6th Amendment Resources

www.annenbergclassroom.org – The Sixth Amendment’s confrontation clause gives the accused the right “to be confronted with the witnesses against him” at a criminal trial. This film uses the Supreme Court case Crawford v. Washington to help explain the history and importance of the confrontation clause and why the framers knew it would be crucial to an effective system of justice.”

Confrontation of Witnesses - The Basics

Criminal Procedure video dealing with Crawford v. Washington and its reading of the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause. The lecture covers the basic holding and reasoning, and briefly previews its application in two high-volume contexts.

The Right to Face Your Accuser: Child Abuse and the Sixth Amendment

Should the Confrontation Clause limit the admissibility of children's statements to mandatory child abuse reporters? Richard Friedman (University of Michigan Law School) and Thomas Lyon (USC Gould School of Law) will discuss alternative perspectives on the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment. The Confrontation Clause typically guarantees citizens the right to face their accusers. The unique circumstances of child abuse raised in Ohio v. Clark perhaps require deeper consideration.

IMPARTIAL AND REPRESENTATIVE JURIES

ASSESSMENT TOOLS

The Center for Jury Studies: This tool can be used to look at state jury systems
Assessing and Achieving Jury Pool Representativeness
Principles for Juries and Jury Trials

CASES

Peters v. Kiff, 407 U.S. 493 (1972)
Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522 (1975)
Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U. S. 482 (1977)
Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 364 (1979)
Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986)
Georgia v. McCollum, 505 U.S. 42 (1992)
J.E.B. v. Alabama, 511 U.S. 127 (1994)

STATUTES

Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968

REPORTS AND STUDIES

Rigging the jury: How each state reduces jury diversity by excluding people with criminal records (Prison Policy Initiative, February 2021).
Whitewashing the Jury Box: How California Perpetuates the Discriminatory Exclusion of Black and Latinx Jurors (Berkeley Law, Death Penalty Clinic, June 2020)
Motion: Prosecutors excluded black jurors in seven death-penalty cases (September 2018)
Report on Jury Selection Study (Barbara O’Brien & Catherine M. Grosso, December 2011)
Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection: A Continuing Legacy (Equal Justice Initiative, 2010)
On Racial Diversity and Group Decision-Making: Identifying Multiple Effects of Racial Composition on Jury Deliberations (Samual, R. Sommers, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2006)

LAW REVIEW ARTICLES

TRichard L. Jolly, The New Impartial Jury Mandate, 117 MICH. L. REV. 713 (2019)
Thomas W. Frampton, The Jim Crow Jury, 71 Vanderbilt Law Review 1593 (2018)
No Records, No Right: Discovery & the Fair Cross-Section Guarantee Nina W. Chernoff* 101 Iowa L. Rev. 1719 (2016)
Jeffrey Bellin and Junichi P. Semitsu, Widening Batson’s Net to Ensnare More Than the Unapologetically Bigoted or Painfully Unimaginative Attorney, 96 Cornell L. Rev. 1075 (2011).
Sanjay K. Chhablani*,Re-Framing the 'Fair Cross-Section' Requirement, 13 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 931 (2011).
Justin D. Levinson & Danielle Young, Different Shades of Bias: Skin Tone, Implicit Racial Bias, and Judgments of Ambiguous Evidence, 112 W. Va. L. Rev. (2010).

