吃瓜大本营

Whether the 鈥渄ual-sovereignty鈥� exception to the Double Jeopardy Clause鈥攚hereby a state and the federal government can each prosecute a person for the same crime, even where neither would be able to do so alone鈥攙iolates the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

In Alabama鈥檚 criminal justice system, wealth can be synonymous with freedom, and lack of wealth can mean incarceration. That鈥檚 wealth-based justice, and it鈥檚 unconstitutional. Hundreds of defendants, including Bradley Hester, Ray Charles Schultz, and Randall Parris, are routinely jailed pretrial due to their inability to afford a predetermined bail bond required for release. This system disregards the ramifications of unconstitutional pretrial detention for individuals and families, which include presumption of innocence, economic and emotional hardship, and potential loss of one鈥檚 job. We along with partners intervened in a federal class action lawsuit which seeks to end this unlawful detention scheme, and calls on Cullman County to instead implement fair, efficient, alternative conditions of release that are not based on how much money someone has.

Does sentencing a juvenile offender who did not commit homicide to a term-of-years sentence under which he will not be eligible for parole until he is 112 years old violate the Eighth Amendment?