ABA Criminal Justice Section E-News May 2008 (Vol. 3)

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CHAIR’S MESSAGEgg

Stephen Saltzburg

Section Rolls-Out New Membership Growth Initiative I am pleased to join with Cheryl Jacobs and Vincent Aprile, the Co-Chairs of the Section Membership and Awards Committee, in announcing a new campaign, The Race to 10K, which seeks to bring 10,000 lawyers into the Criminal Justice Section by August 31, 2008. Attorney and law student membership has been growing at a fast pace during the last two and a half years, moving the Section toward record membership numbers in both categories.  As recently as May 2005, the Criminal Justice Section had 6,241 attorneys. The current attorney membership stands at 8,443 attorneys and we believe that by the end of this fiscal year we can bring that number to 10,000 lawyer members.  This Section-wide endeavor will require the help of every council member, every committee chair and every member of the Criminal Justice Section to reach out to criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and academics inside and outside the ABA and ask them to join our dynamic section. The Criminal Justice Section seeks to be the unified voice for criminal justice in America. Greater lawyer membership numbers for the ABA Criminal Justice Section needs will assist the Section to more effectively serve as the unified voice on criminal justice matters.  How can members help?  Criminal Justice Section members can utilize and adapt letters found on our website to send to their colleagues and associates that are not members of the ABA Criminal Justice Section and ask them to join us. One letter is for individuals who are not ABA members and one letter is for individuals who are ABA members, but not of the Criminal Justice Section. (A summary of member benefit and enrollment form can be included in your letter.) The letters should be sent on June 1, 2008 or after because after June 1, new ABA members receive membership during the remaining months of this fiscal year ending in August and all of the next year beginning in September.   Thank you in advance for supporting this important Section program. We look forward to celebrating a successful Race to 10K.

NEWS g

Highlights of 2008 Spring Conference in Charleston

CJS receives Child Victim Rights Project Grant

The Criminal Justice Section will spearhead the work on a grant submitted by the American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education which has been approved for funding by the Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime. The grant is designed to assist legal professionals to improve the status of child victims in the criminal justice system. The project will be completed in the Spring of 2009.

Historically, child victims have been unrepresented and unheard in criminal justice proceedings.  Their unique needs and assertable rights have only recently been recognized. Children are often at the center of competing concerns in criminal proceedings. Yet, enforcement of their individual concerns remains an aspiration in these cases. For example, under federal law, in criminal proceedings a court may appoint a guardian ad litem for a child, however, this tool is rarely invoked. Lawyers have an important role in providing protection for a child’s rights. As the ABA wrote in its grant: “To begin to adequately assert and enforce child crime victims’ rights requires a sophisticated legal understanding of crime victims’ rights and how these rights intersect with constitutional law and jurisdictional law governing adult criminal prosecutions and juvenile delinquency proceedings.”

Through the Child Victims’ Rights Project, the Criminal Justice Section will seek to develop an awareness of the need for expertise in the enforcement of child victims’ rights, with a special focus on child victims of abuse. The project will disseminate knowledge through training, policy development, and technical assistance to attorneys and guardians ad litem nationwide. 

Advisory Board members for this project are and former Cook County, Illinois Judge Sheila Murphy; Southwestern University Law School Professor Myrna Raeder; Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Mary L. Boland; National Crime Victims Law Institute, Acting Director of Programs Meg Garvin; Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center Executive Director Russell Butler; and ABA Center on Children and the Law, Child and Adolescent Health Director Eva Klain. (By Mary L. Boland)

UPCOMING EVENTS g

ABA Annual Meeting

CJS CLEs and Meetings During the ABA Annual Meeting August 7-12, New York City Be sure and register for the ABA Annual Meeting before the May 30 early bird discount ends.  The registration fee is currently $450 (registration/All access CLE) and will increase to $595 after that date.  The registration-only fee is $175 and will increase to $320 after.  See http://www.abanet.org/annual/2008/

Other Events (visit Section Calendar for a full listing)

May 21	U.S. Antitrust Law and Global Enforcement, Chicago, IL
May 21-23	Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Orlando, FL
June 11-13	Civil False Claims Act and Qui Tam Enforcement