WASHINGTON (AP) – The Latest on Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ directive to seek toughest charges possible (all times local):
9:20 a.m.
The head of a defense attorneys organization says Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ directive that prosecutors pursue tougher charges against suspects has stripped them of their ability to seek justice.
Barry Pollack, of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, says the new policy will “yield unfair results” and marks a return to the failed policies of past administrations.
Sessions’ memo released Friday reverses Obama-era policies that aimed to show lenience to lower level drug offenders and ease federal prison overcrowding. Prosecutors are to seek the most serious charges, which are likely to send more people to prison for longer terms.
Pollack says Sessions’ policy sounds a lot like those of the drug war that “caused mass incarceration, devastated families and communities and failed to make us any safer.”
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6:00 a.m.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is telling the nation’s federal prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible against most suspects. That is sure to send more people to prison and for much longer terms by triggering mandatory minimum sentences.
Sessions announced the move in a policy memo sent to U.S. attorneys. It’s long been expected from the former prosecutor who has made fighting violent crime the Justice Department’s priority.
The change undoes Obama administration policies aimed at easing prison overcrowding and showing leniency for lower-level drug offenders.
Critics of the shift say it will revive the worst aspects of the drug war. But Sessions has said a spike in violence in some big cities shows the need for a return to tougher tactics.