NEWS ARTICLES

What is the Impact of Racially Diverse Juries?, By Michael Tarm, The Appeal, March 16, 2020.
As Jury Attendance Declines, Lackawanna Judges Can Nix Peremptory Challenges. Will Others Follow?, By Max Mitchell, Law.com, November 19, 2020.
Resumption of jury trials in D.C. Superior Court remains uncertain as victims, families long for justice, By Keith Alexander, The Washington Post, October 23, 2020.
California Adopts New Laws to Fight Racism in Jury Selection, By Kyle C. Barry, The Appeal, September 30, 2020.
Judge Declines to Halt State's First COVID-19 Trial After Jury Selection Challenge, By Charles Toutant, Law.com, September 28, 2020.
After 6 Murder Trials and Nearly 24 Years, Charges Dropped Against Curtis Flowers, By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, The New York Times, September 4, 2020.
There’s overwhelming evidence that the criminal justice system is racist. Here’s the proof., By Radley Balko, The Washington Post, June 10, 2020.
Why Is It So Easy for Prosecutors to Strike Black Jurors?, By Gilad Edelman, The New Yorker, June 5, 2015.
Something has gone wrong with jury selection in Mississippi, and the Fifth Circuit is to blame, By By Ian Millhiser, Thinkprogress, April 5, 2018.
Exclusion of Blacks From Juries Raises Renewed Scrutiny, By Adam Liptak, The New York Times, August 16, 2015.
Black jurors more likely to be struck from Caddo juries, By Alexandria Burris, The Shreveport Times, August 17, 2015.
Next Pre-Trial Question for Jurors: Are You Vaccinated? (Bloomberg Law, May 2021)

OTHER LEGAL SOURCES

Implicit Bias Jury Instructions

VIDEOS, BLOGS, WEBINARS, PODCASTS

Unconscious Bias

This video is used with the express permission of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.

The video was created by a committee of judges and attorneys and will be presented to jurors in every case with the intent of highlighting and combating the problems presented by unconscious bias. (March 2017).

Patrick Bayer on Impact of Race on Juries in Two Florida Counties

Juries formed from all-white jury pools in Florida convicted black defendants 16 percent more often than white defendants, a gap that was nearly eliminated when at least one member of the jury pool was black, according to a Duke University-led study. (April 2012).

The big problem with how we pick juries

A legal loophole makes juries less diverse.

Juries: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

(warning: explicit language)

John Oliver takes a look at why people of color are routinely excluded from becoming jurors, who their absence impacts, and what we can do to create a fairer system.

Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection

Equal Justice Initiative video on the origins of racial discrimination in juries.

Twenty Million Angry Men: A Conversation about the Importance of Including People with Felony Convictions in Our Jury System

Offered by the Harvard Radcliffe Institute in collaboration with the Institute to End Mass Incarceration at Harvard Law School, this program explores questions of jury service, civic participation in the criminal legal system, and the importance of such participation by people with prior convictions.

More Perfect Podcast

"At the trial of James Batson in 1982, the prosecution eliminated all the black jurors from the jury pool. Batson objected, setting off a complicated discussion about jury selection that would make its way all the way up to the Supreme Court. On this episode of More Perfect, the Supreme Court ruling that was supposed to prevent race-based jury selection, but may have only made the problem worse." For more information, click here.

ACCESS TO WITNESSES AND EVIDENCE

CASES

Washington v. Texas, 388 U.S. 14 (1967)
Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284 (1972)
Taylor v. Illinois, 484 U.S. 400 (1988)
Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963)
Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972)
United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 709 (1974)

STATUTES & RULES

REPORTS AND STUDIES

Predicting and Preventing Wrongful Convictions, National Institute of Justice (March 2013)

A Summary of Responses to a National Survey of Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and Disclosure Practices in Criminal Cases, Federal Judicial Center (February 2011) [see appendices]

Brady v. Maryland Material in the United States District Courts: Rules, Orders, and Policies, Federal Judicial Center (May 2007)

LAW REVIEW ARTICLES

Marc Allen, Non-Brady Legal and Ethical Obligations on Prosecutors to Disclose Exculpatory Evidence, National Registry of Exonerations (July 2018)
The Right To Present A Defense by Mark Mahoney, New York State Asssociation of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Superstar Trial Seminar 2016.
Janet Moore, Democracy and Criminal Discovery Reform After Connick and Garcetti, Brooklyn Law Review Vol. 77 No.4 (Summer 2012)
Ellen Yaroshefsky, New Orleans Prosecutorial Disclosure in Practice After Connick v. Thompson, The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics Vol. 25:913 (Fall 2012)
Joel B. Rudin, The Supreme Court Assumes Errant Prosecutors Will Be Disciplined by Their Offices or the Bar: Three Case Studies that Prove that Assumption Wrong, 80 Fordham L. Rev. 537 (November 2011)
Ellen Yaroshefsky, New Perspectives on Brady and Other Disclosure Obligations: What Really Works?, Cardozo Law Review, Vol. 31 No. 6 (June 2010)
Ellen Yaroshefsky and Jennifer Blasser, Report of the Working Groups on Best Practices

