Drug Induced Homicide Defense Toolkit
It is true that there is widespread pressure to "do something" about the overdose crisis, but law enforcement and prosecutors would do well to stick to what they are good at—investigating and prosecuting actual crime—and be brave in announcing that that is just what they are going to do and/or by adopting policies of not pursuing counterproductive investigations or prosecutions.
VIII. FINAL THOUGHTS: HUMANIZING THE DEFENDANT AND USING PERSON-AFFIRMING LANGUAGE As with much of the rest of criminal justice and social issues more generally, it is important to use person-first language. The terminology in standard use tends to stigmatize and characterize defendants and drug users (and others) as guilty, immoral, lesser, and deserving of punishment. Positive language that presents them as fully human beings, albeit flawed (as human beings tend to be), is not just more accurate, fair, inclusive, and equitable, but also strategically useful in the defense setting.329 It also avoids inadvertently contributing to racist stereotypes and narratives.330
329
See Beth Connolly, Why Words Matter in the Substance Use Conversation, PEW (May 5, 2020), https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/05/05/why-words-matter-in-the-substanc e-use-conversation. 330
See Jonathan A. Rapping, Unjust: How Defenders Can Affect Systemic Racist Assumptions, 16 Legislation and Public Policy 999-1048 (2014), https://www.nyujlpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Rapping-Implicitly-Unjust-16nyujlpp999.pdf.
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