---
title: 'NEW RESOURCES: Criminal Justice Coalition Releases "Smart on Crime" Report'
description: 'A diverse coalition of the nation’s leading criminal justice reform organizations recently released Smart on Crime: Recommendations for the Administration…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-resources-criminal-justice-coalition-releases-smart-on-crime-report'
section: news
date: '2011-02-18T16:29:10-05:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:29:30-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

! A diverse coalition of the nation’s leading criminal justice reform organizations recently released *[Smart on Crime: Recommendations for the Administration and Congress](http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=fqzad6bab&et=1104463112177&s=1446&e=001WvppKeHQGQU93LtvBW9SBXOnDelhPnuI3DpKK89br2_MF5yA3Y4CCH_GAS21RBVYhan6zIYBW4hnGOqFVXPHl-qPF-0KWN_HCzljjSUSb2tQSx3_nNcNR8LT2Lv2XZV2JlowT13gP9VW0zy_kqVgDQ==)*. This analysis of the criminal justice system and the accompanying set of recommendations for change is one of the most comprehensive reports ever published addressing the problems in this field. The Coalition of over 40 organizations is coordinated by the **Constitution Project** and includes such groups as the American Bar Association, the Innocence Project, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Heritage Foundation, and Prison Fellowship, though not every organization supported every chapter of the report. With respect to the **death penalty**, the report made a series of recommendations: ***See below:***

**Recommendation**: Reform habeas corpus to address damage caused by AEDPA

\[Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996\]. Congress should  
 amend the federal habeas statute to address the damage AEDPA has wrought in federal habeas  
 corpus over the past fifteen years. Congress should revise the statute of limitations, exhaustion  
 requirements, and procedural default standards, as well as eliminate federal court deference to  
 state court interpretations of constitutional and federal law and restrictions on successive habeas  
 petitions.

**Recommendation**: Creating safeguards against racially biased capital prosecutions. Congress  
 should seek to address the disproportionate application of the federal death penalty to defendants  
 of color. Congress should commission an independent study of the federal death penalty system to  
 examine racial disparities, prejudicial errors, adequacy of counsel, and other inequities in capital  
 prosecutions, and make recommendations for legislative reform. The Department of Justice should  
 also revise its policies and regulations to ensure greater consistency and fairness in the application  
 of the federal death penalty.

**Recommendation**: Protecting the mentally ill from execution. Congress should exempt people with  
 severe mental illness and/or developmental disabilities from capital prosecution. Even without  
 legislative action, the Department of Justice should adopt a policy that exempts people with severe  
 mental illness and/or developmental disabilities from capital prosecutions.

**Recommendation**: Provide adequate counsel in capital prosecutions. Congress should increase  
 federal defender independence from the federal judiciary. Giving the judiciary control over defense  
 functions creates a conflict of interest. Federal defenders would be able to operate more  
 effectively and efficiently if the judiciary no longer appointed counsel or approved budgets for  
 experts and other resources at any stage of a federal death penalty case, including post-conviction  
 review.  
(*[Smart on Crime: Recommendations for the Administration and Congress](http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=fqzad6bab&et=1104463112177&s=1446&e=001WvppKeHQGQU93LtvBW9SBXOnDelhPnuI3DpKK89br2_MF5yA3Y4CCH_GAS21RBVYhan6zIYBW4hnGOqFVXPHl-qPF-0KWN_HCzljjSUSb2tQSx3_nNcNR8LT2Lv2XZV2JlowT13gP9VW0zy_kqVgDQ==),* The Constitution Project, Feb. 10, 2011). See [**Studies**.](/studies-and-additional-resources?did=220&scid=19)