AG Kathy Jennings Comes Out Strong–REAL Strong

Maybe, just maybe, we have one statewide elected official worth their salt.  It’s too early to say for sure, but Attorney General Jennings provided some real hope yesterday.

First, she joined 15 other state Attorneys General in challenging the constitutionality of Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency. From the press release:

In a section of the complaint regarding potential harm to Delaware, the complaint states, “The diversion of any funding from Delaware’s National Guard, Dover Air Force Base, and any other military construction project, drug interdiction, or other law enforcement program in the State of Delaware will harm Delaware residents by depleting Delaware’s economy and draining the State of Delaware of needed fiscal resources.”

Attorney General Jennings said the president’s actions are an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches and cannot be allowed.

“We cannot devolve into a system where Congress chooses not to fund something and the president – whoever it is in the White House – simply can grab other funds to do what he wants,” Attorney General Jennings said. “Everyone from the Founding Fathers to members of Congress to seventh-grade social studies students know that’s not the way it is supposed to work, and that it is dangerous to start down that road.”

Yes, that’s great. But Matt Denn would almost certainly have done the same.

However, here’s where Jennings demonstrates that her campaign platform was more than mere rhetoric.  She has installed sweeping changes to prosecutorial guidelines, and, IMHO, they’re all to the good:

Citing incarceration and recidivism rates that outstrip the national average, an unprecedented opioid epidemic, and a groundswell of public support for reform, Attorney General Kathy Jennings announced Monday morning more than 30 internal protocols and positions for the Department of Justice’s handling of issues from charging and sentencing to probation, bail, and expungements.

Key provisions of the memo include:

• Support for pretrial practices that deemphasize cash bail for routine misdemeanors
• Guidance to avoid unjust “stacking” of minimum mandatory sentences and to reduce requests for the Courts to declare a defendant a habitual offender in order to increase sentences, especially with non-violent crimes
• Policies that aim to address the opioid epidemic by relying on mental health and drug treatment needs before prison sentences
• Emphasis on diversion and alternatives to prosecution for several categories of low-level offenses, including simple possession of marijuana and prostitution
• Consideration of alternatives to prison that limit collateral consequences while accounting for public safety, such as house arrest
• Emphasis on judicial discretion in sentencing, shorter sentencing recommendations, probation in lieu of some prison sentences, and recommending judges limit probation to one year in most scenarios
• Opposition to the issuance of warrants and driving license revocation for failure to pay fines and fees when the accused is without the ability to pay
• Consideration of collateral consequences for undocumented victims and witnesses
• Juvenile justice provisions that encourage extended Family Court jurisdiction and discourage trying children as adults except when necessary
• Support for expungements for crimes that are now legal, and for nonviolent charges in which a nolle prosequi (a decision not to pursue charges) has been entered on the basis of insufficient evidence
• Support for pardons for isolated, non-violent crimes when the applicant has demonstrated sufficient rehabilitation.

While these are ‘presumptive guidelines’, and prosecutors may appeal them in certain cases, Jennings made clear that she intends to pursue many of these goals via legislation:

Attorney General Jennings said internal reform is only the first step of many toward a more fair and equal criminal justice system. The Attorney General said she will work with legislators, community advocates and law enforcement on a number of changes to state criminal code this year that will also lead to better outcomes than current laws.

Might I strongly suggest that the AG put an end to police just stealing stuff from suspects who have been neither charged or convicted of offense as an additional goal?  Civil forfeitures are unjust and cause dire economic hardships for people who don’t even end up being tried in a court of law. Yes, I digress, but it’s an important digression.

I’ve got to say, though, that what Jennings has done here is admirable.  As long as she channels her ‘inner Chris Johnson’, we’ll have ourselves an outstanding AG.