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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This training program will aid those working to defend persons accused of homicide in drug-related overdose deaths. Each section of the program focuses on a different aspect of these cases. CLE is not available for this program.
Memo prepared for the webinar "Everything You Wanted To Know About Federal Compassionate Release (But Didn’t Know To Ask)."
Harsh, inflexible sentences may have political appeal, but they do not deter crime or make communities safer. At great cost to taxpayers, mandatory minimum sentencing laws force judges to hand down unnecessarily long prison terms, without regard for the specific offense or offender. Such sentencing laws disproportionately affect minorities and have contributed greatly to the explosive increase in the U.S. prison population during the past three decades.
With growing bipartisan consensus that sentencing laws have gone too far, NACDL supports measures to repeal these policies.
Defense attorney Andrew Mishlove offers five rules – one for defense counsel and four for the client – that serve as a guide to effective sentencing presentations. He writes that a persuasive sentencing presentation encompasses the client’s complete existence, which means it must address the aggravating factors and expose the mitigating factors in the context of an entire human life. How can defense counsel tell a story that puts the crime in context?
State of Ohio v. Tara Hollingshead CT2022-0031
NACDL is pleased to offer, as a resource for its members and as a service to the public, a collection of resources that summarize for each U.S. state the key doctrines and leading court rulings setting forth constitutional and statutory limits on lengthy imprisonment terms and other extreme (non-capital) sentences.
Powerpoint slides by Kim Burroughs and Kandra Roberts. Presented at the NACDL Post-Dobbs Defender Skills Summit in July 2023
Prosecution of material substance use
The National Association of Defense Lawyers (NACDL) respectfully submits the following comments on the Commission’s possible policy priorities for the amendment cycle ending May 1, 2024.
Co-Sponsored by Georgetown University Law Center’s American Criminal Law Review
The landscape of sentencing policy has shifted in recent years, with federal and state lawmakers advocating fewer draconian penalties and beginning to scale back certain sentences. It is clear that the United States stands at a critical juncture for sentencing reform. This symposium is designed to equip practitioners and policy advocates with the latest strategies and research to seize the moment and foster more rational and humane policies.
What measures can the United States take to reduce mass incarceration while maintaining a criminal “justice” system that functions effectively? This issue was curated by NACDL’s Decarceration Committee and includes feature articles and book reviews by members of the committee.
