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1919: The Criminal Division is formally organized

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1919: The Criminal Division is formally organized

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The United States Department of Justice Criminal Division is a federal agency of the U.S. Department of Justice that develops, enforces, and supervises the application of all federal criminal laws in the U.S. Criminal Division attorneys prosecute many nationally significant cases and formulate and implement criminal enforcement policy.

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By 1925, following the Chicago model, all but two states had juvenile courts whose goals were to turn youth into productive citizens utilizing treatment that included warnings, probation, and training school confinement. Treatment lasted until the child was “cured” or turned 21.

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The United States Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1957. This was the first act of Civil Rights legislation since Reconstruction in America. The Act helps to protect every U.S. citizen’s right to vote and establishes a Civil Rights Commission whose duty is to investigate acts of discrimination and injustice.

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The roots of Jim Crow laws began as early as 1865, immediately following the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States. Black Codes were strict local and state laws that detailed when, where and how formerly enslaved people could work, and for how much compensation. The codes appeared throughout the South as a legal way to put Black citizens into indentured servitude, to take voting rights away, to control where they lived and how they traveled and to seize children for labor purposes.

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Jim Crow Laws and Racial Segregation in America | The Civil Rights Movement

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In September 1984, University of Leicester geneticist Dr. Alec Jeffreys found what he called “a horrible, smudgy, blurry mess” on a slide containing biological material from his assistant, Jenny Foxon. After studying the sample closer, he identified a family group in the sample and realized he could distinguish all three members of Foxon’s family by a simple pattern of inheritance.

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1984: The Sentencing Reform Act is signed into law by President Reagan.

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1984: The Sentencing Reform Act is signed into law by President Reagan.

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this act was signed to ensure that the accused returned to court as required. Only genuine flight risks were jailed pending trial. For the first time during peace, preventive detention—embodying the long-discredited notion that past behavior accurately predicts future conduct—became the law of the land.

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1991: Police brutality motivations are questioned 

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1991: Police brutality motivations are questioned 

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A brutal beating of Rodney King by at least four white officers is caught on tape. This got attention from the public, and especially within the black community, outrage and accusations of police brutality motivated by race.

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1991 - a brutal beating of Rodney King by at least four white officers is caught on tape. This incensed in the public, and especially within the black community, outrage and accusations of police brutality motivated by race. - Google Search

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In 1905, the Pennsylvania State Police became the first state police agency established in the United States, as recommended by Theordore Roosevelt’s ‘s Anthracite Strike Commission and Governor Samuel Pennypacker. The Department became a model for other state police agencies throughout the nation.

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On October 30, 2004, President George Bush signed the Justice for All Act, which significantly enhanced funding and guidelines for the use of DNA technology in the judicial process. The Act strengthened the rights for convicted felons to obtain post-conviction DNA testing if they assert their innocence and that the DNA testing would produce new evidence in support of that innocence. The DNA testing would create a probability that the applicant did not commit the offense.

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2005: Changes made in life sentences for juveniles 

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2005: Changes made in life sentences for juveniles 

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In 2005, the U. S. Supreme Court forbade the death penalty for juveniles. In 2010 the Supreme Court limited life sentences without parole for young criminals who commit murder. It was ruled unconstitutional to give a criminal who was under 18 at the time of the crime, a life term in prison with no chance for parole for crimes other than murder.

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Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
Clip: Season 8 | 6m 24s

In a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that executing people for crimes they committed before the age of 18 is unconstitutional. This means that the dozens of people on death row for crimes committed as juveniles will now have a sentence of life in prison. The case that brought the issue to the Supreme Court involved a young Missouri man named Chris Simmons.

Aired: 03/04/05

Rating: NR

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Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | Juvenile Death Penalty Update | Season 8 | PBS

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Chris Simmons will no longer face the death penalty for a murder committed when he was 17.