OTHER LEGAL SOURCES

DOJ information on discovery

"Supplemental Guidance for Prosecutors Regarding Criminal Discovery Involving Forensic Evidence and Experts," Deputy Attorney General, January 5, 2017.
"Issuance of Guidance and Summary of Actions Taken in Response to the Report of the Department of Justice Criminal Discovery and Case Management Working Group," Deputy Attorney General, January 4, 2010.
"Requirement for Office Discovery Policies in Criminal Matters,” Deputy Attorney General, January 4, 2010.
"Guidance for Prosecutors Regarding Criminal Discovery," Deputy Attorney General, January 4, 2010.

BLOGS, VIDEOS, WEBINARS, PODCASTS

THE BRADY RULE

SPEEDY TRIAL

CASES

Betterman v. Montana, 136 S. Ct. 1609 (2016)
Bloate v. United States, 559 US 196 (2010)
Zedner v. United States, 547 US 489 (2006)
Doggett v. United States, 505 US 647 (1992)
Henderson, v. United States, 476 US 321 (1986)
Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39 (1984)
Dillingham v. United States, 423 US 64 (1975)
Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (1972)
Dickey v. Florida, 398 U.S. 30 (1970)
Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 US 213 (1967)
United States v. Ewell, 383 U.S.116 (1966)

STATUTES

The Speedy Trial Act

LAW REVIEW ARTICLES

Brandon Marc Draper, Zoom Justice: When Constitutional Rights Collide in Cyberspace, May 7, 2020.
Eliot, Tracz, Revisiting the Right to a Speedy Trial: Reconciling the Sixth Amendment with the Speedy Trial Act, 47 Cap. U. L. Rev. 1 (2019).
Sarah R. Grimsdale, The Better Way to Stop Delay: Analyzing Speedy Sentencing Claims in the Wake of Betterman v. Montana, 72 Vand. L. Rev. 1031 (2019).
Seth Osnowitz, Demanding a Speedy Trial: Re-Evaluating the Assertion Factor in the Baker v. Wingo Test, 67 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 273 (2016).
Kristin Saetveit, Beyond Pollard: Applying the Sixth Amendment’s Speedy Trial Right to Sentencing, 68 STAN. L.REV. 481 (2016)
Brooks Holland, The Two-Sided Speedy Trail Problem, 90 WASH. L. REV. ONLINE 31, April 14, 2015.

OTHER RESOURCES

Speedy Trial Rights, National Conference of State Legislatures, April 24, 2021.
Robert Lewis, Waiting for Justice, CalMatters, 2021
Pandemic Resources for Courts, National Center for State Courts
Why 4,998 died in U.S. jails without getting their day in court By Peter Eisler, Linda So, Jason Szep, Grant Smith and Ned Parker, Reuters, October 6, 2020.
Effective Criminal Case Management Tools, National Center for State Courts, 2020.
Effective Criminal Case Management: Project Overview, National Center for State Courts, 2020.
Brian J. Ostrom, Ph.D., Lydia E. Hamblin, Ph.D., Richard Y. Schauffler, Delivering Timely Justice in Criminal Cases: A National Picture, National Center for State Courts, 2020.
ABA Standards for Criminal Justice: Speedy Trial and Timely Resolution of Criminal Cases, 3d ed. 2006.
Matt Reynolds, How the Coronavirus Is Upending The Criminal Justice System, March 19, 2020.
Jeffrey Bellin, Waiting for Justice, The Marshall Project, February 7, 2018.

NEWS ARTICLES

A Right to a Speedy Jury Trial? Don't Count On It During the Coronavirus Pandemic (Reason, January 12th, 2020)

BLOGS, VIDEOS, WEBINARS, PODCASTS

Preserving the 6th Amendment: The Right to a Speedy Trial Amid Court Closures & Re-Openings

Moderated by UC Berkeley Law Professor Andrea Roth, this webinar features a discussion on the speedy trial right generally and a variety of stakeholder perspectives on how to meet today’s challenges.

