Criminal Justice

Beyond the Torture Debate

Communications — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:30:00 -0400

A New America Event
05/06/2008 - 3:30pm

On May 6th the American Strategy Program hosted an event with Philippe Sands, Professor of International Law at University College London and Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff for Colon Powell. Mr. Sands was in DC to testify to the House Judiciary Committee about the findings in his new book, Torture Team, which examines the legal implications of the Bush administration’s policy of torture. Col. Wilkerson was on hand for commentary on the subject. The event was moderated by Patrick Doherty, deputy director of the American Strategy program.

Mr. Doherty began the event by declaring the legalization of torture, “a dark and dismal period in American history.” After a brief introduction, Mr. Sands paraphrased his book, which is the story of a single memo, signed by Donald Rumsfeld, authorizing the use of coercive interrogation techniques on Guantanamo detainees. Mr. Sands offered his expertise in international and human rights law to this topic. He stated that “a conscious decision was made to put aside the Geneva Convention” by Rumsfeld and the administration’s legal team, which violated international law. Mr. Sands shared the sense of deep concern abroad that American leadership violated international law and attempted to cover up this violation with legal documents. Mr. Sands then expressed his optimism that America was capable of self-correcting, would find out the truth and require accountability at the highest levels. His recent experience at the House Judiciary Committee confirmed that America was concerned with justice and returning to its core values.

Col. Wilkerson agreed with Mr. Sands claim that a crime was committed, there was a cover up, and that there will be accountability. He opined that there was a need to demilitarize U.S. foreign presence abroad by balancing military personnel with diplomatic. Col Wilkerson also expressed concern about the international view of America at present; “The rest of the world judges us not by what we say, but what we do, and what we’ve been doing has not been good.”

-Faith Smith, American Strategy Intern

T.A. Frank

Operations — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:10:00 -0400

FellowAs a California-based Fellow at the New America Foundation, T.A. Frank writes about law, criminal justice, and labor. With a robust technology sector, busy ports, and a changing economy, California is faced with new sorts of crime, such as terrorism, cybercrime, and financial fraud. Mr. Frank will explore issues such as how prosecutors set their priorities, how police are approaching crime, which crimes are occurring, and what sort of rehabilitation works. Developments in California's labor market are equally far-reaching. As the state makes the transition to a postindustrial economy, with information technology propelling growth, trade increasing, and manufacturing steadily declining,… more

The Fog of War Crimes

adminn — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:00:00 -0500

A Marine squad was on a dusty road in Iraq, far from home. Suddenly, a deadly roadside bomb explodes the early morning calm and kills a lance corporal and wounds two other Marines. The mission: tend to the wounded and find those who were responsible … Or make someone pay? Three sleeping families awaken to the sound of grenades and guns.

By the end of the "operation," 24 people were dead, including three women and six children. Bullets, fired at close range, tore through bodies and lodged deep in walls. A one-legged elderly man was shot nine times in the chest… more

Nowhere -- and No Way -- to Hide

Articles — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:06:00 -0500

Privacy doesn't mean anonymity. Think about that for a bit -- and get used to it.

Or if you don't like it, get a plan. But it had better be a good one.

On Oct. 23, Donald Kerr, deputy director of the Office of National Intelligence, outlined the new order of things: "Too often, privacy has been equated with anonymity; and it's an idea that is deeply rooted in American culture." Well, yes, the Bill of Rights, for instance, includes protections against "search," as well as "seizure." But that was then. As Kerr put it, "In our interconnected and wireless world, anonymity… more

Disparities

Articles — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:16:00 -0400

Just over a year ago, during a high-school assembly in Jena, Louisiana, a black student asked the school’s white principal if it would be all right to sit under an oak tree outside, an oasis of shade known as the “white tree,” because only Caucasian students congregated there. The principal said that the young man could sit where he liked. Later, the student and some African-American friends walked over to the oak and chatted with some white schoolmates. The next day, somebody fixed two nooses to the tree’s branches.

The ropes inaugurated a narrative of conflict and small-town justice in the… more

Duped

Articles — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 03:05:00 -0400

The most egregious liar I ever knew was someone I never suspected until the day that, suddenly and irrevocably, I did. Twelve years ago, a young man named Stephen Glass began writing for The New Republic, where I was an editor. He quickly established himself as someone who was always onto an amusingly outlandish story -- like the time he met some Young Republican types at a convention, gathered them around a hotel-room minibar, then, with guileless ferocity, captured their boorishness in print. I liked Steve; most of us who worked with him did. A baby-faced guy from suburban Chicago,… more

'Two Americas?' Not for Paris and Scooter

Articles — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:47:00 -0400

John Edwards, the millionaire turned populist, suggests that the Paris Hilton case bolsters his argument that there are "two Americas." Of course, for presidential candidate Edwards, targeting the left end of the Democratic Party, everything proves that there are two Americas.

Certainly, Edwards himself proves there is more than one America. After all, not too many of us put their millions into overseas investments, are paid $500,000 a year to advise a hedge fund and enjoy $400 haircuts.

But what about the implication of Edwards’ argument -- reinforced by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who said last week that the Hilton case had… more

Crime or Punishment

Articles — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:28:00 -0500

Sacramento lawmakers are in a trap. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton will decide in little more than three months whether to set a population cap on the state’s vastly overcrowded prison system, potentially forcing the early release of thousands of convicted criminals. To keep the court at bay, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked the Legislature to approve billions in new prison construction money, and to consider revising sentencing and parole laws to put fewer criminals behind bars.

The trap is this: California voters want criminals locked up, as they demonstrated again last year when they overwhelmingly passed an initiative that toughened… more

Human Failings

Articles — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 19:39:00 -0500

The crowning disgrace of this country’s five-year experiment with one-party Republican rule was surely the passage of a bill on September 29, that sanctioned abusive treatment of prisoners in the "war on terror," banned habeas corpus claims for those identified as "enemy combatants," and allowed the president to place that designation on anyone, including U.S. citizens.

Even with their president’s approval ratings at Nixonian levels, and their own sinking below that, congressional Republicans were able to muster one last grand gesture of disciplined subservience to their only master, power itself. Their logic was best expressed by Senator Arlen Specter, who declared,… more

Behind the Bars

Articles — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 22:33:00 -0400

Prison design is about as unglamorous as architecture can get. Corrections agencies want the cheapest cage they can buy; communities want the monstrosities out of sight. Innovation has typically meant anything that will cut costs -- for instance, casting an entire prefabricated cell, from the bed frame to the toilet, as a single piece of low-grade concrete. But when British nonprofit Rideout (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation) approached the architect Will Alsop about designing a concept prison -- from the inside out -- he jumped at the chance. If prisons are meant to make troubled men and women into citizens, he… more