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Andrew Crespo Profile picture
Andrew Crespo
@AndrewMCrespo
Professor of Criminal Law and Procedure @Harvard_Law Executive Faculty Director @endmassinc_org Founding Editor @_Inquest_
5 subscribers
Aug 8, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
It's a real New England kind of irony that Walden Pond, of all places, causes regular cortisol spikes in Boston area parents.

Just tell us in advance when you are going to reopen! We timed our arrival for 11:30, after studying weeks' worth of tweets to predict the reopening time.

Got there at 11:35. 'Twas Closed.

Asked the ranger out front when it'd reopen. "In 45 minutes or an hour."

We drive off. Twelve minutes later, this:
Jul 26, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Today we are publicly launching the Institute to End Mass Incarceration. I hope you'll take some time to read about our mission, our approach to our work, and our incredible (and growing) team. We're here to work with, strategize with, brainstorm with, and support the many existing communities and leaders already deep in the essential work of decarceration. endmassincarceration.org
Jul 22, 2021 • 5 tweets • 6 min read
Next week, we are launching @_inquest_, a platform for bold, decarceral ideas. We're kicking it off with a series of panels from folks with a wide range of experience and expertise (see thread). Come learn more about Inquest and join our “decarceral brainstorm.” First, on Tuesday, @premaldharia, @cristianafarias and I will share how Inquest came to be, what we hope it will do, & how it will bridge disciplines & experiences to create a catalytic space for idea-sharing & change. Reg: bit.ly/3BviUFO
May 19, 2021 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
This morning we went to court to challenge the Biden administration's continuation of a widely condemned policy fueling mass incarceration in Washington, DC.

Hours earlier, 87 former federal prosecutors wrote to AG Garland to demand that he end this racially unjust tactic.
👀👇🏾 You can read their powerful letter here. drive.google.com/file/d/10JN4ki…
May 16, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
In three days, we'll be in court challenging an awful Trump-era policy that doubles prison sentences for Black men in DC.

Civil rights groups and local leaders have spent months urging DOJ to abandon the policy, but no dice.

Looks like it's an awful Biden-era policy now. Here's @DanielJHemel in today's @washingtonpost describing other criminal and immigration cases "in which the Biden administration’s position seems to be at odds with Biden’s campaign-trail vows." washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…
Apr 10, 2021 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
This is a really thoughtful and well written piece from @teamtrace on the Biden administration's hugely disappointing decision to continue a Trump-era policy that is fueling mass incarceration in DC. Well worth a read! Some highlights include...
thetrace.org/2021/04/channi… Calling out the DOJ's misguided and hypocritical argument that longer sentences will deter crime:

"According to the Justice Department’s own research...prison sentences, particularly long ones, are unlikely to deter crime and in some cases may have an opposite effect."
Mar 25, 2021 • 21 tweets • 0 min read
Mar 22, 2021 • 30 tweets • 13 min read
real talk: The new DOJ leadership delivered a major criminal and racial justice disappointment last Friday, standing by a Trump era policy that doubles prison terms for Black men in DC. If you spent 2020 tweeting #DCStatehood and #BLM, you should be pushing to fix this *now* 🧵 Some background: In 2019 DOJ moved people charged with possessing a gun in DC from the local court system into federal court, where sentences are 2x higher. My students and I have been challenging this policy in court for over a year.
Feb 12, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Last fall I told BloombergLaw that future liberal wins at SCOTUS will require Justice Kagan to persuade Justices Roberts AND Kavanaugh to join her opinions. Well, in the middle of the night, she wrote an opinion blocking an execution - with both of them in dissent. Turns out Justice Kagan is apparently better at her job than even I realized... which is saying something. Her position was supported by Justice Barrett (who expressly signed on to Kagan's opinion) and by either Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch, or both as fifth and/or sixth votes.
Jan 7, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The Cabinet owes it to the men and women in uniform to invoke the 25th Amendment. We cannot ask them to spend two weeks guessing about whether to listen to the President or the Vice President, who are now apparently giving divergent orders on matters of national security. By law, the decision falls to the Vice President and a majority of the heads of the 15 principal Executive departments. Nine people. Serving at the highest levels of government. Each of whom swore oaths that are tested at times like this.
Nov 6, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
In Arizona, Biden leads by 39,400.

