Columbus, OH – In a new whitepaper for The Federalist Society, Robert Alt, a nationally-recognized scholar in criminal law and president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, reviewed the legal landscape of criminal law changes across the country.

“From implementing new tough-on-crime policies in Alaska to enacting pro-defendant laws in California, states across the country continued the trend of amending their criminal codes in 2019,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute and author of Criminal Law Update: A Survey of State Law Changes in 2019. 

In the paper, Alt writes that states were most willing to adjust their laws related to criminal sentencing, record expungement and offender registries, marijuana legalization, and restoring voting rights for people convicted of felonies. Alt highlighted criminal law changes in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. 

Criminal Law Update: A Survey of State Law Changes in 2019 parallels a similar 2018 version of the paper Alt also produced for The Federalist Society last year.

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