15 Minutes with FIJA - 8 August 2022
Session Notes from 8 August 2022
Most Mondays FIJA hosts a brief Zoom session covering highlights of recent jury-related news and how i intersects with jury nullification as well as FIJA goings on and other related items of interest we come across. It is followed by a short Q&A session to address any questions about the session topics or other jury-related questions. This is a brief summary of the presentation on 1 August 2022, not including the Q&A.
Click here to register for the live sessions through the end of December 2022.
New San Francisco DA Seems to Be Ramping Up War on Drugs in Spite of Jury Trial Crisis
In recent weeks, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has taken several steps signalling that her office may be returning to failed drug war policies despite the constitutional speedy trial crisis currently taking place in San Francisco.
The latest such policy announcement came just found days ago when Jenkins announced that her office was revoking more than 30 misdemeanor plea deals made under recalled former DA Chesa Boudin’s office in cases of victimless drug offenses. Jenkins plans to replace these plea agreements with ones amping up the charges to felony level and most likely requiring jail time as part of the agreement.
Going forward, under the new policies announced, the district attorney’s office will be seeking pre-trial detention in more cases. This announcement contained absolutely no information on how much this was expected to exacerbate the speedy trial crisis or any steps that would be taken to mitigate the problem.
San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju issued a statement from his office warning that:
Seeking pretrial detention for more people will only intensify the public health crisis in our jails which are in the midst of a record COVID outbreak, and the constitutional crisis in our courts where hundreds of people are waiting for trials past their speedy trial deadline.
Raju was one of five plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in September last year protesting the government’s failure to fulfill its Constitutionally and statutorily requirement to provide speedy trials to hundreds of people accused of crimes, including more than 100 held in jail past the speedy trial deadline. That lawsuit was denied last May by the court in which it was filed. At the time, Raju noted that it did at least manage to get all the courtrooms in the courthouse open, but problems persisted in getting cases moving.
San Francisco D.A. revokes plea deals, toughens policies on fentanyl cases, Los Angeles Times, 4 August 2022
SF DA seeks return to the failed approach of the War on Drugs, 48 Hills, 4 August 2022
Public Defender Mano Raju Warns DA Jenkins’s Drug Policies Will Lead to Worse Community Health Outcomes, San Francisco Public Defender, 3 August 2022
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins Announces New Policy to Hold Drug Dealers Accountable; Revokes Misdemeanor Plea Offers for Fentanyl Dealers, San Francisco District Attorney, 8 August 2022
Dozens Rally Outside the Hall of Justice Denouncing Court Violations of People’s Speedy Trial Rights, San Francisco Public Defender, 21 September 2021
Civil Asset Forfeiture Updates
Reason magazine’s Jacob Sullum recently reported on a double standard in Harris County, Texas. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg is patting herself on the back for her office recommending that a 25-year sentence secured for a fictional meth deal that never took place based on the false testimony of a dirty cop. Sullum points out, however, that the victim of that false testimony was at least SUPPOSED to enjoy due process—something that is completely eliminated from the process of asset forfeiture that Ogg’s office benefited from in another made-up drug case. Harris County is currently the subject of a lawsuit by the Institute for Justice over its abusive forfeiture practices.
Bipartisan asset forfeiture reform may soon be in play in Michigan where lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are calling once again for asset forfeiture to be restricted. Their interest in reforms seems to be in response to a WXYZ News 7 investigation of a Highland Park building of over 13000 square feet seized by the government in 2020 and held for 18 months with no criminal charges ever filed. News 7 learned through its investigation that Highland Park officials held the building hostage as they tried to coerce the owners into forking out $70,000 for new squad cars in exchange for the return of the building.
State Sen. Jeff Irwin, a Democrat from Ann Arbor, and State Rep. Steven Johnson, a Republican from Wayland both spoke to News 7 clearly opposing this abuse. They point out that since asset forfeiture reform in 2019 in Michigan, the government first has to prove you are guilty of a crime before they take your property valued at $50,000 or below, but no criminal conviction is needed if they confiscate property valued more than that.
This sets up a perverse incentive for government officials to engage in increasingly abusive forfeitures to avoid the high burden of proof that comes with a trial by jury or other criminal conviction.
Prosecutors Who Want Credit for Investigating Police Corruption Are Happy To Steal Money From Innocent People, Reason, 4 August 2022
After Highland Park building 'shakedown,' lawmakers want forfeiture loopholes closed, WXYZ Detroit, 22 July 2022
FIJA Features
Jury Nullification 101: What Is It and How Do You Use It?, 9 August 2022, noon-1:30 pm Eastern
Jury Rights Day, 5 September 2022