December 1998 -- Supreme Court Voids Iowa Car Search LawWashington, DC, December 8, 1998 -- "The Supreme Court has unanimously reaffirmed one of our most cherished rights, the 'right to be left alone,'" Larry Pozner, President of NACDL said today in response to the Court's 9-0 decision in Knowles v. Iowa,No. 97-7597, banning nonconsenual searches of vehicles after routine traffic stops.-- more --
December 1998 -- New Criminal Discovery Rules for U.S. District Court for the District of MassachusettsDecember 1, 1998 -- U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has promulgated new "self-executing, automatic" criminal discovery rules (effective date Dec. 1, 1998) which should serve as a model for every federal court in the country.-- more --
Prosecutorial Misconduct: "Winning at All Costs" -- Sunday, November 22 begins a 10-day investigative series on prosecutorial misconduct, featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Bill Moushey is an award-winning writer with the Post-Gazette, who has been working over the last few years on an in-depth series on prosecutorial misconduct. The series focuses on grand jury abuses, informant abuses, discovery abuses, and the infamous DOJ "Office of Professional Responsibility." Among those interviewed will be Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), discussing his efforts, along with Rep. Joe McDade (R-PA), to secure the "Citizens' Protection Act," just passed, which outlaws the Thornburgh Memo/Reno Regulation. The 10-day series, "Win at All Costs," is available on the paper's website, www.post-gazette.com/win/default.asp.Act Now! Order reprints of the entire "Win at All Costs" series for $14.54 (including tax & shipping), and send them to anyone you think needs to know about the problems of prosecutorial excess -- especially your 2 Senators and 1 U.S. Representative. For information on getting reprints: www.post-gazette.com/pgstore/win.asp
November 1998 -- "Background and History of Impeachment": NACDL Statement before the House Judiciary Committee
Washington, DC, November 9, 1998 -- The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers announces the availability of a new historical treatise, "The Background and History of Impeachment: Defining the Constitutional Limits on Presidential Impeachment," by Professors Frank O. Bowman and Stephen L. Sepinuck, Gonzaga University School of Law, submitted on behalf of NACDL to the House Committee on the Judiciary today. This 69-page written testimony includes an invaluable Appendix, "United States Impeachments 1789 to Present" describing in detail the 15 impeachments and three near-impeachments since the founding of the Republic.-- more --
October 1998 -- Congress Passes Measure Re-Establishing That Federal ProsecutorsAre Bound by Rules of Ethics
Washington, DC, October 21, 1998 -- Today's passage by Congress of the "Citizen's Protection Act," as Section 801 of the omnibus spending bill, stops in its tracks backdoor attempts by DOJ to hold its lawyers above the laws of ethical conduct which apply to all lawyers.-- more --
September 1998 -- Statement of NACDL President Larry S. Pozner, On FBILaboratory Accreditation
Washington, DC, September 22, 1998 -- "Accreditation is a positive and necessary step for any crime lab -- and for the FBI Lab in particular, one that is long overdue. Accreditation helps ensure quality control, quality assurance, and public confidence in overall performance, something the FBI Lab has lost in recent years."-- more --
August 1998 -- Criminal Defense Lawyers Elect Officers,Board Members
Denver, CO, Aug. 8, 1998 -- The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers announced the election of its 1998-1999 officers and directors at its Annual Meeting here today. The new leadership will be sworn in today, Saturday August 8, at the Association's membership and board of directors meeting at the Westin hotel in downtown Denver.-- more --
July 1998 -- Former DOJ Officials Advise Curbing Prosecutorial Excess
Washington, DC, July 9, 1998 -- In the cover article of the July issue of The Champion, NACDL's award-winning monthly magazine, Arnold Burns and Warren Dennis, with co-author Amybeth Garcia-Bokor, highlight recent "sea changes" in the attitudes and professional conduct of federal prosecutors and regulatory lawyers, which they perceive as presenting a "bona fide danger to the quality of justice and the fundamental nature of due process and fair play" in America today.-- more --
July 1998 -- Circuit Court Tells Prosecutors:Tempting Witnesses Akin to Bribery
Washington, DC, July 7, 1998 -- In the wake of last week's momentous federal appeals court decision turning aside the common practice by which the U.S. Department of Justice buys testimony against accused citizens, NACDL is urging Congress and the Justice Department to change that practice across the board. NACDL is also alerting judges and defense attorneys around the nation that the Justice Department's practice of promising leniency to jailhouse informants in exchange for their testimony must now be deemed precisely what the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals declared it is: a violation of the federal bribery statute-- more --
July 1998 -- Hubbell Tax Case Dismissed
Washington, DC, July 1, 1998 -- U.S. District Judge James Robertson today dismissed the federal tax evasion case against former Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell, ruling that Mr. Hubbell's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination was violated by prosecutors from the Office of Independent Counsel.-- more --
June 1998 -- USDOJ/OIG Special Report
Washington, DC, June 1998 -- The FBI Laboratory One Year Later: A Follow-Up to the Inspector General's April 1997 Report on FBI Laboratory Practices and Alleged Misconduct in Explosives-Related and Other Cases-- more --
June 1998 -- Supreme Court Confirms Attorney-Client Privilege,Even After Death
