacting American Indian and Alaska Native communities.”
“DEA’s top priority is protecting all communities from deadly drugs, like fentanyl, and drug related violent crime,” said Administrator Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). “We know that no community has been spared from these deadly threats and we are committed to keeping Tribal communities safe.”
Justice Department Prioritization of MMIP Cases
Last July, the Justice Department announced the creation of the Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Regional Outreach Program, which permanently places 10 attorneys and coordinators in five designated regions across the United States to aid in the prevention and response to missing or murdered Indigenous people. The five regions are the Northwest, Southwest, Great Plains, Great Lakes, and Southeast Regions.
U.S. Attorneys and MMIP personnel engaged in events with Tribal and law enforcement partners, communities, and stakeholders today across the United States, and will continue to do so in the days to come.
The MMIP Regional Outreach Program dedicates five MMIP Assistant U.S. Attorneys and five MMIP coordinators to provide specialized support to U.S. Attorneys’ offices to address and combat the issues of MMIP. This support includes assisting in the investigation of unresolved MMIP cases and related crimes, and promoting communication, coordination, and collaboration among federal, Tribal, local, and state law enforcement, and non-governmental partners on MMIP issues.
The Department’s work to respond to the MMIP crisis is a whole-of-Department effort. In March, the Departments of Justice and the Interior released their joint response to the Not Invisible Act Commission (NIAC)’s recommendations on how to combat the missing or murdered Indigenous peoples (MMIP) and human trafficking crises. The NIAC response, announced by Attorney General Garland during a visit to the Crow Nation, recognizes that more must be done across the federal government to resolve this longstanding crisis and support healing from the generational traumas that Indigenous peoples have endured throughout the history of the United States.
The Department is in the process of implementing its response now, addressing several areas in the near term, including:
Improving coordination, funding, and operations of efforts to combat MMIP and human trafficking;
Enhancing research to better trace the underlying causes of MMIP and human trafficking, to reduce barriers to accessing resources, and to identify data sharing opportunities with healthcare systems;
Improving access to funding aligned with Tribes’ needs;
Developing guidance on the effective use of the media and social media to engage the public when someone is reported missing;
Improving communications with families of victims or missing people; and
Working with a multi-jurisdictional working group to address factors that lead people, particularly young people, to voluntarily go missing.
Addressing Violent Crime and the Fentanyl Crisis in Indian Country
As noted in the joint response to the NIAC, research suggests that certain public safety challenges faced by many American Indian and Alaska Native communities — including disproportionate violence against women, families, and children; substance use; drug trafficking; and labor and sex trafficking — can influence the rates of missing American Indian and Alaska Native people.
Further, fentanyl poisoning and overdose deaths are the leading cause of opioid deaths throughout the United States, including Indian county, where drug-related overdose death rates for Native Americans exceeds the national rate.
Therefore, federal law enforcement components are ramping up efforts to forge stronger partnerships with federal and Tribal law enforcement partners to address violent crime and the fentanyl crisis, which exposes already vulnerable communities to greater harm. For instance:
In January, the U.S Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska announced that 53 people were charged following an investigation by a multi-jurisdictional task force into a transnational organized crime ring that targeted Alaska, allegedly trafficking kilograms of deadly drugs including fentanyl to rural Alaska Native communities and villages like Goodnews Bay and Tyonek, two communities with populations of under 200 people.
Last year, the Justice Department increased funding to the FBI Safe Trails Task Forces to build on the success they have had in bringing together agencies, including Tribal police departments, to combat public safety threats, violent crime, and drug trafficking. The FBI has increased its investigative resources in some of the Indian Country field offices that were in most need of personnel.
Last year, the FBI undertook Operation Not Forgotten, which surged more than 40 personnel, including agents, intelligence analysts, tactical specialists, and victim specialists, to 10 field offices, where they were able to supplement more than 200 pending investigations related to violence against indigenous women and children, with a focus on homicide, serious bodily injury, and physical and sexual child abuse. To date, there have been seven successful indictments. Special Agents identified four previously unidentified child victims and recovered one child victim. Numerous other cases were referred for federal or Tribal prosecutions based on these efforts.
This year, the DEA has established liaisons with each of the FBI-led Safe Trails Task Forces. In addition, DEA is expanding Operation Overdrive to include partnering with Tribal law enforcement and community outreach specialists to reduce the harm caused by drugs and drug-related violence. Operation Overdrive utilizes a data-driven approach to identify hot spots of drug-related violence and drug-poisoning deaths across the country, in order to concentrate resources where criminal drug networks are causing the most harm. DEA’s Operation Engage has facilitated programs for Tribal youth, focusing on increasing drug prevention and awareness.