Meet the panelists and see a full transcript here

How Will You Address COVID-Caused Criminal Case Backlogs?

This webinar, hosted on January 22, 2021 by the National Association for Presiding Judges, reviews research-based approaches to modernize criminal case processing, reduce backlogs, and sustain successful operational improvements within the court’s culture. Questions addressed include:

Is your court ready and able to apply proven criminal case management solutions to restart case processing?
What should individual judges do to become more proficient in managing their criminal dockets?
How can court leaders help reduce systemic barriers to improve criminal caseflow?

RIGHT TO COUNSEL

ASSESSMENT TOOLS

The Rhode Island Project: A Study of the Rhode Island Public Defender System and Attorney Workload Standards (NACDL & ABA, 2017)

Indigent Defense Reforms in Brooklyn, New York: An Analysis of Mandatory Case Caps and Attorney Workloads (Center for Court Innovations, 2015)
The Committee for Public Counsel Services Answering Gideon's Call Project Attorney Workload Assessment (CCI, 2014)
The Missouri Project: A Study of the Missouri Public Defender System and Attorney Workload Standards (ABA, 2014)

CASES

Right to Counsel

Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963)
Gilbert v. California, 388 U.S. 263 (1967)
United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218 (1967)
United States v. Ash, 413 U.S. 300 (1973)

Waiver

Indiana v. Edwards, 554 U.S. 164 (2008)
Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975)

REPORTS AND STUDIES

Right to Counsel National Campaign: Stakeholder Engagement Report (R2C, 2020)
Map of Public Defense Funding, Delivery Models, State Independence, and Workload Standards (Gideon at 50, 2013)

What is the State of Empirical Research on Indigent Defense Nationwide? A Brief Overview and Suggestions for Future Research (Nadine Frederique, Patricia Joseph, & R. Christopher C. Hild, 2015)
How Do We "Do Data" in Public Defense? (Andrew Lucas Blaize Davies, 2015)
The ABA "Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System": How Close Are We to Being Able to Put Them into Practice? (Caroline S. Cooper, 2015)
The Trials of Indigent Defense: Type of Counsel and Case Outcomes in Felony Jury (Erin York Cornwell, 2015)
What Makes Lawyers Happy? Transcending the Anecdotes with Data from 6200 Lawyers (Lawrence S. Krieger & Kennon M. Sheldon, 2015)
Indigent Defense Services in the United States (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2014)
State Government Indigent Defense Expenditures (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2014)
Right to Counsel Services in the 50 States: An Indigent Defense Reference Guide for Policymakers (David Carroll, 2017)

State Reports

CALIFORNIA

The Right to Counsel in Santa Cruz County, California (6AC, 2020)

DELAWARE

The Crucible of Adversarial Testing: Access to Counsel in Delaware's Criminal Courts (6AC, 2014)

FLORIDA

Three Minute Justice: Haste and Waste in Florida's Misdemeanor Courts (NACDL, 2011)

ILLINOIS

The Right to Counsel in Illinois: Evaluation of Adult Criminal Trial-Level Indigent Defense Services (6AC, 2021)

INDIANA

The Indiana Project: An Analysis Of The Indiana Public Defense System And Attorney Workload Standards (ABA, 2020).

The Right to Counsel in Indiana: Evaluation of Trial Level Indigent Defense Services (6AC, 2016)

KENTUCKY

Supervising and Supporting Contract Attorneys Handling Conflict-of-Interest Cases (NLADA, 2019)

LOUISIANA

State of Crisis: Chronic Neglect and Underfunding for Louisiana's Public Defense System (NACDL & FCJ, 2017)

Me and Mr. Jones: A Systems-Based Analysis of a Catastrophic Defense Outcome (Pamela R. Metzger, 2015)

MAINE

The Right to Counsel in Maine: Evalutation of Services Provided by the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services (6AC, 2019)

MICHIGAN

The Right to Counsel in Wayne County, Michigan: Evaluation of Assigned Counsel Services in the Third Judicial Circuit (6AC, 2019)

MISSISSIPPI

Mississippi's No-Counsel Courts (Georgia State University College of Law Center for Access to Justice, 2018)

MONTANA
Spreading Justice to Rural Montana: Rurality's Impacts on Supply and Demand for Legal Services in Montana (Hillary A. Wandler, 2015)

OREGON

Review of the Municipal Court Indigent Defense Service Delivery Eugene, Oregon, (NLADA, 2020).

