Office of the Deputy Attorney General

New York Post Op-Ed: Sorry: This criminal-justice ‘reform’ would be disaster for policing

September 24, 2020

Courtesy of Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen

George Floyd’s death prompted lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to consider ways to reform policing. Some of their suggestions hold promise. But other radical ideas are wide of the mark and, if enacted, would pose a serious threat to public safety. Eliminating qualified immunity falls squarely in that category.

Updated September 25, 2020

New York Times Op-Ed: The Federal Death Penalty Can Be Administered Fairly

July 27, 2020

Courtesy of Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen

This month, for the first time in 17 years , the United States resumed carrying out death sentences for federal crimes. On July 14, Daniel Lewis Lee was executed for the 1996 murder of a family, including an 8-year-old girl, by suffocating and drowning them in the Illinois Bayou after robbing them to fund a white-supremacist organization. On July 16, Wesley Purkey was executed for the 1998 murder of a teenage girl, whom he kidnapped, raped, killed, dismembered and discarded in a septic pond. The next day, Dustin Honken was executed for five murders committed in 1993, including the execution-style shooting of two young girls, their mother, and two prospective witnesses against him in a federal prosecution for methamphetamine trafficking.

Updated July 27, 2020

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER OP-ED: SAFE INJECTION SITES ENABLE DRUG USERS AND ENDANGER COMMUNITIES

February 3, 2020

Courtesy of Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen

America’s opioid crisis is a monumental issue. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two out of three overdose deaths involve opioids. Fatal overdoses from opioids increased almost six times since 1999, peaking in 2017 at almost 50,000 deaths before declining for the first time in decades in 2018 as the administration’s opioid response started taking hold. Instead of advocating for common-sense solutions, some groups across the country are advocating for what could be...

Updated February 18, 2020

Introduction to the Department of Justice Journal of Federal Law and Practice

November 30, 2019

Courtesy of Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen

There are few concepts more fundamental to our system of government than the rule of law. The safety, security, and prosperity we enjoy are rooted in the principle that we are all accountable under a set of clearly established laws that apply equally to everyone. In the late seventeenth century, political philosopher John Locke advocated for a rule-of-law system in which government was "directed to no other end but the peace, safety, and public good of the people" and citizens were governed by...

Updated August 7, 2020

Washington Post Op-Ed: ‘Social justice reform’ is no justice at all

November 27, 2019

Courtesy of Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen

Thanks to sensible law enforcement policies, violent crime rates dropped by half nationwide over the past three decades. Although increases occurred in 2015-2016, the rates again dropped during the first two years of the Trump administration. But reductions in crime are neither automatic nor inevitable. They are the result of federal, state and local law enforcement and prosecutors working together to enforce the laws. Unfortunately, a trend is emerging that could threaten the hard-fought...

Updated December 2, 2019

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Office of the Deputy Attorney General