Conference information and resources relevant to the panels presented at the 19th Annual State Criminal Justice Network Conference, which was held as a live virtual online event on August 17-19, 2020. 

NACDL is here to help you with your state legislative outreach efforts. We can issue legislative action alerts, provide advocacy training, host legislative outreach/community events, assist in bringing in expert witnesses to testify on state legislation through our Expert Witness Fund, host national advocacy conversations on developing legislative/litigation, coalition building and much more!

The events unfolding across our nation today renew a long-standing call for fundamental changes to our nation’s institutions. While today’s cries carry echoes from protests following the deaths of so many Black people killed by police, and the hopes for change from the marches of the Civil Rights Movement, the current story of race, racism, and white privilege in America has its roots firmly planted in over 400 years of history. It is by fully understanding our nation’s legacy of chattel slavery that we can begin to combat our current social structures that perpetuate institutional racism.

Additional resources on racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

This page provides links to NACDL's State Criminal Justice Network's monthly newsletter. The newsletter features a snapshot of NACDL's state criminal justice priorities as well as recent internal and external criminal justice reports, information on upcoming events, webinars, current state legislative reform efforts, legislative tracking, action alerts and more!

Coalition letter to members of the Senate regarding proposals for compassionate release and elderly home detention programs outlined in the COVID-19 Safer Detention Act of 2020 (S. 4034).

Every year, NACDL brings together advocates from around the country for our annual State Criminal Justice Network Conference. This conference offers participants an opportunity to hear from experts on state criminal justice reform and the opportunity to network with like-minded advocates.

The NACDL Champion of State Criminal Justice Reform Award recognizes an individual or group whose exceptional efforts have led toward progressive reform of a state criminal justice system.

An important discussion on the ways in which systemic racism manifests itself in the pretrial process and how we can work towards change.

This conversation examines the ways in which the chattel slavery system of America’s early history manifests itself in the variety of ways in which Black people are literally and symbolically policed today.

Coalition letter to the House Rules Committee and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science regarding a proposed amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2021 (H.R. 7617) to reestablish the Department of Justice Office for Access to Justice as it previously operated from 2010-2018.

Brief of Amicus Curiae National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in Support of Petitioner.

Argument: Non-unanimous juries are fundamentally different and less deliberative than the Sixth Amendment requires. Non-unanimous juries also fundamentally skew the decision of whether to exercise the jury trial right. The pernicious racial origins of the non-unanimity rule further undermine the Sixth Amendment jury trial right.

Brief of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioner.

Argument: Like Gideon v. Wainwright (the only case the Supreme Court has recognized as falling within Teague v. Lane’s watershed rule exception), Ramos v. Louisiana is a watershed rule and therefore, under Teague v. Lane, applies retroactivity to cases on collateral federal review.  Ramos, like Gideon, overturned a badly flawed, errant precedent to restore a bedrock Sixth Amendment right.  Ramos, like Gideon also increases the accuracy of convictions, when accuracy is properly understood to refer to the fairness of the process and the likelihood that the defendant received procedural protections guaranteed by the Constitution, rather than the likelihood that actual guilt or innocence is determined.

Brief of Amici Curiae National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and FAMM in Support of Defendant/Appellee’s Petition for Rehearing and/or Rehearing En Banc.

Argument: Appellee Raia’s Petition for Rehearing addresses the discretion of a district court to excuse the 30-day waiting period for compassionate release under the First Step Act, 18 U.S.C. §3582(c)(1)(A). On April 2, 2020, the Panel declined to remand this case under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 12.1, stating that remand would be “futile.” In so ruling, the Panel necessarily concluded that the 30-day waiting period cannot be excused or waived. That conclusion was inconsistent with both Supreme Court and Circuit precedent. The ruling creates inconsistency in the Circuit’s treatment of all claims-processing rules, and undermines courts’ equitable authority in a wide range of cases. The30-day waiting period is a nonjurisdictional claims-processing rule. Courts may excuse noncompliance with that rule absent an express prohibition on doing so. Remand is therefore not “futile.” The Panel’s sua sponte conclusion to the contrary was error. Rehearing should be granted to correct the Panel’s error and confirm that judges are empowered to address “extraordinary and compelling” circumstances even when they arise exigently. At a minimum, the Panel should grant rehearing and order full briefing on this important issue, which was neither decided below nor fully briefed on appeal.