‘Fair and Consistent’ (on DAs and Sentencing)

Democratic voters in Centre County opted not to nominate District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller for another term. Photo via Centre Daily Times.

By Matt Stroud
Criminal Justice Researcher
American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memorandum last week ordering federal prosecutors to “enforce the law fairly and consistently” — which meant doling out harsh mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug crimes. Doing so, Sessions wrote, would ensure that prosecutors “meet the high standards required of the Department of Justice for charging and sentencing.”

It would also, according to Rand Paul among others, ruin lives without much of an upside.

One could be excused for feeling some outrage in response to Sessions’ memorandum — a sense that “tough-on-crime” policies are making their way back into accepted public policy despite reams of data indicating they don’t work.

Closer to home, however, there were reasons to believe “tough-on-crime” is on its way out.

In Philadelphia County, District Attorney Seth Williams had been accused of taking bribes, of reneging on promises, and of pushing hard for tough-on-crime policies that few had predicted he’d embrace when he ran on a supposedly progressive platform in 2009. Williams did not run for reelection this week — the predictable result of an federal indictment targeting Williams on bribery charges.

On Tuesday, Larry Krasner prevailed in Philadelphia’s district attorney primary. Krasner has never served as a prosecutor before — an asset at a time when prosecutors are being blamed for helping to astronomically increase incarceration rates. He has also represented a range of civil rights and social justice activists, including Black Lives Matter, Occupy Philadelphia, and protesters at the 2000 Republican National Convention and the 2016 Democratic National Convention. As a candidate who ran on a progressive agenda, who has a history of standing up for civil rights, and who promised to reroute drug offenders out of the criminal justice system, Krasner is a welcome change from Williams. Krasner proved that candidates can run on what we’ve termed “smart justice” and win.

Tuesday’s primary election in Centre County went similarly. There, in a race to be the lead prosecutor in a county that includes State College, University Park, and the county seat of Bellefonte, incumbent Stacy Parks Millers sought the Democratic nomination for district attorney. Days earlier, Parks had announced charges against 18 people allegedly responsible for the death of a Penn State University fraternity brother. Parks received almost universally positive media attention in the wake those charges — a welcome contribution to any campaign.

But Centre County residents knew something that most national news outlets didn’t mention: In addition to being a tough-on-crime prosecutor, Parks had a troubling past. Slate helpfully summarized parts of that past this week. Among other misdeeds, Parks “crossed ethical and possibly legal lines by doing things like faking a Facebook account to catfish defendants, texting a judge during a trial, and ordering a staffer to forge a judge’s signature,” Slate’s Jessica Pishko wrote.

Parks lost her bid Tuesday to again recapture the Democratic nomination to Bernie Cantorna — a candidate who ran a campaign based on “smart on crime” policies, fairness, transparency, and equal protection.

ACLU-PA does not endorse candidates for office. We are, however, for smart justice policies that will create a 21st century criminal justice system. The old ways are failed ideas that sent the national incarceration rate skyrocketing in the latter decades of the 20th century.

In at least two Pennsylvania counties, it appears “tough-on-crime” is on its way out.

Let’s hope those counties carry out smart sentencing policies — and that fair and consistent policies will soon show Sessions that his retrograde tough-on-crime policies should be on their way out, too.

On to the links.

EXCERPTS
(Criminal justice news that could use a second look.)

Posters welcome attendees — some of them undocumented — to a church in South Philadelphia. Photo from Philly.com.

Philly.com: “The Undocumented: Since the election of Donald Trump as president, anxiety has risen within the community of those living in the United States without settled immigration status. Here are some of the human stories behind the policies and the fears.”

“Undocumented parents grapple with the possibility of being separated from their U.S.-born children, who are American citizens. Their children struggle to understand their place in this country. Young people who crossed the border as children and are living in Philadelphia under the protection of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are unsure what will become of the Obama-era policy that allows them to work and study here. Many are taking public transportation for fear of being pulled over in cars, detained, and possibly deported. Others have stopped going out at night, avoiding unnecessary encounters with authorities. A few families have reportedly left the country. Yet, many highlighted what they consider a silver lining in the growing frenzy: More undocumented immigrants have engaged in community organizing, increasingly interested in educating themselves about their rights here.”

Post-Gazette: “Crowd protests DA’s handling of Woodland Hills investigation” 

“A crowd of protesters on Friday called on Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. to recuse himself from investigating an alleged case of abuse in the Woodland Hills School District, saying they want state Attorney General Josh Shapiro to take it over. The Alliance for Police Accountability held the rally at which about 60 people also called on Mr. Zappala to drop the charges against three students who claim they were abused at the hands of a Woodland Hills principal and school resource officer. ‘This is an iceberg,’ said Summer Lee, a Swissvale resident and an alumna of Woodland Hills High School who was among those chanting and waving signs outside the Allegheny County Courthouse. ‘That means there’s more underneath.'” Related from TribLive: Woodland Hills board hires PR firm for $350 per hour. Commentary from Braddock mayor John Fetterman on Twitter: “PR Tip #1: School personnel should avoid telling students ‘I’m gonna knock your f’ing teeth down your throat.'”

