US Attorneys, Defense Bar Criticize Sessions Directive
Former U.S. attorneys and criminal defense lawyers on Friday criticized a new Department of Justice directive instructing federal prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges that they can prove.
May 12, 2017 at 06:02 PM
4 minute read
Former U.S. attorneys and criminal defense lawyers on Friday criticized a new Department of Justice directive instructing federal prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges that they can prove.
The new policy, outlined Wednesday in a one-and-a-half page memo from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, would strip prosecutors of the discretion afforded them under the Obama administration and lead to longer sentences and more defendants behind bars, the attorneys said.
“This Attorney General has taken away the discretion of professional prosecutors to determine what sentence serves justice in any given case,” Barry J. Pollack, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said in a statement. “Instead, prosecutors are now required in every case mindlessly to seek the maximum possible penalty.
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