There are thousands of unconstitutional federal laws and regulations. Most of us have violated a few of them without even knowing it. There are 137,000 armed federal agents prepared to enforce them all. We have every reason to fear the federal government. Drug laws, firearms laws, securities laws, “money laundering” laws, tax laws, environmental regulations, “paperwork violations” and similar “crimes” without victims take up a large part of federal law enforcement. There are absurdly long mandatory sentences for these non-offenses, while it’s difficult to even lock up a violent criminal.

The U. S. (combined federal and state) has over 20% of the world’s prison population, with only 4.2% of the world’s population, as well as the highest incarceration rate in the world.  Even China and Russia don’t lock people up as extensively as this country does. Americans are not worse people than residents of other countries, but instead we have far too many laws, far too many interactions with police officers, far too many arrests, and far too many tough-on-crime prosecutors who railroad innocent people into prison with no penalty for doing so.  This must change.

Civil asset forfeiture is one of the most unjust weapons of government at all levels. If a piece of property (land, car, boat) is suspected of having been used for criminal activity, it is seized by government agents. They don’t even have to arrest you, let alone convict you of a crime, in order to steal your property. In facts, cops steal more property each year than regular thieves do. The property is presumed to be guilty, unless proven innocent. You have to go to court to try to prove a negative — after your assets have been seized and you can’t afford an attorney. Police agencies have been corrupted by this process, since they get to keep the proceeds from the theft of your property. I will work to immediately abolish asset forfeiture as an option for law enforcement. 

If you are arrested and brought to trial, the court system is stacked against you. Prosecutors threaten defendants with extremely long sentences if they won’t take a plea bargain deal.  At least 95% of all criminal cases result in plea bargains, not trials. For those who do go to trial, it has always been a tradition of common law that the jury can judge the law as well as the facts of a case. Now judges illegally tell jurors that they must follow the law as the judge gives it. In reality, jurors can find a defendant “not guilty” for any reason they choose, such as the law is unjust or misapplied. Defense attorneys are not even allowed to suggest this in court.

I will introduce a law to require judges to tell jurors that they can judge the law as well as the facts of a case; and to permit defense attorneys to defend their clients by saying that the law is wrong. I support the end of jury tampering by both prosecution and defense by seating the first twelve jurors who don’t know the parties involved and have no financial stake in the outcome of the case. I am opposed to mandatory minimum sentences. I support giving jurors the right to set the sentence in all cases — up to a maximum allowed by law.

DEATH PENALTY

I don’t trust government officials enough to allow them to kill people. It is clear that many innocent people have been sentenced to death (especially in the Deep South). It is a fundamental human rights violation to execute an innocent person. That’s why I would err on the side of caution and say that premeditated murderers should face life in prison without possibility of parole instead.