Renewed War on Drugs, harsher charging policies, stepped-up criminalization of immigrants — in the current climate, joining the NACDL is more important than ever. Members of NACDL help to support the only national organization working at all levels of government to ensure that the voice of the defense bar is heard.
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NACDL is committed to enhancing the capacity of the criminal defense bar to safeguard fundamental constitutional rights.
NACDL harnesses the unique perspectives of NACDL members to advocate for policy and practice improvements in the criminal legal system.
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.
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Domestic violence and related offenses including child abuse, neglect, and abandonment and violation of a protective order can carry immigration consequences for both undocumented persons and persons with lawful immigration status. This webinar covers the immigration consequences that domestic violence and related offenses have upon different immigrants and discuss how to avoid or minimize such consequences. The webinar also covers a related topic—the immigration consequences of violent offenses, including in non-DV cases.
Almost any drug offense - including marijuana possession - can lead to deportation. A drug offense can prevent an undocumented immigrant from getting status or result in deportation for a lawful permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. for decades. This webinar will help defense counsel meet their duty under Padilla by providing an overview of the immigration consequences of drug offenses and offer strategies to avoid or minimize those consequences.
The U.S. Supreme Court held in Padilla v. Kentucky that criminal defense attorneys have a Sixth Amendment duty to advise clients about immigration consequences of their criminal cases, and that failure to do so is ineffective assistance of counsel. With record numbers of immigrants being deported for relatively minor criminal offenses, it is imperative that anyone representing noncitizens understand basic concepts regarding the interplay between immigration and criminal law and be aware of emerging issues.
Find all Resource Center media here - we are creating webinars, videos, podcasts, and more. The Resource Counsel Team delivers tips & tricks on navigating the Resource Center and hosts webinars like our particularly relevant Work from Home webinar. Our topic-specific, interactive NACDL Engage & Exchange series can also be found here!
The Resource Center Webinar & Video Library showcases many of the free webinars and information-packed training videos produced by NACDL on a wide variety of topics. This is only a small part of the training videos, resources manuals, and other products across all criminal defense practice areas that NACDL offers – visit the NACDL Store to find even more material to assist defense lawyers.
Professor Wendy Bach and Dr. Mishka Terplan provide information essential for lawyers defending pregnancy-related prosecutions as well as others in the field. They discuss reproductive medicine, use of expert witnesses, and healthcare privacy and HIPAA issues in these cases.
Subject matter experts and litigators from NACDL’s Fourth Amendment Center explain and discuss some of the important digital technology issues that defense counsel will very likely encounter in these cases. The faculty focus on reverse searches, facial recognition, and device searches.
This page contains materials and information on the intersection between immigration law and criminal defense. It also provides a great list of external resources for general immigration law and advocacy.
NACDL's renowned journal, The Champion® magazine, offers timely, informative articles written for and by criminal defense lawyers, featuring the latest developments in search and seizure laws, DUI/DWI, grand jury proceedings, habeas, the exclusionary rule, death penalty, RICO, federal sentencing guidelines, forfeiture, white collar crime, and more. The Champion® is published ten times per year. The Champion® provides you with the opportunity to reach, communicate with, and influence over 14,000 readers.
Police officers often rely on facial recognition searches as the primary piece of evidence tying a defendant to a crime, and thus defendants should be permitted to challenge the facial recognition search process. The limited case law on the discoverability, reliability, or admissibility of facial recognition is inconsistent at best. Based on the risk of misidentification, Clare Garvie suggests several steps defense counsel should consider pursuing in facial recognition cases.
Police officers increasingly are deploying novel surveillance tools, such as cell-cite simulators, to gather evidence. Even when courts acknowledge that the surveillance was unconstitutional, often they decline to suppress the evidence based on the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule. Laura Moraff offers three arguments defense attorneys can make when challenging the application of the good-faith exception in cases involving novel search technologies.
Six decades after the Supreme Court’s decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, the promise of that ruling remains unfulfilled.
What is constructive cross-examination? What are the components of constructive cross-examination chapters? Larry Pozner explains.
Case law generally requires law enforcement officers to get a warrant before they search a cellphone, track someone’s location, or obtain sensitive records from service providers. The question whether a warrant is necessary is only the first step. The next question: What does a warrant require? Jennifer Granick reveals the three ways current search warrant practice falls short. She lays out the legal arguments favoring narrow, tailored searches and seizures.
The judicial shift away from strict protection of Fourth Amendment rights has not been subtle, and the price for this diminution of rights has been severe.