News Release

Nation's Criminal Defense Bar Seeks Responses to Key Questions Posed to the Presidential Candidates

Washington, DC (Oct. 11, 2016) – Between August and early September, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) canvassed its members and others in the criminal defense bar and community for their input in connection with questions NACDL would be submitting to the following candidates for President – Hillary Clinton (D), Donald Trump (R), Jill Stein (G), and Gary Johnson (L). On September 8, 2016, NACDL President Barry J. Pollack submitted the final set of questions (click here) to all four of these campaigns.

Shortly thereafter, NACDL launched www.icareaboutjustice.org to engage the public on the subject of the presidential candidates and criminal justice issues. This website shares NACDL's questions to the candidates with the public and offers the public the opportunity to urge the candidates to show that they care about criminal justice by making their positions known on the crucial issues facing our criminal justice system.

As of this date, the only candidate to have submitted responses to NACDL's questions is Green Party Nominee Jill Stein. Her campaign's responses are available here.

"In a nation where approximately one in four adults has some form of an arrest or conviction record, and where some 2.2 million people are currently behind bars, entire communities are directly impacted by the criminal justice system. It has been estimated that the United States spends $80 billion a year incarcerating its citizens, meaning that every taxpayer is impacted by the criminal justice system. Given the outsized role that the criminal justice system plays in the lives of the American people, the questions NACDL has posed to the Presidential candidates are of the utmost public concern," said NACDL President Barry J. Pollack. "We very much hope that each of the candidates will acknowledge the importance to the American people of criminal justice issues and promptly provide responses to NACDL so that voters will know where each of them stands on these vital questions."

Visit www.icareaboutjustice.org now to find Jill Stein's answers and to urge the other candidates to respond to NACDL's questions.

Contacts

Ivan J. Dominguez, NACDL Director of Public Affairs & Communications, (202) 465-7662 or idominguez@nacdl.org for more information.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal legal system.