"'SMART ON CRIME": ENLIGHTENED CONCEPT TO BE EXPLORED AT NACDL "WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS" CONFERENCE BEGINNING IN TORONTO TODAY: THE TORONTO STAR;

"Jim Lavine, incoming president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he is optimistic the new philosophy first implemented by Watkins in Texas isn’t an anomaly, even if it runs counter to some deeply ingrained instincts.

Americans and Canadians are conservative people by nature, he suggested, and part of that is wanting to remove offenders from their midst.

“We want to punish, we want to get people out of our hair, we want to get people away from us,” Lavine said in an interview. “Well, that’s fine in one respect, unless the cost to society, both in terms of the fiscal cost but also in the moral values we teach to the next generation, is proven wrong in the worst possible circumstances.”"

LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER TRACEY TYLER; THE TORONTO STAR;

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"For years, politicians have tried to get elected by promising to be tougher than their predecessors on crime," the Toronto Star story by Legal Affairs reporter Tracey Tyler published on August 11, 2010 begins, under the heading, "From Texas to Toronto, a smarter approach to crime."

"Then came Craig Watkins, district attorney for Dallas, Tex.," the story continues.

"Watkins, a Democrat, campaigned for office four years ago under a radical new platform of “smart on crime,” not tough on crime, which included establishing the first prosecutor’s office in the U.S. to review wrongful conviction claims.

It was a gamble in a state with a long-standing reputation for measuring justice by convictions, one that led the U.S. in executions.

Even in Canada, where the Liberals and NDP support some form of mandatory minimum sentences, “smart on crime” hasn’t become a rallying cry for politicians.

But in the U.S., it’s gaining momentum. At least two other jurisdictions, including the powerful Manhattan D.A.’s office, have adopted Watkins’ approach, which will be examined during a panel discussion in Toronto on Thursday when America’s largest defence lawyers’ organization — the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers — gathers for its annual meeting.

The theme is wrongful convictions.

“As it turns out, doing the right thing has some political traction, much to a lot of people’s surprise,” said Mike Ware, a lawyer who heads up the conviction integrity unit of the D.A.’s office in Dallas.

After funding for the office was approved in a 3-2 vote by Dallas County commissioners in May, 2007, it began leading the U.S. in DNA exonerations. There have now been 20, including several cases that were prosecuted by Henry M. Wade, the notoriously tough D.A. also famous for being one of the parties in Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court case legalizing abortion.

Smart on crime also includes tackling the root causes of crime, including drug abuse, as well as alternatives to jail for low level offenders.

Toronto defence lawyer Frank Addario, who is moderating a panel at the conference, said there is a message in this for Canadians.

“The significance is that the Americans, who rushed in the 1970s and ’80s far more enthusiastically than we did into ‘tough on crime’ — and who have immersed themselves in rigid mandatory schemes that took discretion away from judges and gave them to prosecutors — are now recoiling from that as quickly as they can,” he told the Star.

It cuts across the political spectrum, with prosecutors, politicians and police chiefs in the U.S. searching for a new approach, having seen that criminal justice policies based on getting tough have crippled their budgets with no discernable effect on crime rates, Addario said.

Last month, Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page warned the federal government’s new “Truth in Sentencing” legislation, which abolishes extra credit for pretrial custody, will cost Ottawa more than $2 billion over the next five years because Canada will need 13 new prisons to keep offenders locked up longer.

“Despite empirical proof south of the border that (tough) doesn’t work, the government is committed to repeating the error because of the proven political advantages of being seen to have a simple, easy-to-understand solution to crime,” Addario contends.

This is an election year in Texas, so the world will soon find out whether smart on crime has political staying power.

Jim Lavine, incoming president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he is optimistic the new philosophy first implemented by Watkins in Texas isn’t an anomaly, even if it runs counter to some deeply ingrained instincts.

Americans and Canadians are conservative people by nature, he suggested, and part of that is wanting to remove offenders from their midst.

“We want to punish, we want to get people out of our hair, we want to get people away from us,” Lavine said in an interview. “Well, that’s fine in one respect, unless the cost to society, both in terms of the fiscal cost but also in the moral values we teach to the next generation, is proven wrong in the worst possible circumstances.”

Lavine points to the cases of two Houston men, Allen Wayne Porter and Michael Anthony Green, who were exonerated within days of each other last week, in separate cases. Green had spent 27 years behind bars.

“There’s nothing worse than seeing a story on the front page of the paper saying someone has been locked up in a cage for 27 years for something they didn’t do,” he said. “You’d have to be stone cold soulless not to be moved by that.”"

The story can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/846794--from-texas-to-toronto-a-smarter-approach-to-crime

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-feature-cases-issues-and.html

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;