SOUTH CAROLINA

Summary Injustice: A Look at Constitutional Deficiencies in South Carolina’s Summary Courts (NACDL & American Civil Liberties Union, 2016)

TEXAS

Public Defender Primer, Texas Indigent Defense Commission. (TIDC, 2020)

The Right to Counsel in Armstrong County & Potter County, Texas: Evaluation of Ault Trial Level Indigent Defense Representation (6AC, 2019)

Reporting the State of Public Defense in 254 Counties Through a New Web Portal (NLADA, 2019)

WISCONSIN

Justice Shortchanged: Assigned Counse l Compensation in Wisconsin (6AC, 2015)

LAW REVIEW ARTICLES

The Sixth Amendment Façade: The Racial Evolution of the Right to Counsel, Shaun Ossei-Owuwu, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 2019.
The Right To Counsel But Not The Presence of Counsel: A Survey of State Criminal Procedures For Pre-Trial Release, John P. Gross, Fla. L. Rev., 69 Fla. L. Rev. 831 (2017).
Race, Paternalism, and the Right to Counsel, Kristin Henning, 54 AM. Crim. L. Rev, 2017.
Gideon Skepticism, Alexandra Natapoff, Washington and Lee Law Review, 2013.
John D. King, Beyond "Life and Liberty": The Evolving Right to Counsel, 48 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 1 (2013).
Melissa Minas, Blurring the Line: Impact of Offense-Specific Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel, 93 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 195 (2002-2003).

NEWS ARTICLES

The Sixth Amendment Doesn't Shut Down When The Government Does, By Kira Lerner, The Appeal, January 24, 2019.
When the Money Runs out for Public Defense, What Happens Next?, By Oliver Laughland, The Marshall Project, September 7, 2016.

OTHER LEGAL SOURCES

American Bar Association (ABA) standards

BLOGS, VIDEOS, WEBINARS, PODCASTS

Introduction to the Right to Counsel

Introduction to the Sixth Amendment's Right to Counsel

Presented by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)

OPEN MIKE: Right to Fair Trial?

Right to Fair Trial? National Expert Exposes Serious Concerns in Courts All Across America

David Carroll is a nationally recognized expert in court system reform and the delivery of good counsel services. He works with the Sixth Amendment Center to ensure that people accused of crimes have access to adequate legal representation. In this episode of Open Mike, David tells Mike about the Michigan Justice system’s recent improvements after a report that his organization made on the state. They also discuss the inherent problem of bail and how court-appointed lawyers are too overworked to provide good counsel. Tune in to this insightful episode to learn about the problems with our criminal justice system and what needs to be done to fix it.

Sixth Amendment

A selected lecture from "Introduction to Key Constitutional Concepts and Supreme Court Cases" with University of Pennsylvania law professor Kermit Roosevelt III.

In Practice

Check out this episode of "In Practice" with host Rob Wolf are members of the Center for Court Innovation's Criminal Defense Initiatives team, Lisa Vavonese, deputy director, and Liz Ling, coordinator in which they discuss the use of video conferencing at initial appearances.

PUBLIC TRIAL

CASES

Presley v. Georgia, 558 U.S. 209 (2010) (per curiam)
Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39 (1984)

