Articles

Victory : Activists’ effort to worsen overcriminalization ends with a whimper

October 25, 2018 | By JONATHAN WOOD

In 2013, several environmental activist groups launched a lawsuit to expand the criminal reach of the Endangered Species Act. They challenged the United States’ longstanding interpretation of the statutes, which makes it a crime to “knowingly” “take” a protected species, to require defendants know their actions will ca ...

Articles

Don’t know how to identify every one of the 1,500 endangered species? This group wants to throw you in prison.

May 11, 2018 | By JONATHAN WOOD

Ok, that’s a slight overstatement. But not as much of one as you would think. Activist group WildEarth Guardians apparently dreams of a world in which people can be thrown in federal prison if they accidentally hit the wrong rodent scurrying across a dark highway, disturb the wrong insect while building a tree house, or … ...

Articles

PLF continues fight against overcriminalization

October 19, 2017 | By JONATHAN WOOD

Most people have heard of William Blackstone’s principle that it is better that many guilty people escape punishment than that a single innocent person be imprisoned, even if they haven’t heard of Blackstone himself. This ancient value underlies the presumption of innocence in our criminal law and many other cherished protections we pro ...

Articles

PLF defends against overcriminalization under the Endangered Species Act

March 23, 2017 | By JONATHAN WOOD

William Blackstone famously said “it is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.” Today, the criminal law honors that venerable principle by forbidding anyone from being criminally punished unless they commit an illegal act with a blameworthy state of mind. That’s why mens rea (or guilty mind) is an element ...