NCJ Number
73364
Date Published
1979
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Benjamin R. Civiletti, the U.S. Attorney General, critiques S. 1722, legislation proposed to reform the Federal criminal laws, in hearings before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
Abstract
S. 1722 has technical accuracy and clarity, advances the law, and is complete in its attention to systematizing the whole of Federal criminal law. Overall, it has the support of the Justice Department and the White House. Components of the bill particularly favored are the complete abolition of the archaic parole system, provisions encouraging the relinquishment to State authorities of Federal jurisdiction over federally owned lands, and the prohibition against permitting a defendant found individually responsible for a white-collar offense to have the fine paid from the assets of the corporate employer. Some changes from last year's bill, however, are not viewed by the Justice Department with similar favor. These changes include the deletion of the provision under which a corporate supervisor could be charged with complicity in an offense committed by subordinates if the individual recklessly failed to exercise supervisory responsibilities; the dropping of the alternative fine of double the defendant's gain from an offense; the elimination of the probation condition expressly recognizing the possibility of precluding a corporate defendant from engaging in business directly related to the business offense for which it was convicted; and the retention of the scattered, often disparate, attempt and conspiracy provisions appearing in certain of the regulatory laws.