Legal Commentary

"Smart on Crime" Report Released

By Jeralyn

Don't confuse the Smart of Crime Project with the new conservative group Right on Crime, championed by Newt Gingrich and his friends. The Smart on Crime Project is the real deal. Today it released a 317 page report on how to fix our broken criminal justice system.

The complete report is here . If you just want to peruse the Executive Summary, it's here. The recommendations are here.

The report to Congress and the Administration covers everything from over-federalization of state crime and over-criminalization to problems with unreliable snitch testimony to the death penalty, false confessions and of course, faulty eyewitness identification, which we know is the greatest cause of wrongful convictions. There's also sections on grand juries, forensic evidence, false confessions and federal sentencing (opposing new mandatory minimums and working to repeal many already on the books.)

The website and project was sponsored by the Constitution Project. A list of contributors is here.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 10, 2011 (boomark / email).