This coming August, the DEA will be holding their 7th annual training in partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs on drug enforcement in Tribal communities. This upcoming training will include a specific focus on fentanyl and certifying meeting participants in administering Narcan.
The U.S. Marshals Service has developed a legislative proposal to formalize its role in enforcing Tribal violent felony arrest warrants that would expand a pilot launched last year where the Marshals served Tribal warrants at the request of, and in close coordination with, Tribal law enforcement and the Department’s Office of Tribal Justice. This effort has successfully targeted extremely dangerous offenders.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recently assigned a Special Agent/Certified Fire Investigator to the MMIP Initiative to conduct case reviews for each of the five regions. ATF’s National Integrated Ballistic Identification Network (NIBIN) and Crime Gun Intelligence Centers (CGIC) are used as an investigative resource for MMIP cases involving the criminal use of a firearm.
In addition to coordinating our enforcement efforts, the Justice Department is also focused on supporting education and awareness efforts, as well as prevention, treatment, and recovery. The Bureau of Justice Assistance has provided training sessions for Tribal law enforcement, judges, and public safety personnel on our shared work to address fentanyl poisoning, including on the use of Narcan for fentanyl overdoses.
Accessing Justice Department Resources
Over the past year, the Department awarded $268 million in grants to help enhance Tribal justice systems and strengthen law enforcement responses. These awards have also gone toward improving the handling of child abuse cases, combating domestic and sexual violence, supporting Tribal youth programs, and strengthening victim services in Tribal communities.
For additional information about the Justice Department’s efforts to address the MMIP crisis, please visit the MMIP section of the Tribal Safety and Justice website.
Click here for more information about reporting or identifying missing persons.
Updated May 3, 2024
Source: Justice Department
ARTICLE: AG Issues New Guidance on Ending Sentencing Disparities For Crack Versus Powder Cocaine Cases (December 16, 2022)
"The disparity has long been seen as unfairly targeting people of color, which Attorney General Merrick Garland said is “still responsible for unwarranted racial disparities in sentencing.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland issued new guidance on Friday essentially eliminating the disparity in federal sentencing for the distribution of crack cocaine versus powder cocaine, a policy that has long punished crack offenders, and people of color, more severely.
In two memos, Garland said the sentencing disparity was “simply not supported by science, as there are no significant pharmacological differences between the drugs: they are two forms of the same drug, with powder readily convertible into crack cocaine.”
Prior to the guidance, which takes effect in 30 days, crack cocaine triggered harsher sentencing than its powder form.
Offenses involving 500 grams of powder cocaine carried the same 5-year mandatory minimum prison time as offenses involving 28 grams of crack cocaine, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan public policy research institute. The report stated that the disparity was even higher prior to the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which brought the sentencing ratio down to 18 to 1, from 100 to 1.
This disparity has long been seen as unfairly targeting people of color, which Garland addressed in his guidance, stating that the “crack/powder sentencing differential is still responsible for unwarranted racial disparities in sentencing,” and that the “higher penalties for crack cocaine offenses are not necessary to achieve (and actually undermine) our law enforcement priorities, as there are other tools more appropriately tailored to that end.”
According to the United States Sentencing Commission, in 2020, 77% of individuals convicted of crack cocaine offenses were Black, while historically 66% of crack cocaine users have been white or Hispanic.
Crack cocaine became prevalent in the 1980s, sparking a nationwide “war on drugs” and leading to the passage of two federal sentencing laws concerning crack cocaine in 1986 and 1988 that created the discrepancies, according to The Sentencing Project, which advocated for overhauling the sentencing guidelines.
The road to sentencing reform for crack offenders was partly put into motion in 2018 with the First Step Act, which, in part, shortened mandatory federal prison sentences, including for those in prison for pre-2010 crack cocaine offenses.
The new guidance was applauded by several groups, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which called it "a big win and a historic step in the right direction toward eliminating the unjust disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing."
"The crack/powder disparity created a harmful and racially discriminatory sentencing scheme that continues to target and criminalize Black and Brown communities. We commend Attorney General Garland for addressing this wrong, and we are proud to support him," Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the organization, said in a statement.
In the new guidance, Garland also reaffirmed how prosecutors should approach each phase of the criminal justice process, stressing that federal prosecutors should ensure the “fair administration of justice” by making “individualized assessments in charging and sentencing based on the facts and circumstances of each case.”
This includes cutting down on the proliferation of mandatory minimum sentences, he said, reserving them for situations in which they pose a danger to the community, or harm to others, among other considerations.
He also pointed to the Justice Department prioritizing “prosecutorial resources on combating violent crime.”
