Selective Prosecution
This memo from Fenton Communications Agency provides youth advocates with messaging strategies to respond to the D.C. Crimes Act and the Juvenile Sentencing Reform Act pending in Congress. The memo includes succinct responses to questions posed about public safety, youth crime, and transfer laws. The memo also provides suggested talking points on tone and relevant…
This report highlights D.C. transfer laws and discusses the current U.S. Attorney’s argument that the District of Columbia should amend its law to transfer more young people to to adult court. The report compares D.C.’s transfer law to transfer laws across the country and highlights decades of research that has concluded transfer laws do not…
From the abstract: “The discipline of public health has begun to recognize the structural inequities of the carceral system as drivers of poor individual and population health. Thenumberofpeopleincarceratedandthelengthoftheirincarcerationdeterminethescopeandgravityoftheirexposureto these individual and public health effects. Plea bargains all but guarantee a period of incarceration, often for many years, because prosecutors have significant bargaining power against defendants…
A sample motion arguing child pornography laws are unconstitutional as applied to a children engaging in sexting. The motion argues the statute is void-for-vagueness since it fails to provide fair notice regarding prohibited conduct for children under 18 and it encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement because the distinction between offender and victim is blurred. Furthermore,…
This amicus brief by The Gault Center, Juvenile Law Center, and National Center for Lesbian Rights argue that strict liability statutes run counter to the principles of adolescent development. Here, amici argue that a 12-year old child who engaged in non-forcible sexual conduct with his peer, who was then prosecuted under a strict liability sex…