His margin with AZ Latinos? 𝟮𝟴𝟴,𝟬𝟬𝟬 In Georgia, Biden leads by 4,163.

His margin with GA Latinos? 𝟲𝟰,𝟬𝟬𝟬
Oct 18, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Hour six: First successful "test page" printed over wifi.

Still can't print any actual documents. But that's fine. I was only ever planning to print the test page. BOOYAH!!! Hour Nine. Lucky number nine.
Sep 22, 2020 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Some #lawprof news. @JohnMRappaport and I are writing a new casebook for Criminal Law.

Our goal is simple: to help teachers better educate students about the role law and lawyers have played in creating a penal system defined by mass incarceration and excessive police power.🧵 We come to the project motivated by a frustration, which we know many share, with course materials that center moral philosophy, statutory interpretation, and doctrinal brain teasers – but that treat mass incarceration and police power as at best secondary themes.
Sep 12, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Lindsey Graham yesterday: "If [Democrats] get the House, the Senate and the White House, then God help us all. Puerto Rico will be a state."

"God help us" that something that's happened 37 times before might happen to...PR.🤔

Pray tell, what exactly is different here, Senator? Puerto Rico's population is larger than 20 currently existing states.
Sep 3, 2020 • 21 tweets • 6 min read
This is a map of racial segregation in DC

A year ago, the local US Attorney adopted a new charging policy that doubled the prison time for 100s of affected defendants.

They said the policy applied citywide.

It didn't.

🚨It only ever applied in the Blackest parts of the city🚨 Image When the U.S. Attorney announced the new policy at a press conference back in February of 2019 she said it applied to "essentially all" of the city.

There's no polite way to say this: That was a lie.

And she knew it was a lie when she said it.
Sep 3, 2020 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
Six weeks into #OperationLegend DOJ has arrested 2,000+ people but has only filed charges in 476 cases.

In other words, they are "declining" to file federal charges in the vast majority of cases (76%).

FYI: That's more than triple the normal federal declination rate for 2019. Data from USAO Annual Statistical Report, in tbl. 1 (cases filed) & tbl. 14 (cases declined).

I'm calculating declination rate as (filed) / (filed + declined)
justice.gov/usao/page/file… Image
Aug 11, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
C.J. Srinivasan: "Are you aware of any situation in which a district court has been compelled under mandamus to grant or deny a motion before a district court itself has decided whether to grant or deny the motion?"

#Flynn's Lawyer: "No sir..." 👆🏾This is reason #1 why @KPNatsFan and I said in @GlobeOpinion that this case needed to be reheard en banc. (Arguments are live now.) Image
Aug 11, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Thoughtful article about 911 reform from @voxdotcom. But it makes an empirical claim that made me scratch my head: Basically, it suggests that 911 calls account for half of all incidents where the police approach civilians.

Looking under the hood, I don't think that's right. Here's the claim in the article. The implication is that half of "officer-civilian interactions" that might conceivably end in "aggression" or "violence" are "the result of citizen-requested police services, usually through an emergency call number." Image
Aug 7, 2020 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
This seems...insane.

A masked on-duty officer covered his badge while acting chummy with anti-BLM protesters.

Someone posted his picture on twitter to find out who he is.

Prosecutors are now charging the tweeter, and 5 RTers, with an 18 month felony.🧵
washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08… The tweeters are charged under the NJ cyber harassment statute. I've never looked at it before. But on its face it doesn't seem to even plausibly cover the tweet.
Jul 28, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This is strange to say but...

Attn. law students studying for the bar:

If you are asked whether taking someone into a police station for questioning constitutes an arrest, DO NOT give the answer that the Attorney General just gave to Congress.

You will be wrong. One week ago:
Jul 27, 2020 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
BREAKING: New 4th Amendment lawsuit in #PDX filed just now by @protctdemocracy on behalf of nightly protesters, including leader of the Wall of Moms.

This is the strongest 4th Amendment lawsuit so far. Similar case in Denver won an order blocking tear gas as excessive force. Complaint here: documentcloud.org/documents/7007…