D.C. Council Set To Override Mayor’s Veto of New Criminal Code Easing Penalties for Most Crimes

The Washington, D.C., city council will vote Tuesday on whether to override Mayor Muriel Bowser’s veto of a criminal justice plan passed by the council last year that would lower the penalties for a range of violent offenses in the name of racial equity.Because the measure was passed unanimously by the 13-member body in November and the override requires only a two-thirds majority, the council is widely expected to succeed in its efforts to protect the bill. The changes have been widely assailed as a dangerous capitulation to criminals in a city that has seen crime rates increasing dramatically in recent years. Even the editorial board of the progressive Washington Post panned the measure, stating that the city will become a more dangerous one if the law goes into effect.The effort marks the first attempt to revise the District’s criminal code since it was first adopted in 1901 by the House Committee on the District of Columbia. It has been in the works for more than 15 years.“A complete overhaul of our city’s criminal code is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” Ms. Bower told the council when she vetoed it earlier this month. “I believe it is more important to get this opportunity right than to add policies and weaken penalties into what should be a bill that makes D.C. safer.”According to the Metropolitan Police Department, Washington saw a decrease in many crimes between 2021 and 2022. Homicides, assaults with deadly weapons, and burglaries all decreased by double-digits in percentage terms from one year to the next. So far in 2023, however, that trend has reversed itself, with homicides up 40 percent over the same period last year, motor vehicle theft up 73 percent, and total property crime up nearly 40 percent.Among other measures, the proposed changes to the criminal code would reduce the maximum penalties for burglaries, robberies, and carjackings, which have skyrocketed since the pandemic. It would also eliminate most mandatory minimum sentences, reduce the penalties for crimes involving firearms, and allow people accused of most misdemeanors to request jury trials.Critics of the plan, which include many in the city’s law enforcement and criminal justice community, said the measure expanding jury trials would clog a judicial system already at the breaking point, even though the law would not take effect for three years. The U.S. attorney for the district, Matthew Graves, warned the council that the changes will make it harder for prosecutors to go after gun-toting criminals and jail offenders for many violent offenses.“We are concerned that the significant reduction in certain maximum penalties for serious violent crimes prevents courts from imposing penalties that appropriately reflect the seriousness of the offense and the defendant’s criminal history,” Mr. Graves told the council.An exhaustive analysis of the need for changes produced by the district’s Council Office of Racial Equity suggested they are necessary to correct decades of discrimination against Black residents of the district, who make up about 44 percent of the population but account for the majority of actors in the criminal justice system. Racism, the panel said, is “pervasive” in the District’s institutions, which are built “on systems designed to oppress certain racial groups.”“Racism will always live in District law unless the law is intentionally drafted to be racially equitable,” the report concluded. “At every point of its evolution, the District’s criminal laws and legal system have found new ways to hold captive and disenfranchise Black District residents. This moment is an inflection point.”Even if the council overrides Ms. Bowser’s veto, the 450-page plan would still need the approval of Congress, which has final say on any legislation coming out of the city. Congress will have 60 days to review the proposed law once it is finalized.

D.C. Council Set To Override Mayor’s Veto of New Criminal Code Easing Penalties for Most Crimes

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