20^th Annual State Criminal Justice Network Conference
August 18-20, 2021 | Held Virtually

Hear from members of NACDL’s Women in Criminal Defense Committee as they highlight the report’s key findings and the impact of these laws on our criminal legal system.

20^th Annual State Criminal Justice Network Conference
August 18-20, 2021 | Held Virtually

This panel examines the continued criminalization of HIV and other health status, the undermining of the central principle that criminal intent be required for criminal liability, and efforts to reform these discriminatory laws.

The expected prosecutions as a result of the Dobbs decision are bearing down on a system already overwhelmed post-COVID. Because of the promise of arrests for those traveling interstate seeking services, defense attorneys may feel an impact even if they do not practice in an abortion-restrictive jurisdiction.

This study of the 114^th Congress revisits a 2010 joint report by the Heritage Foundation and NACDL: Without Intent: How Congress Is Eroding the Criminal Intent Requirement in Federal Law. This new study found that Congress still regularly introduces bills with new criminal provisions that contain mens rea requirements that are not sufficiently protective. In fact, 42% of the bills analyzed had criminal intent requirements that were considered inadequate. [Released December 2021]

The Fourth Amendment has entered the digital age. New surveillance technologies and programs — from GPS tracking devices to automated license plate readers to bulk data collection — have upended traditional law enforcement practices and created new challenges for defense lawyers. This report offers an overview of this symposium and the substantive areas of concern related to new technological and legal changes that impact Fourth Amendment protections in criminal cases. [Released June 2016]

On May 26, 2016, NACDL co-hosted a free law and policy symposium with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform entitled The Enforcement Maze: Over-Criminalizing American Enterprise. The day-long symposium featured key leaders from industry, academy, law and policy across the political spectrum. [Released August 2018]

The integrity of the criminal justice system relies on the guarantees made to the actors operating within it. For the accused, the guarantee of fair process includes not only the right to put on a defense, but to put on a complete defense. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized the importance of this guarantee over 50 years ago, in Brady v. Maryland, when it declared that failure to disclose favorable information violates the constitution when that information is material. This guarantee, however, is frequently unmet. [Released November 2014]

This Report outlines current legal statutes that criminalize abortion and the impact overturning Roe v. Wade would have on laws to prosecute and incarcerate those providing, receiving, or assisting with abortions. It details the risk that, without protections provided by Roe v. Wade, many states can and will continue to pass laws that further inflame the national crisis of overcriminalization and mass incarceration. [Released August 2021]

The bill represents a very important step forward by leaders from both political parties to address a matter that has been the source of significant injustice and unfairness in the American criminal justice system. Mens rea reform was a central theme of the discussions and testimony in the multiple hearings held by the bipartisan 2013-14 House Overcriminalization Task Force. NACDL applauds the bold and significant, bipartisan leadership on this important issue. 

Overcriminalization is a dangerous trend that NACDL battles daily. With over 4,450 crimes scattered throughout the federal criminal code, and untold numbers of federal regulatory criminal provisions, our nation's addiction to criminalization backlogs our judiciary, overflows our prisons, and forces innocent individuals to plead guilty not because they actually are, but because exercising their constitutional right to a trial is prohibitively expensive and too much of a risk. This inefficient and ineffective system is, of course, a tremendous taxpayer burden.

Willful blindness, also known as conscious avoidance, is a judicially-made doctrine that expands the definition of knowledge to include closing one's eyes to the high probability a fact exists. While the doctrine originated in the context of drug trafficking cases, it has since been expanded to a wide array of prosecutions and is increasingly used in white collar cases. The use of the willful blindness doctrine in criminal prosecutions is deeply troubling. NACDL not only opposes further expansion of this doctrine, but is working to reform its use and influence in the criminal justice system.

U.S. v. Peter E. Clay, Todd S. Farha, Paul L. Behrens, and William L. Kale No. 8:11-cr-00115-JSM-MAP (M.D. Fla.) on the affairs of WellCare Health Plans, Inc.

Overcriminalization is a dangerous trend that NACDL battles daily. The case of Todd Farha and other executives at WellCare Health Plans, Inc., offer a case study in overcriminalization and unchecked prosecutorial discretion. Below, you will find links to important primary and secondary materials concerning this case.

NACDL  opposes all laws that base criminal liability and/or penalty enhancements on one’s HIV status rather than on the intent to harm another individual. NACDL supports the repeal of such criminal laws as fundamentally unfair and unjust. Recognizing that outright repeal can result in the abusive use of existing statutes, NACDL also supports modernization of these criminal laws to incorporate strong principles of intent and proportional punishment.

NACDL has proposed several technical statutory amendments to rectify the money laundering regime’s most serious flaws by simplifying and clarifying current law, facilitating compliance efforts by individuals and businesses, and by focusing federal law enforcement on serious misconduct. [Released August 2001]