Washington, DC, June 25, 1998 -- The Supreme Court of the United States today handed down its most important decision of the term, Swidler & Berlin v. United States, No. 97-1192, reaffirming the sanctity of the attorney-client privilege. The attorney-client privilege was already well-established in Elizabethan England, and as Chief Justice Rehnquist notes in his opinion, the posthumous attorney-client privilege has been recognized in this country for well over a century.-- more --
June 1998 -- Forfeiture Held Unconstitutional; Would Violate'Excessive Fines' Clause
Washington, DC, June 22, 1998 -- The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers lauds today's U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Bajakajian, No. 96-1487, holding that forfeiture of Mr. Bajakajian's savings solely for his failure to report it to a U.S. Customs officer before leaving the country would be, as Justice Thomas wrote,"grossly disproportional to the gravity of his offense."-- more --
June 1998 -- 'Actual Innocence' May Be Constitutional Ground For Appeal
Washington, DC, June 15, 1998 -- The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers applauds today's U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hohn v. United States, No. 96-8986, holding that the Court has jurisdiction to hear the a claim of actual innocence by a federal prisoner whose certificate of appeal of his post-conviction motion is denied in a federal appellate court.-- more --
June 1998 -- Supreme Court Broadens Gun Law: Five Years Added to Court Officer's Marijuana Sentence
Washington, DC, June 8, 1998 -- A 5-4 decision today by the Supreme Court could affect thousands of federal drug defendants caught "carrying" a firearm, adding five years or more to their sentences even if the weapon was not immediately accessible to them. Today's decision requires a five year mandatory prison sentence for Frank Muscarello, a Louisiana court bailiff caught selling marijuana.-- more --
June 1998 -- Wenatchee Witch-Hunt Emphasizes Need forPublic Defender Funding
Washington, DC, June 2, 1998 -- At a press conference held today calling for federal investigations into the Wenatchee, WA, "sex ring" prosecutions, NACDL President Gerald B. Lefcourt issued a statement calling for adequate public defender funding across the nation. The 1992-1995 probe resulted in 43 arrests on an incredible 27,726 counts of child sexual abuse involving 60 children -- many of whom are now unwilling wards of the state -- in a town of only 17,000 residents.-- more --
June 1998 -- Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Governmental'Forum Shopping'
Washington, DC, June 1, 1998 -- In today's decision in United States v. Cabrales, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the government's attempt to try Vickie Cabrales in Missouri, for conduct allegedly occurring in Florida, essentially amounts to unconstitutional government forum shopping.-- more --
May 1998 -- Bousley v. U.S. -- 'Actual Innocence' May Trigger Release
Washington, DC, May 18, 1998 -- In a decision that could affect hundreds of prisoners across the country, the U.S. Supreme Court today decided that a 1995 case which defined "using or carrying" a firearm in relation to certain crimes may be retroactively applied. Even prisoners who pleaded guilty prior to the 1995 case, Bailey v. United States, should be allowed to show that they are actually innocent of the crime as now defined by the Court, the Chief Justice says in today's decision, Bousley v. United States.-- more --
May 1998 -- NACDL Responds to President Clinton's InternationalCrime Strategy
Washington, DC, May 12, 1998 -- "As the President points out, crime is a global problem. In the international arena, the United States must lead by example, encouraging other nations to emulate our respect for individual and human rights, fairness, and due process of law, while respecting their sovereignty."-- more --
May 1998 -- NACDL Decries Release and SelectiveEditing of Hubbell Tapes
Washington, DC, May 6, 1998 -- "The release of selectively-edited transcripts of Webster Hubbell's telephone conversations from prison with his wife and with his lawyer violated two sacred relationships cherished by our society: the sanctity of private conversations between man and wife and the necessary confidentiality between client and counsel. It is nothing less than revolting."-- more --
April 1998 -- Lawyers' Group Approves 'Ethical Considerations' For LegalNews Commentators
Washington, DC, April 28, 1998 -- Noting that "unprecedented coverage of criminal and other legal proceedings has resulted in an explosion of attorneys serving as legal commentators," the Board of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) today released its long-awaited Ethical Considerations for Criminal Defense Attorneys Serving as Legal Commentators. The recommendations were approved Saturday at a meeting of the Association's Board of Directors in Santa Monica, CA. An effort will be made to get other leading national bar associations to likewise raise the consciousness of their member attorneys.-- more --
April 1998 -- Defense Bar Assails Tactics of Whitewater Independent Counsel In HarassingSusan McDougal
Washington, DC, April 27, 1998 -- The Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's action to compel Susan McDougal to re-appear before the Whitewater grand jury in Little Rock, Arkansas, and calling for a full and independent investigation into apparent conflicts of interest and possible misconduct in this matter.-- more --
April 1998 -- Lawyers' Group Urges DOJ to Act on FBI LabInvestigation Results
Washington, DC, April 25, 1998 -- At its Spring Board of Directors meeting in Santa Monica, CA, April 25, 1998, the Board unanimously passed a resolution calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to promptly notify all persons whose prosecutions and convictions may have been affected by misconduct in the FBI Laboratory. The resolution also calls for the Justice Department to make its FBI Lab investigation records electronically available over the Internet.-- more --
April 1998 -- Death Penalty Condemned at U.N.
