This Article examines the relationship between two core principles of American criminal law. On one hand, ignorance of the law is no excuse. On the other hand, criminal liability requires […]

Federal prosecutors’ mantra is “when in doubt, charge wire fraud.”  Section 1343 can be applied to any scheme to defraud—a capacious term that encompasses everything from computer scams to bribery […]

Who qualifies as a “victim” is the foundational question for the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (“CVRA” or “Act”) and other crime victims’ rights laws. This article provides the first comprehensive […]

We live in an era of extremely long prison sentences, visibly excruciating executions, and violence-plagued prisons. We also live in an era of penological judicial restraint, which manifests through the […]

In the wake of high-profile killings and abuse by police officers over the past few years, the public has come to expect that officers will be equipped with body-worn cameras […]

The criminal justice system bills defendants for the distribution of justice. Defendants are subject to legal financial obligations at all stages of their case that can metastasize into unpayable debts. […]

There is a longstanding debate over the propriety of corporate deferred and non-prosecution agreements, those semi-private settlements entered into between prosecutors and companies under criminal investigation. That debate is occurring […]

Horacio Estrada-Elias was a ninety-year-old prisoner with less than eighteen months to live due to congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and chronic kidney disease when he requested compassionate release. He […]

As communities across the United States have increasingly elected reform-minded prosecutors to lead their local district attorney’s offices, the broad discretion afforded to American prosecutors has faced unprecedented scrutiny. Opponents […]

Whether directly or indirectly, the American criminal legal system affects every person living in the United States. How we choose to criminalize and punish behavior speaks to what we value […]

This Preface, which introduces the American Criminal Law Review’s Symposium Issue on Reform-Minded Prosecution, begins by describing the power that prosecutors hold in the criminal legal system, which has historically […]

An increasing number of criminal legal system actors, including some prosecutors, have acknowledged that the so-called “overdose crisis” is a public health problem. Despite this narrative shift, some prosecutors are […]

Progressive prosecutors differ from their more traditional counterparts primarily in the way in which they make decisions. They tend to bind their discretionby announcing categorical policies rather than making fact-based […]

Elected progressive prosecutors face resistance on many fronts to their reforms of the overly harsh and racist criminal legal system. One of these forms of resistance is particularly corrosive—internal dissension […]

This Article addresses a question asked by many law students concerned about our flawed criminal legal system: should they become a prosecutor in an office run by a progressive prosecutor, […]

This Article challenges the narrative that the progressive prosecutor movement can meaningfully transform the criminal legal system and argues that the myopic focus on prosecutors as the solution to all […]

The progressive prosecutor movement offers many critical proposals to reform our criminal justice system. However, it has not been able to fully accomplish its goals in many jurisdictions because the […]