Prof. Murray Quoted in NACDL Press Release about Trial Penalty Clemency Cases

Professor JaneAnne Murray, the Director of the Law School's Clemency Project, and also Director of the Trial Penalty Clemency Project of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), was quoted in a press release issued by NACDL to accompany its delivery of five more trial penalty clemency cases to the Office of the Pardon Attorney and the White House, adding to the previous ten submitted between October and November, which are still awaiting action by the White House.The sentences of these five individuals, as compared to the sentences of their co-defendants or to the plea offers extended to them, represent over 150 years of punishment solely because they exercised their Sixth Amendment right to go to trial.  This type of punishment, known as the trial penalty, has become a defining feature of the modern American criminal legal system.  Murray notes: "In the cases we are submitting today, we once again see prosecutorial use of mandatory minimum sentences and recidivist enhancements to produce sentences that are typically imposed on convicted murderers. It is critical to limit unbridled prosecutorial abuse of sentencing provisions to ensure that accused persons may freely exercise their right to go to trial, and to bring sanity and individualization back to federal sentencing."