GateHouse Media
November 9, 2018
Setting aside the bluster of soon-to-be House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi and President Donald Trump, the big winner on election night was
criminal justice reform. Ballot initiatives focused on softening the impact of
crime and punishment were successful in blue states and red states.
In Florida, voters approved Amendment 4, a measure that
restores voting rights for people who have completed their sentences after
being convicted of a felony, excluding those convicted of murder or certain sex
offenses.
According to Vox, the Sentencing Project, a non-profit
advocacy group, estimated that nearly 1.5 million people in Florida could not
vote in the midterm elections because of a conviction — about 9.2 percent of
the state’s voting age population.
Could those potential voters have had an impact on the very
competitive Governor and U.S. Senate races in Florida?
Marijuana advocates scored a number of substantial ballot
victories including Michigan, which became the 10th state in the nation to
approve recreational use of marijuana.
“Michigan will be the first state in the Midwest to end
marijuana prohibition and replace it with a system in which marijuana is
regulated for adult use,” Marijuana Policy Project deputy director Matthew
Schweich, told the Washington Post.
With the addition of Michigan, nearly 80 million Americans —
25 percent of the total U.S. population — live in a state or jurisdiction that
has legalized recreational marijuana. Medical marijuana was also approved by
voters in Missouri and Utah.
Not all news was good for marijuana advocates. North Dakota
voters overwhelmingly rejected an initiative that would have legalized
marijuana without setting any possession limits or regulatory structure.
In Ohio, voters rejected an initiative that would have
lessened the severity of some drug offenses.
Ohio prosecutors, judges, coroners and even Gov. John Kasich
urged a “no” vote on the proposal, which would have reduced certain drug
possession charges to misdemeanors. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the
measure failed by a margin of nearly two-to-one.
An initiative in Washington will make it less difficult for
prosecutors to pursue police officers who unlawfully use deadly force. Approval
of Initiative 940 means that prosecutors will no longer have to prove law
enforcement officers acted with “evil intent” or “malice” when considering
whether to file criminal charges such as manslaughter. According to the Seattle
Times, Washington was the only state with such restrictive language.
Abraham Lincoln once said “The ballot is stronger than the
bullet.” Colorado wasn’t on Lincoln’s mind when he said that, but on election
day — more than 150 years after the ratification of the 13th Amendment —
Colorado voters officially abolished slavery.
Colorado is one of more than a dozen states whose
Constitutions allow involuntary servitude as a form of criminal punishment.
Colorado will no longer permit prisoners to do slave labor, reported The Associated
Press.
A constitutional amendment to end non-unanimous jury
verdicts in Louisiana was approved by the state’s voters. Louisiana and Oregon
were the only states that permitted a less than unanimous verdict in a criminal
trial.
The less-than-unanimous verdict was rooted in the state’s
ardent racism that intensified after the Civil War and during the Jim Crow era.
The amendment was pushed through the Louisiana Legislature
with strong support from groups that rarely collaborate. On the right,
supporters included the Christian conservative, Louisiana Family Forum, and the
Koch Brother’s political organization, Americans for Prosperity. On the left,
supporters included the American Civil Liberties Union and Innocence Project
New Orleans.
Voters in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Nevada, North Carolina
and Oklahoma approved a ballot measure known as Marsy’s Law — the so-called
crime victim’s bill of rights.
Marsy’s Law aims to ensure that victims and their family
members are informed about all criminal proceedings, present and heard, and
protected from the accused.
Finally, in the wake of the GOP’s election day loss of the
House — a notable casualty surfaced in the criminal justice system — President
Trump asked his embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign. He agreed,
and so begins a new chapter in the tumultuous investigation of Russia, the
president, the White House and the president’s advisors.
— Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett,
Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner’s Toll, 2010 was released by
McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him
on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.
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