By Jocelyn Lopez
WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Senate introduced the Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act of 2023 after the House passed the bill by a vote of 405 to 12 this week, according to LAW 360.
The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary said the bill will end the unjust practice of judges increasing sentences based on the “more likely than not” standard.
Instead of convicting defendants for conduct proven beyond a reasonable doubt, judges can and have enhanced sentences if they find that a defendant committed other crimes. Effectively judges nullify a jury’s verdict, states the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
Testifying at the U.S. Sentencing Commission, one accused is an example of the unjust practice of acquitted conduct, wrote LAW 360, noting the accused was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being acquitted on the 28 most serious charges and “guilty” for seven less serious charges.
Another example, recounts the U.S. Senate Committee Judiciary, of the unjust practice occurred in 2005 when Antwuan Ball was sentenced to19 years, quadrupling his original sentence, even though he was acquitted for conspiracy to distribute large sums of drugs and only convicted for distributing a small quantity of crack cocaine.
The practice of acquittal conduct authorizes individual biases from judges to sentence defendants, instead of relying on a diverse jury that keeps biases in check, wrote LAW 360.
The Act, as outlined by the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, includes amending 18 U.S.C. § 3661 to prevent acquitted conduct, only when mitigating a sentence, and defining “acquitted conduct” to include “acts for which a person was criminally charged and determine not guilty after a trial in a Federal, State, Tribal, or Juvenile court, or acts underlying a criminal charge or juvenile information dismissed upon a motion for acquittal.”
U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), a sponsor of the bill, stated, “This practice (acquitted conduct) is inconsistent with the Constitution’s guarantees of due process and the right to a jury trial.”
Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said the bill “seeks to permanently prohibit courts from considering past acquittals in new cases.”
The practice is criticized by various advocates, reports the U.S. Senate Committee, including prominent jurists like Justice Anthony Scalia, late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Clarence Thomas.
The coercive punishment for acquitted conduct encapsulates a larger problem, LAW 360 reports, of punishing people for exercising their right to trial.
The conduct coerces people to “admit guilt” to avoid post-trail sentences because those facing trial run the risk of being sentenced three times longer than those who plead guilty.
Only three percent of convictions in the federal system have gone to jury trial, and the percentage is similar on the state level, reports LAW 360.
Acquittal conduct, reports LAW 360, erodes the fundamental role of juries and does not preserve the principle that people should not be punished until proven guilty.