Washington, DC, April 7, 1998 -- "Capital punishment in the United States is a direct descendant of lynching and other forms of racial violence," a representative of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) told the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland last week. Professor Speedy Rice submitted the association's statement in support of the Commission's vote calling for a worldwide moratorium on capital punishment at its annual meeting in Geneva April 3, contemporaneous with the release of findings by a U.N. human rights investigator that the death penalty in the United States is racially and economically discriminatory and politically driven.-- more --
April 1998 -- Grand Jury Reform Urged To Counter Prosecutorial Excesses
Washington, DC, April 2, 1998 -- In the wake of widespread and intense scrutiny by the media and American public of the Whitewater grand jury proceedings, major reforms are in order to avert future abuses and restore the institution of the grand jury to its original role as a protector of fundamental citizen rights, the President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers says in a lead article published today.-- more --
April 1998 -- Adequate Defender Services Funding Needed to CounterProsecutorial Excesses
Washington, DC, April 1, 1998 -- Years of "woefully inadequate" funding for federal criminal defense services has resulted in "widespread and rampant abuse of citizens rights by federal prosecutors," the President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) told a House Appropriations subcommittee today.-- more --
March 1998 -- Supreme Court To Hear Posthumous Privilege Case
Washington, DC, March 30, 1998 -- The U.S. Supreme Court today granted certiorari in Swidler & Berlin v. United States, No. 97-1192. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed an amicus curiae brief in the case in support of James Hamilton, of D.C. law firm Swidler & Berlin, who was White House counsel Vincent Foster's attorney before his death in 1993. After Mr. Foster's death, Mr. Hamilton's client file was subpoenaed by the Office of the Independent Counsel as part of the Whitewater investigation. A split decision by the federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the subpoena, saying that the attorney-client privilege does not necessarily survive the death of the client.-- more --
March 1998 -- 'Bounty Hunter' Bill Would Ensure Safety, Protect Citizens' Rights
Washington, DC, March 12, 1998 -- "Even though some bounty hunters are ex-convicts, or have otherwise been in trouble with the law, they enjoy broader powers to arrest fugitives than do police officers," Leslie Hagin, Legislative Director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, told a panel of the House Judiciary Committee today. "They can legally break into a home without a warrant or probable cause, and can violently arrest, shackle, imprison and even transport suspects across state lines with impunity. Because they are acting as privatized law enforcement officers, bounty hunter abuse of innocent citizens is law enforcement abuse, plain and simple."-- more --
March 1998 -- Leaders of Nation's Three Largest Criminal Justice Groups Cite Pending Senate Juvenile Crime Bill As Fatally Flawed
Washington, DC -- As the Senate's Youth Violence, Judiciary Subcommittee gets set to tinker with a minor state record-keeping mandate in S.10 ("Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act of 1997"), other dangerous provisions in the bill have provoked unprecedented opposition from criminal justice leaders who usually find themselves on opposite sides of the bar on policy issues.-- more --
February 1998 -- Defense Bar Congratulates FBI Lab Whistleblower
Washington, DC, February 27, 1998 -- The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers congratulated Dr. Frederic Whitehurst on settlement of his whistleblower suit against the FBI today with a statement from its President, Gerald B. Lefcourt, of New York.-- more --
February 1998 -- Family Values Imperiled When Mother Forced to Testify Against Child: Need for Parent-Child Privilege
Washington, DC, February 13, 1998 -- "At no time before has the need for a 'parent-child privilege' been so clear as when America this week saw Marcia Lewis visibly shaken and trembling after her ordeal before the Washington grand jury convened by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr," Gerald Lefcourt, President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said today. NACDL is calling upon Congress to create a new testimonial privilege to protect confidential communications between parents and children in the interest of preserving family relationships.-- more --
February 1998 -- Independent Counsel's Leaks and Unethical Conduct Imperil America's Justice System
Washington, DC, February 10, 1998 --The Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, meeting this weekend, unanimously rebuked Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr's office for leaking secret grand jury testimony and calls upon the U.S. Department of Justice and the appropriate judicial authorities to immediately investigate to determine those who have unlawfully leaked information. In a separate resolution, the Association denounced the unethical treatment of potential grand jury witness Monica Lewinsky by Starr's prosecutors and agents in ignoring and defying state ethical prohibitions against contacting persons who are represented by counsel. Both resolutions were passed at NACDL's Midwinter Meeting in Puerto Rico on Saturday and released today.-- more --
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)