It has certainly been a momentous week of Supreme Court decisions, and in the massive excitement about upholding the Affordable Care Act and legalizing same-sex marriage, the mixed news in the criminal justice field may…
Dodging Decarceration: The Shell Game of ‘Getting Smart’ on Crime
by Heather Ann Thompson, Life of the Law Advisory Panel Scholar
Before we break out the champagne, or before we begin thinking that we are indeed on our way to a more humane criminal justice system, there is much that we might scrutinize more carefully. It is indeed too early to get excited about an end to mass incarceration.
It’s odd to think cannibals, cannabis-growers, Vietnam War protesters, and prison escapees all have something in common. But they do: the necessity defense. We explore the origins and uses of this rare long-shot defense argument, which says in essence, “Yes, I’m guilty of committing a crime. But I had no choice.”
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