REGULATIONS

28 CFR § 50.9 - Policy with regard to open judicial proceedings.

LAW REVIEW ARTICLES

Stephen E. Smith, The Right to a Public Trial in the Time of COVID-19, 77 WASH. & LEE L. REV. ONLINE 1 (2020).
Department of Justice Journal of Federal Law and Practice, April 1, 2019.
Kristin Saetveit, Close Calls: Defining Courtroom Closures, 68 STAN. L.REV. 897 (2016)
Stephen E. Smith, The Right to a Public Trial and Closing the Courtroom to Disruptive Spectators, 93 WASH. U. L. REV. 235 (2015).
Daniel Levitas, Scaling Waller: How Courts Have Eroded the Sixth Amendment Public Trial Right, 59 Emory L. Rev. 493 (2009).
Lance R. Peterson, A First Amendment-Sixth Amendment Dilemma: Manuel Noriega Pushes the American Judicial System to the Outer Limits of the First Amendment, 25 J. Marshall L. Rev. 563 (1992).
Goundry, Frederick W. III (1990) "When Can the Courtroom Be Closed in Criminal Proceedings?," University of Baltimore Law Forum: Vol. 21 : No. 1 , Article 3.

OTHER LEGAL SOURCES

Department of Justice Manual, § 9-5.150.

NEWS ARTICLES

Judge Orders New Trial for Gigi Jordan in Son’s Killing, By Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times, September 25, 2020.
Coronavirus Containment Collides With U.S. Constitutional Rights, By Jordan S. Rubin, Bloomberg Law, March 31. 2020.

BLOGS, VIDEOS, WEBINARS, PODCASTS

Constitutional Conversation: 6th Amendment - Speedy Trial and Public Trial, Impartial Jury

Listen to scholars at James Madison's Montpelier discuss: - How did the Founding Fathers define a speedy trial and why did they address how long it takes to have a trial? - What is a public trial and how open should a trial be?

VANISHING TRIALS

REPORTS AND STUDIES

The New York State Trial Penalty: The Constitutional Right to Trial Under Attack, NACDL, March 26, 2021.
Only 2% of federal criminal defendants go to trial, and most who do are found guilty, By John Gramlich, Pew Research, June 11, 2019.
Trial Penalty Report: The Sixth Amendment Right to Trial on the Verge of Extinction and How to Save It, NACDL, July 10 2018.
Report: Guilty Pleas on the Rise, Criminal Trials on the Decline, The Innocence Project, August 7, 2018.
United States Court Caseload Statistics Data Table

NEWS ARTICLES

Stronger Hand for Judges in the ‘Bazaar’ of Plea Deals, by Erica Goode, The New York Times, March 22, 2012.

VIDEOS, BLOGS, PODCASTS

The Vanishing Trial

On June 15, 2020, NACDL and FAMM hosted a virtual panel discussion about “The Vanishing Trial” documentary. The panelists included Sakira Cook, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Brittany K. Barnett, Buried Alive Project; Clark Neily, The Cato Institute; and Norman L. Reimer, NACDL. View the discussion below.

On June 29, 2020, New Yorkers United for Justice hosted a virtual panel discussion of the upcoming FAMM and NACDL film "The Vanishing Trial." Panelists included Robert Rose, a formerly incarcerated advocate; Susan Walsh, New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Jared Trujillo, The Legal Aid Society; and Khalil Cumberbatch, New Yorkers United for Justice. Featuring Norman Reimer, NACDL; and Molly Gill, FAMM. View the entire discussion below.

Trial Penalty Report Launch Event -- July 10, 2018

At a special event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on July 10, 2018, NACDL released The Trial Penalty: The Sixth Amendment Right to Trial on the Verge of Extinction and How to Save It. The keynote speaker at the event was Hon. John Gleeson (Ret.). In addition to NACDL leadership including NACDL Immediate Past President Rick Jones, NACDL Past President Barry Pollack, and NACDL Executive Director Norman L. Reimer, representatives from numerous leading groups in the criminal justice reform movement from across the political spectrum delivered remarks agreeing that the trial penalty in the American criminal justice system is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. Those groups included the Cato Institute, Human Rights Watch, Right on Crime, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), the ACLU, the Charles Koch Institute, the Innocence Project, and Fair Trials International. Pro Bono Counsel Don Salzman from the firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP also spoke, as did New York criminal defense attorney Frederick P. Hafetz. Due to conflicts, the ACLU and FAMM sent their remarks. The entire 90-minute event is available below.

Prosecutors: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

John Oliver explains how prosecutors use, or in some cases misuse, their power within our criminal justice system and why it’s important to know whether or not your district attorney is a dog.