ACLU Comment on President Obama’s Ban on Militarization Pipeline to Police

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Civil Liberties Union, the Institute for Justice, ACLU affiliates from ten states, and survivors of federal law enforcement abuse are on Capitol Hill this week for the ACLU’s third annual Community Safety Week, calling on Congress to pass legislation to ensure accountability when law enforcement officers violate constitutional rights. Community Safety Week comes at a moment of escalating threats to public safety from the Trump administration. Last year, the Department of Justice slashed about $500 million dollars in federal grants to organizations working to deliver safety and justice. Meanwhile, the administration is siphoning money to expand their reckless mass deportation campaign. Communities across the country are facing the consequences, as federal agents tear through communities, making unlawful arrests, and brutalizing families and people exercising their First Amendment rights. At the same time, existing civil rights laws leave little recourse for people whose constitutional rights are violated by law enforcement officers. Without meaningful consequences, reckless and abusive behavior is more likely to continue. Advocates urged Congress to act now to close this accountability gap. “I’m here because families like mine deserve justice when law enforcement violates our rights,” said Teyana Gibson Brown, a lead plaintiff in a case challenging unlawful federal enforcement practices in Minneapolis. “Masked and heavily armed ICE agents used a battering ram to illegally break into my home, point guns at my family, arrest my husband, and put all of our lives in danger, including my nine-year-old daughter. No family should have to go through what we did, and we deserve to have our day in court to make that clear.” Throughout the week, advocates met with members of Congress to advance two pieces of legislation that would create clear pathways to hold law enforcement officers accountable for constitutional violations, the Bivens Act and the Constitutional Accountability Act. “The Trump administration has created a recipe for disaster: flooding our streets with militarized agents and encouraging violence, all while telling them they can’t be held accountable for the harm they cause,” said Nicole Ndumele, director of the ACLU’s Policy and Government Affairs, Justice Division. “No one should be above the law, including federal agents. When government officials violate people’s rights, there must be a clear path to accountability, just as there would be for anyone else. With the vast majority of Americans demanding justice, now is the time for Congress to take meaningful action to protect civil rights and community safety.” Recent polling from the ACLU shows that by more than a 4-to-1 margin, Americans across political lines support stronger police accountability measures. “Whether it’s ATF agents violating the Second Amendment, ICE violating the Fourth, or the IRS violating the First,” said Patrick Jaicomo, director of the Institute for Justice’s Project on Immunity and Accountability. “Individuals who have their rights violated by federal officials must have a remedy in federal courts. It’s long past time for Congress to place federal officials on the same accountability footing as their state counterparts.”

Researchers asked experienced police supervisors to rate police reports, some of which were written by humans and some by AI

