Eric Holder Rips The Death Penalty
Read More At: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2014/11/17/eric-holder-on-his-legacy-his-regrets-and-his-feelings-about-the-death-penalty http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119734/debate-over-eri.
By: Secular Talk
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Eric Holder Rips The Death Penalty - Video
This interview was reported for The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that just launched. For more criminal justice news produced and curated by The Marshall Project, sign up for their email. You can also like them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.
Bill Keller and Tim Golden of The Marshall Project spoke with Holder in Brooklyn, where he was visiting a widely praised drug court. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
The Marshall Project: Youve been pretty outspoken on criminal justice issues across the board more outspoken than your boss, actually. What would you single out as your proudest accomplishment in the area of the criminal justice system, and what would you single out as your biggest disappointment?
Holder: In January 2013 I told the people in the Justice Department after the re-election that I wanted to focus on reforming the federal criminal justice system. I made an announcement in August of that year in San Francisco, when we rolled out the Smart on Crime initiative. It was a way of breaking some really entrenched thinking and asking prosecutors, investigators, the bureaucracy to think about how we do our jobs in a different way to ask the question of whether excessively long prison sentences for nonviolent offenders really served any good purpose, how we used enhancement papers, moving discretion to prosecutors and asking them to make individualized determinations about what they should do in cases, as opposed to have some big policy sent to them from Washington.
And I think that by and large not without opposition, to be totally honest the federal system has embraced that vision. And I think that we have started to see the kind of changes that I hoped we would see.
And the biggest disappointment?
Im proud of the fact that in 2010, I guess we reduced that ratio, the crack-powder ratio from 100-to-1 to about 17- or 18-to-1. Im still disappointed that, given the lack of a pharmacological distinction between crack and cocaine, the ratio is not 1-to-1. You know, it was the product of a lot of hard work that the president was intimately involved in. But I think he would agree with me that that number should be at 1-to-1.
Before the second term is over, could there be a push for a 1-to-1 ratio?
That is something that I know the president believes in, that I believe in. One of the things that Id like to see happen before the end of this administration is that there would be a drug court in every district in this country. As I speak to my successor, the 83rd attorney general, and as I speak to the president, Im going to push them to make that a goal for this administration, to have a drug court in every district by the end of Barack Obamas second term.
While were on the subject of drugs, a lot of people, including your choice to be the head of the Civil Rights Division, have pointed out that marijuana accounts for an awful lot of the excessive incarceration in this country, and a fair amount of the disproportionate numbers of African-Americans who are in that system. Youve held back from calling for marijuana decriminalization. What holds you back?
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Eric Holder Shares His Feelings On The Death Penalty
Eric Holder (Associated Press) more >
Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday praised political foes Charles and David Koch after learning the conservative billionaires recently made a hefty donation to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Theres a justice gap, Mr. Holder said in an interview with the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that covers criminal justice issues, The Hill reported. And to hear that the Koch brothers would be contributing money in that way is something that I think should be applauded.
Mr. Holder said he was not aware of the Koch donation before the interview.
Thats a good thing to hear, he added, people from very different places along the ideological spectrum understanding that we have to make our criminal justice system more fair.
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers released a statement last month saying that the nonprofit was chosen to get a major grant from Koch Industries, Inc., to support the groups efforts to provide indigent defense, Politico reported.
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Eric Holder says Koch brothers 'should be applauded'
The Alex Jones Show(2nd HOUR VIDEO Commercial Free) Tuesday November 11 2014: Watson Cal
Veterans Day -- Date: 11/11/2014 -- -- SUBSCRIBE TO PRISONPLANET.TV -- -Today - On the Tuesday, November 11 Veterans Day edition of the Alex Jones Show, Jones breaks. Eric Holder to Create.
By: Eugene Wallace
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The Alex Jones Show(2nd HOUR VIDEO Commercial Free) Tuesday November 11 2014: Watson & Cal - Video
Heres something you probably never expected to hear: Eric Holder says the Koch brothers should be applauded.
In an extensive interview with the Marshall Project the outgoing U.S. Attorney General praised the libertarian billionaires for donating a substantial amount to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) to bolster the groups indigent client defense efforts.
After admitting he was not aware of such financial contributions before the interview, Holder said: Thats a good thing to hear people from very different places along the ideological spectrum understanding that we have to make our criminal justice system more fair.
The top lawyer lamented how even though it has been 50 years since a landmark Supreme Court case requiring states to provide legal defense for clients unable to afford counsel, many people still do not have their legal needs fulfilled.
Theres a justice gap, he continued. And to hear that the Koch brothers would be contributing money in that way is something that I think should be applauded.
And, oh, hey, speaking of the Koch brothers and criminal justice reform: Back in July, Mediaite hosted a panel event sponsored by the Charles Koch Institute on that very subject, featuring panelists like Texas NAACP head Gary Bledsoe, former NYPD commish-turned-reformer Bernard Kerik, and NACDL executive director Norman Reimer.
The ultimate conclusion: Criminal justice reform is an issue of great importance that should galvanize the right into action as much as it does the left.
Relive that event below:
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Eric Holder: Koch Brothers Should Be Applauded