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November 18, 2014
Wonderful new on-line resource, Collateral Consequences Resource Center, now available
I am very pleased to be able to report on a very important addition to the criminal justice on-line universe, the Collateral Consequences Resource Center. This posting by Margy Love provides this background and something of a mission statement:
The Collateral Consequences Resource Center website launches on Tuesday, November 18, 2014. We hope it will fill a growing need for information and advice about the modern phenomenon of mass conviction and the second-class citizenship it perpetuates.
The legal system is only beginning to confront the fact that an increasing number of Americans have a criminal record, and the status of being a convicted person has broad legal effects. The importance of collateral consequences to the criminal justice system is illustrated by cases like Padilla v. Kentucky (2010), holding that defense counsel have a Sixth Amendment obligation to advise clients about the possibility of deportation. Civil lawyers too are mounting successful constitutional challenges to harsh consequences like lifetime sex offender registration, categorical employment disqualification, and permanent firearms dispossession, which linger long after the court-imposed sentence has been served. Government officials have tended to regard collateral consequences primarily as a law enforcement problem involving the thousands leaving prison each year, but they are now considering how to deal with the lifetime of discrimination facing the millions who have long since left the justice system behind. Advocates are pointing out how counterproductive and unfair most mandatory collateral consequences are, and legislatures are paying attention. People with a record are organizing to promote change.
The time is right to launch the Collateral Consequences Resource Center, which will bring together in a single forum all of these diverse interests and issues. The Center’s goal is to foster public discussion and disseminate information about what has been called the “secret sentence.” Through its website the Center will provide news and commentary about developments in courts and legislatures, curate practice and advocacy resources, and provide information about how to obtain relief from collateral consequences in various jurisdictions. The Center aims to reach a broad audience of lawyers and other criminal justice practitioners, judges, scholars, researchers, policymakers, legislators, as well as those most directly affected by the consequences of conviction. It invites tips about relevant current developments, as well as proposals for blog posts on topics related to collateral consequences and criminal records: [email protected].
Impressively, this new web resource (which I guess I will call CCRC) has a ton of terrific content already assembled at webpages dedicated to State-Specific Resources, Books and Articles, and Reports and Studies. And here are links to a few recent notable blog postings:
- More states rely on judicial expungement to avoid collateral consequences
- Minnesota project examines how different life would be with a criminal record
- Dismissed Charges Not Always the Best Outcome?
November 18, 2014 at 09:19 AM | Permalink
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Comments
There was prior reference to an ABA site which is also useful.
http://www.abacollateralconsequences.org/
I want fairness credit for this proposal made to several guidance counselors.
Yearly high school assembly presentation by the defense bar. Handling yourself in police custody. Especially needed in minority areas.
Do not start acting ghetto. You will be shot. Don't make any move that is not asked for by the police.
Be polite, but silent about any fact. They are not your friend, nor after the truth. They are agents of the prosecutor. There are 10's of 1000's of laws and regs, so we are all committing 3 crimes a day.
Defense attorney reviews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc
Do not accept any plea containing a felony conviction. The failure to disclose the list of 50,000 collateral consequences in such a contract represents fraudulent inducement, and should make the plea voidable. The failure of any defense attorney acting as messenger for the prosecutor to review these consequences should represent automatic malpractice, and inadequacy of representation. The existence of the two websitess makes this disclosure easy, convenient, and mandatory.
In watching the First 48 Hours, one notes that most of the cases are closed by a confession. That is a show following murder detectives. People are made to talk with these goofy inducements. Your friend told us every thing. Stop disrespecting me, I saw 5 indicators that your are lying. Why don't you try to be a man and tell us your side of the story?
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Nov 18, 2014 10:21:29 AM
I disagree with the above lecturer, that one can not talk oneself out of an arrest. A victim of Jeffrey Dahmer ran from his house, naked, bloody, screaming to be helped. Dahmer persuaded the police he was a hysterical homosexual lover, and was allowed to take him home again, where he ate him, literally.
The abductor of little Jessica got a visit from the police, being a notorious sex offender across the street from her abduction from her bedroom. She was alive in his closet. He talked his way out of that one.
In a horrid symmetry, quarter of the exonerated falsely confessed to a murder.
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Nov 18, 2014 10:28:54 AM
SC's right about invoking the right to remain silent and resisting coercive pressure to take a plea agreement that includes a felony conviction.
However, talking prosecutors out of a felony conviction isn't easy...and typically costs tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees just to try. The other apparent alternative implicit in SC's advice -- insisting on a trial -- typically runs legal costs well into the six-figure range. Or if you can't afford a lawyer you must take your chances (typically with draconian outcomes for losers) with the overworked attorney the court assigns you.
Never mind the "trial penalty" prosecutors routinely employ not only to leverage confessions but to deter other citizens from exercising their trial rights.
I also agree with SC we have too many laws and Silverglate's three-felonies-a-day notion seems sound to me. But worse than having too many laws the statutes themselves too often are broad, vague, sweeping in nature and seem to have purposely been drafted to undermine defenses and make winning convictions easy.
Fact is the system's a turkey shoot run by prosecutors, designed by former prosecutors (lawmakers) and administered primarily by other former prosecutors (judges).
Sad to say, but most citizens who find themselves facing jaded, career-driven, adrenalin-junkie cops and prosecutors have a lot more to worry about than long-term collateral consequences of a felony conviction.
Posted by: John K | Nov 19, 2014 11:49:24 AM