MEMPHIS – The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, and Quarles & Brady LLP, filed a lawsuit today challenging the state’s denial of fingerprint testing in the case of Tony Carruthers, a potentially innocent man on death row whom the state plans to execute on May 21. The lawsuit, brought under Section 1983, challenges the recent denial of a motion to test unidentified fingerprint evidence that does not match Mr. Carruthers. The complaint also challenges the court’s refusal to consider new evidence that the prosecutors hid the fact that its main witness was a paid confidential informant as well as a 2011 statement from the now-released co-defendant exonerating Mr. Carruthers and pointing to an alternate suspect. Forensic testing in Mr. Carruthers’ case is critical to determining if the state convicted the right person. Mr. Carruthers’ conviction was based on speculative testimony of a paid informant. There has never been any physical evidence linking Mr. Carruthers to the crime and he has maintained his innocence for the 30 years he’s been on death row. Meanwhile, there is unidentified DNA on evidence found with the victims and six fingerprints recovered from the crime scene that do not match Mr. Carruthers. One of the individuals responsible for the murders stated in 2011 that Mr. Carruthers was not involved and instead pointed investigators to another man. None of the unidentified forensic evidence has ever been tested against this alternative suspect. Earlier this month, the ACLU filed a motion in the Tennessee Supreme Court demanding that the DNA evidence be tested. In September 2021, Mr. Carruthers filed a motion seeking comparison of the fingerprint evidence to the alternative suspect. The fingerprint motion was denied on April 16, with the court relying on procedural rules to ignore the significant new evidence. A decision on the DNA motion is still pending, and if the Tennessee Supreme Court denies this critical testing, the federal civil rights complaint will be amended to include the DNA claims. “The state of Tennessee cannot execute a man unless it is absolutely sure that he is guilty of the crime he is accused of. Tony’s execution would be a gross miscarriage of justice that is entirely avoidable with basic forensic testing,” said Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. “The state holds DNA and fingerprint evidence that could help determine who committed this crime, but instead of testing it, it is prioritizing finality over the truth. This refusal is especially concerning in a case where for 30 years the state hid evidence about the status of its confidential informant, whose false grand jury testimony was the sole basis for the state to seek an indictment. Refusing to test this evidence before killing someone who may be innocent should be chilling to us all.” Key aspects of the state’s case went unchallenged at trial because Mr. Carruthers was forced to represent himself and had to proceed without a lawyer. His jury was never told about the unidentified prints and DNA, that Mr. Carruthers’ prints and DNA were not found at the house, or that the person who is most likely responsible for the crime has never been compared to the available forensic evidence. Mr. Carruthers’ co-defendant was granted a new trial directly due to the prejudice stemming from Mr. Carruthers’ forced self-representation and was later offered and accepted a plea deal to reduced charges. He was released in late 2015, while Mr. Carruthers is facing execution in less than a month. Read more about Mr. Carruthers’ case here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/tony-von-carruthers-v-state-of-tennessee Read the clemency petition here: https://www.aclu.org/documents/carruthers-clemency-petition

NEW YORK – A new report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Policing Project at New York University School of Law finds that the United States’ current approach to traffic safety has failed to reduce roadway deaths, while imposing significant financial and human costs on communities. The report, Safe Roads for All: Evidence-Based Strategies for Keeping Our Roadways Safe, calls for a transformation in road safety policy to one that more effectively advances safety and equity. “Using traffic stops as a policing tool is completely ineffective in terms of reducing crime or advancing public safety, and excessive stops are a true threat to civil rights and liberties,” said Emily Reina Dindial, senior policy counsel at the ACLU. “We should not have to choose between safe roads and our constitutional rights, and this report makes clear that there are myriad road safety strategies that achieve both. Lawmakers must commit to these smarter safety strategies.” Each year, more than 40,000 people are killed and more than 2 million injured in preventable car crashes. Despite a growing body of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of common-sense infrastructural and road design measures, traffic safety strategies in this country have largely focused instead on individual enforcement through high-volume police stops and ticketing. The report finds that this approach fails to prevent injuries and deaths from car crashes and in fact puts people at risk of harmful encounters with police. Ticketing practices that prioritize revenue generation over road safety also trap millions of people in inescapable cycles of fines, fees, and debt. "We owe it to our communities to use the most effective and equitable strategies to prioritize safe mobility for all. The ideas in this report can help us get there," said Leah Shahum, Founder and Executive Director of the Vision Zero Network. The report highlights a number of alternative approaches that can more effectively reduce crashes and save lives, such as street design improvements, incentives for vehicular safety and safe driving, thoughtful use of technology, and shifts in police responses to minor traffic issues. “Pretextual traffic enforcement is an outdated political relic from the War on Drugs that doesn't make our roads or our communities any safer,” said Scarlet Neath, Director of Reimagining Public Safety at the Policing Project. “If lawmakers are serious about preventing avoidable traffic deaths, they should prioritize evidence-based policies - like speed reduction policies and smarter roadway design - that have a proven safety impact.” The report offers a roadmap for policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels, including recommendations to: Limit incentives for, and discretion to, conduct non-safety stops Restrict ticketing practices and/or potential revenue from ticketing practices. Reduce speeds and crashes using roadway redesign and speed reduction policies. Pilot models for civilian traffic enforcement. The full report is available at: https://www.aclu.org/documents/safe-roads-for-all