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NACDL is committed to enhancing the capacity of the criminal defense bar to safeguard fundamental constitutional rights.
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NACDL envisions a society where all individuals receive fair, rational, and humane treatment within the criminal legal system.
NACDL’s mission is to serve as a leader, alongside diverse coalitions, in identifying and reforming flaws and inequities in the criminal legal system, and redressing systemic racism, and ensuring that its members and others in the criminal defense bar are fully equipped to serve all accused persons at the highest level.
Showing 1 - 15 of 18 results
The suspect said he fired his gun straight up in the air on the night officers surrounded his home. The prosecutor said the suspect fired in the direction of a police officer, striking and killing him. Did the suspect shoot the officer, or did another police officer shoot him? Figuring out who shot the officer requires an investigation of shotgun wads. What are shotgun wads? What can they tell us? Steven Howard explains.
The Supreme Court’s Bruen decision will have a major impact across the United States. Jurisdictions will make changes to gun regulations already on the books, and lawyers will bring legal challenges to existing gun laws. Defense attorneys Zachary Newland and Catherine Turner review and explain the new standard set forth in Bruen, and they discuss how lawyers are using the new standard to challenge the constitutionality of firearm laws.
Comments to the U.S. Sentencing Commission regarding proposed amendments to the sentencing guidelines.
Letter to the U.S. Sentencing Commission regarding proposed amendments to the sentencing guidelines.
A defendant who is assessed the gun enhancement pursuant to the Sentencing Guidelines may still receive the benefits of the safety valve. It is up to defense counsel to know the different standards of proof and offer a sufficient argument to show that both can be applicable.
FBI's Forensic Test Full of Holes, Washington Post, April 15, 2007.
NACDL lists experts referred by its members, and an expert was in your search.
A detailed PowerPoint presentation detailing firearm identification methods with exemplary cases.
Amicus curiae brief of Families Against Mandatory Minimums and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Argument: Under Apprendi v. New Jersey (2000), if a sentence would be unreasonable absent a particular fact neither found by the jury or admitted by the defendant, the sentence would violate the defendant’s Sixth Amendment jury trial right; in the instant case, whether the defendant brandished a “machinegun” during a robbery, triggering a 30-year mandatory minimum sentence, must be treated as an element of the offense.
Amicus curiae brief of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Argument: Under the express statutory language of 18 U.S.C. §924, the minimum consecutive imprisonment terms specified in §924(c)(1)(A) do not apply where a court sentences the defendant to a greater minimum sentence under another federal statute.
