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View Full Version : Congress Considers Bill to Reduce Federal Overcriminalization




Swordsmyth
10-12-2017, 02:23 PM
In an effort to restore some semblance of justice to the federal government's sprawling “criminal justice” machine, a coalition of U.S. lawmakers including liberty-minded Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) are pursuing reforms that would force the feds to prove suspects were willfully committing a crime. With tens of thousands of pages in new “regulations” imposed on America each year just by federal regulatory agencies — many with severe criminal penalties attached — legal experts say virtually every American professional likely commits several federal crimes each day without even realizing it. Under the newly re-introduced “Mens Rea Reform Act (https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/s1902/BILLS-115s1902is.pdf),” though, that would all change. The effort has drawn widespread support across the political spectrum, and especially among conservatives and liberals concerned about overcriminalization.
If and when the bill becomes law, it would require that federal prosecutors prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant actually intended to commit a crime. The measure would apply to almost all federal criminal laws and regulations that do not currently include such protections — protections that were standard in Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence for centuries in English common law. Mens Rea, which means “guilty mind” in Latin, is an important legal protection that generally requires a defendant to have intended to commit a crime for the action to be prosecuted as such. It is aimed at distinguishing between negligence, for example, and actual criminal intent. With an estimated 5,000 federal statutes and close to half of a million federal regulations carrying potential criminal penalties, advocates for the Mens Rea protection say it is urgently needed.

More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/27121-congress-considers-bill-to-reduce-federal-overcriminalization



THEY seem to get that kind of consideration for any crime they claim was unintentional, it's about time we got equal protection from the law.