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Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(107,111 posts)
Tue Mar 28, 2017, 08:40 PM Mar 2017

Will Trump's Prison Reform Policies Send More Innocent People to Jail?

How many innocent people will end up serving time in prison because of President Trump's policies? Of course, even one is too many, but if recent developments are any guide, it could be a lot more than that.

Recently, researchers at the National Registry of Exonerations announced that 2016 set a record for exonerations in a single year: 166. Of that total, 74 pleaded guilty to crimes they did not commit. Most of those exonerated after pleading guilty had been charged with drug crimes, even though lab reports later revealed that no illegal drugs had been involved.

Barry Demings is one such person. In 2008, Houston police pulled Demings over on his way to work. They found a little white powder on the floorboard of his Ford Explorer. Demings hadn't noticed it but thought it might be soap; he had just detailed his SUV. The officer who pulled him over thought it was something else. He dropped the powder into a small test kit and told Demings that it tested positive for cocaine.

Demings couldn't believe it. He insisted he was innocent. But because of our insane drug laws and his prior convictions, the 55-year-old African American was told he could face a sentence as long as 30 years in prison. Justifiably scared, he accepted a deal. He pleaded guilty and served six months in jail, losing his job and girlfriend. (Seven years later, the defense and prosecution jointly filed to have the conviction overturned and Demings was exonerated.)

Cases like Demings sicken, but no longer surprise me. For the past two decades, I have sat on the boards of several national criminal justice reform organizations, including the Innocence Project and Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM). More recently, I launched a podcast, Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom, which profiles some of the amazing men and women who have lived to see their bogus convictions overturned.

-snip-

President Trump is likely to make this problem worse. He appears to be laying the groundwork to pass new federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws, to increase federal prosecutions of state and local crimes and to generally increase federal authority over street crime. Indeed, after swearing in Jeff Sessions as attorney general, Trump signed three executive orders that were consistent with his firm but demonstrably false view that crime is out of control.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/will-trumps-prison-reform-policies-jail-more-innocent-people-w473817?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=032817_12

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Will Trump's Prison Reform Policies Send More Innocent People to Jail? (Original Post) Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Mar 2017 OP
Of course he will. edhopper Mar 2017 #1
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