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Criminal Appellate & Post-Conviction Services

Left & Right Come Together on Criminal Justice Reform

There was an interesting article in today’s New York Times about how the conservative right is now becoming concerned with the problems with our forever growing criminal justice system. Since the Nixon Administration, “getting tough” on crime has been a political rallying point of the conservatives. Now, the conservative Heritage Foundation and come out against many of the procedures adopted. A decade ago, former Attorney General Meese decried the ACLU as a “criminal lover’s” organization. Now he is saying that he is willing to work with them to fix the problem of our over-criminalized society. The right in particular has been concerned about the removal of intent from criminal law and criminal forfeitures. There is a case highlighted in the article where former U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell talks about how an entire yacht was forfeited over a single marijuana cigarette.

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