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.
Take a stand for a fair, rational, and humane criminal legal system
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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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The panel addresses militarization, ethnic & racial dynamics of sentencing and their impact on criminal justice outcomes.
The panel examines the historical and systemic issues associated with crime and the response of police to those communities most affected by crime. The panel also addresses solutions policy makers and communities can make to solve these issues on the local, state and federal level.
NACDL released its report Policing Body Cameras: Policies and Practices to Safeguard the Rights of the Accused in March 2017, outlining NACDL’s position on the introduction and use of body cameras by law enforcement. This webinar walks through the recommendations and talks about how to negotiate stronger body camera policies in your jurisdiction, the technical aspects of body cameras, and strategies and tactics for defending clients in body camera jurisdictions.
Join NACDL’s Full Disclosure Project to hear about our new resources for tracking law enforcement misconduct. We've compiled our best practices for beginning or improving your processes of tracking police misconduct data. We’ll cover hidden places to look for data, how to create a feasible collection plan, and effective systems for organizing your data. We’ll show approaches from the advanced and involved to the low-tech and simple - so you can apply these methods with whatever resources you have.
Defenders start from the proposition that something went wrong with the police case.
But how do things go wrong?
Defense attorneys often point to “one big screw-up” or “one twisted cop” in telling the story of a client’s innocence to a jury. In reality, the best explanation of how things go wrong is usually an “organizational accident” – a lot of small errors that alone would not be enough to cause something to go wrong, but when put together can cause catastrophe.
Confession cases are some of the most difficult to defend; juries, judges prosecutors and even some criminal defense lawyers often believe that only guilty people confess to crimes. The Brendan Dassey case, shown in the Netflix Documentary "Making A Murderer" has highlighted the problem of coerced and false confessions. In the webinar we focus on both suppressing confessions and persuading juries that confessions are false.
Presented by Professor Devon W. Carbado, Associate Vice Chancellor of BruinX for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Race Matters II: The Impact of Race on Criminal Justice January 10-11, 2019 | Los Angeles, CA
History of Race in America presented by Jeffery Robinson, Deputy Legal Director and Director of the Trone Center for Justice and Equality, American Civil Liberties Union
Race Matters I: The Impact of Race on Criminal Justice September 14-15, 2017 | Detroit, MI
Race Data Matters: Using Expert Testimony and Social Science Data about Discriminatory Policing to Win Pretrial Motions: Part I presented by Rahsaan D. Hall, Director, Racial Justice Program, American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts
Race Data Matters: Using Expert Testimony and Social Science Data about Discriminatory Policing to Win Pretrial Motions: Part II presented by Alison Siegler, Clinical Law Professor, University of Chicago Law School
Explore the mechanisms that incentivize police to engage in pretextual traffic stops and examine state and local efforts to stop law enforcement from enforcing minor traffic infractions.
22nd Annual State Criminal Justice Network Conference August 16-17, 2023 | Held Virtually
Police departments across the country are increasing using predictive algorithms to decide where to patrol and who to investigate. These tools are also being used to create databases that label people as threats and feed them into the criminal legal system.
20th Annual State Criminal Justice Network Conference August 18-20, 2021 | Held Virtually
This panel highlights policing reforms adopted over the last year and what still needs to be done.
At least 85,000 law enforcement officers across the U.S. have been investigated or disciplined for misconduct over the past decade according to a USA Today investigation. Police disciplinary records are confidential in roughly 21 states, meaning people facing charges aren’t able to learn about the background of involved officers. Learn why transparency is vital and current state legislative efforts to allow for increased transparency of police misconduct records.
NACDL's 19th Annual State Criminal Justice Network Conference August 17-19, 2020 | Held Virtually
Police departments across the country are starting to use facial recognition technology to identify suspects, and body camera manufacturers are working to incorporate the technology into their products. This emerging technology has many flaws, which render its results unreliable. Defenders need to understand the technology and its limitations, be aware of how it is being deployed, and know how to challenge its use in their cases.