The Criminal Docket

This week, we speak with George Washington University Law Professor Paul Butler about the Supreme Court's decision on June 25 in Miller v. Alabama eliminating mandatory life without parole for juveniles. We also speak with Paul Larkin, senior legal research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, about the Court's ruling on June 28 in U.S. v. Alvarez that the Stolen Valor Act, which made it a federal crime to lie about having received military decorations or medals, violates the First Amendment. Learn more about NACDL. Denise Tugade, production assistant. Music West Bank (Lezet) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and Walkabout (Digital Primitives) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Running time: 25m 09s.

This week, NACDL Public Affairs & Communications Intern Denise Tugade reports on Tuesday's historic, and long-overdue U.S. Senate hearing concerning solitary confinement. She also speaks with NACDL Associate Executive Director for Policy Kyle O'Dowd about the hearing, the future, and NACDL President Lisa Wayne's letter on behalf of NACDL to Senator Dick Durbin, chair of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights. Learn more about NACDL. Denise Tugade, production assistant. Music West Bank (Lezet) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and Walkabout (Digital Primitives) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Running time: 20m 40s.

This week, we sit down with NACDL's State Legislative Affairs Director Angelyn C. Frazer for an update on state criminal justice reform efforts and the activities of the NACDL's State Criminal Justice Network, or SCJN. Learn more about NACDL. Denise Tugade, production assistant. Music West Bank (Lezet) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and Walkabout (Digital Primitives) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Running time: 11m 11s.

This week, we explore the benefits of NACDL membership with NACDL's Resource Counsel Vanessa Antoun, Editor of The Champion magazine Quintin Chatman, Membership Director Michael Connor, and Membership Marketing Manager Linda Gill Anderson. Learn more about NACDL. Denise Tugade, production assistant. Music West Bank (Lezet) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and Walkabout (Digital Primitives) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Running time: 16m 02s.

This week, we explore the 1989 execution of Carlos DeLuna by the State of Texas with Columbia University Law School Professor James S. Liebman, a 2002 recipient of NACDL's Champion of Justice Award who last week released a groundbreaking investigative report about the Carlos DeLuna case, more than five years in the making by his research team, entitled Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution. Professor Liebman, who clerked for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stevens and spent many years practicing at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, has focused for decades on a research agenda alternating between capital punishment and public education reform. Among his work, Liebman co-authored treatises on both Habeas Corpus and Evidence as well as a statistical study of error rates in capital cases entitled A Broken System, released in two parts in 2000 & 2002. Learn more about NACDL. Music West Bank (Lezet) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and Walkabout(Digital Primitives) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Running time: 24m 10s.

This week, we explore the Crisis of Overcriminalization in America with Harvey Silverglate, a criminal defense and civil liberties litigator, an NACDL member, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and author of the book Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent. We also speak with Mary Price, an NACDL member who is the Vice President and General Counsel of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, or FAMM. Learn more about NACDL. Music West Bank (Lezet) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and Walkabout (Digital Primitives) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Running time: 27m 04s.

Lately, much of the talk in Washington surrounds the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces. But down at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, folks have been gearing up for another start to proceedings for five 9/11 suspects, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Saturday, May 5, is the scheduled arraignment of these detainees. We caught up with NACDL's National Security Counsel Mason Clutter before she departed for what they call "Camp Justice" down at the Guantanamo Bay facility. Learn more about NACDL. Music West Bank (Lezet) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and Walkabout (Digital Primitives) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Running time: 15m 05s.

This week's podcast explores when lying is a crime. A challenge to a law that makes lying about military honors is currently pending before the United States Supreme Court. We'll hear some of the Solicitor General's defense of that law, and we speak with NACDL member, attorney Michael Schafler, an author of NACDL's friend of the court brief in that case. We also speak with Richard Samp, Chief Counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm in Washington, D.C., and Tiffany Joslyn, NACDL White Collar Crime Policy Counsel and co-author of a groundbreaking report entitled, Without Intent: How Congress is Eroding the Criminal Intent Requirements in Federal Law. Learn more about NACDL. Music West Bank (Lezet) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and Walkabout (Digital Primitives) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.

This week's podcast explores the failed war on drugs with Jasmine Tyler, who is the deputy director of national affairs at the drug policy alliance. We also speak with Major Neill Franklin, a 33-year veteran law enforcement official who has done undercover narcotics work and trained and led criminal drug enforcement task forces throughout the state of Maryland. He's now the Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. And we hear from Rick Jones, Executive Director of the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. Rick is also NACDL's parliamentarian and a co-chair of NACDL problem-solving courts task force. Learn more about NACDL. Music West Bank (Lezet) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and Walkabout (Digital Primitives) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.

This week's podcast explores aspects of the criminal justice systems of both Denmark and New Zealand. First, we speak with Henrik Stagetorn, chair of Denmark's National Association of Defense Lawyers. He recently led a delegation of nearly 40 Danish criminal defense attorneys who spent an afternoon at NACDL's Washington, DC headquarters. Then, we hear from NACDL member Greg King, a New Zealand barrister and defense lawyer, who is in the United States on an Eisenhower Fellowship studying the American Criminal Justice system. Learn more about NACDL. Music West Bank (Lezet) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and Walkabout (Digital Primitives) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.