Christine Flowers for Philly.com: “I warned you about Larry Krasner, but you didn’t listen”

“Krasner, of the seven Democratic candidates for this office, was the scariest. He deliberately traveled with those who attack the police, who challenge the idea that drugs laws are necessary, who think that the death penalty should be reserved only for the innocent victims of crime and not the perpetrators, and who think the Constitution is, as a great judge once argued it was not, a suicide pact. That, in fact, is what I think Philadelphians did on primary night: They killed the good, decent part of the civic society that believes in accountability for the guilty and justice for the aggrieved. Perhaps it’s wrong to blame all of Philadelphia for what happened, because only a small percent actually ventured out to slit our collective throats with their votes, but the result is the same: We are doomed.”

HEADLINES

(Criminal justice news to be aware of.)

A high school student from Saucon Valley High School is currently facing a civil lawsuit over racist intimidation of black students. Photo from The Morning Call. 

Pennsylvania

• The Morning Call: “Saucon Valley sued over allegations of racist intimidation of black students”
• ACLU: “ACLU of Pennsylvania Statement on Alleged Racial Harassment at Northampton County School”
• Philadelphia Weekly: “Toast in the machine: How the election upended Philly’s ward system”
• Philly.com: “Krasner, police union spar on day after primary election”
• Lancaster Online: “Former Lancaster city police Sgt. Ray Corll gets 7 to 23 months in prison for perjury”
• Courthouse News Service: “Dusting Off Espionage Charges, Physicist Sues FBI Agent”
• More from The Morning Call: “Report: Wealthy communities using Pennsylvania state police at expense of poorer municipalities”
• Also from The Morning Call: “6 former Pennsylvania prison guards accused of inmate abuse”
• Newsweek: “Which states will legalize marijuana next? Pennsylvania marijuana industry could replace vanishing steel jobs”
• The Intercept: “Republican immigration bill threatens to turn millions of people into criminals overnight”
• More Intercept: “Can the anti-Trump resistance take the Philadelphia DA’s office?”
• Slate: “Three Murders in Philadelphia”
• Post-Gazette: “Police cannot find victim in West Deer ethnic intimidation case”
• Newsworks: “Ex-offenders get out the vote for Philly DA race”
• CBS Philly: “Returning Citizens Help Get Out Vote For Philly’s DA Race”

National

• McClatchy DC: “Immigration officers detain man whose prison term was cut”
• CNN: “Tulsa officer acquitted in fatal shooting of Terence Crutcher”
• More from CNN: “Immigrant detainee dies in ICE custody”
• Charlotte Observer: “Charlotte murderer is going to prison for life; will he serve it in solitary?”
• Associate Press: “Las Vegas police say officer used stun gun 7 times, martial arts chokehold on unarmed man who died”
• ShadowProof: “Immigrants in Georgia detentions centers put in solitary for hunger strikes, demanding medical treatment”
• NPR: “Chelsea Manning, once sentenced to 35 years, walks free after 7 years”
• The Intercept: “Don’t lionize James Comey. The FBI did some terrible things under him.”

Trump Criminal Justice Watch

• Fair: “Media Are Literally Copy-and-Pasting ICE Press Releases”
• Politico: “The ACLU’s Radical Plan to Fight Jeff Sessions”
• Post-Gazette: “Ruth Ann Dailey: Just say no to Sessions memo”
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement: “ICE ERO immigration arrests climb to nearly 40 percent”
• Human Rights Watch: “US Congress: Reject Draconian Anti-Immigration Bill”
• The Hill: “Drug War Part 2: When the sequel is as bad as the original”
• NPR: ‘It’s Falling Out Of The Trees,’ Former Prosecutor Says Of Obstruction Evidence”
• Washington Examiner: “Rand Paul sees ‘uphill battle’ for criminal justice reform under Trump”

The Appeal is a weekly newsletter keeping you informed about criminal justice news in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and beyond. It is written and compiled by Matt Stroud, ACLU-PA’s criminal justice researcher, and Midge Carter, ACLU-PA’s summer intern.

If you have suggestions for links or criminal justice-related work that you’d like to highlight in The Appeal — or ways that we might improve — please email Matt Stroud at mstroud@aclupa.org. And if someone forwarded this email to you, and you’d like to receive it every Friday, you can subscribe here.

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