A Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee said that reforms being considered by the panel in the wake of nationwide protests against systemic racial inequality must include language to clarify what constitutes a criminal offense.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said that the importance of criminal intent—a judicial concept known in Latin as mens rea—has been underlooked in the writing and application of laws and regulations, and that the issue must be addressed by a legislative package currently being hashed out by the committee.
“I question whether a sentencing reform that does not include mens rea reform would be worth it, and I am not alone,” he said in a speech that cited a number of arcane environmental laws.
“Many members of the over-criminalization coalition who helped lay the key intellectual and political groundwork for the negotiations now under way believe strongly that any criminal justice reform bill that passes this body must include mens rea reform,” he added. “I agree.”
On Twitter, the speech elicited a reaction from some observers—mainly libertarian-minded conservatives part of the aforementioned coalition. Jason Pye, the director of prison reform with the Koch Bros.-backed FreedomWorks called the remarks “a pretty big deal considering that a sentencing/prison reform bill is due any day now.” Heritage’s John Malcolm described the remarks as “important.”
Hatch referenced proposals that a bill on mens rea could accompany, including legislation that would create exemptions to statutory minimums and encourage prisoners’ early release in exchange for good behavior.
“A number of my colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee have been meeting behind closed doors for months to try and reach a compromise that incorporates elements of these various proposals,” Hatch said.
Many of those proposals had been held up earlier this year by the committee chair, Charles Grassley (R-Iowa.). Grassley had been staunchly opposed to changes to statutory minimums proposed by both Republican and Democratic members of the judiciary committee, and in February described their efforts as the product of a “leniency industrial complex.” By July, he had softened his stance.
Support for a fresh look at the nation’s approach to criminal justice increased significantly in the wake of protests around the country sparked last summer by a police officer’s killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in Ferguson, Mo. Demonstrations also followed a grand jury’s decision not to acquit the cop who killed Brown, Darren Wilson, and similar protests have since been organized around the country in response to similar incidents.
