Terrific review of Obama’s criminal justice record

Over at TalkLeft, Jeralyn has this extended post, titled “Obama and Defendants’ Rights: Progressive Or Not?”, which reviews his record on various criminal justice issue over the past decade.  Here is how Jeralyn describes her review:

Where does Obama stand on criminal justice issues? Is he really a progressive? Will he stand up for the rights of the criminally accused … or just those of the wrongfully charged or convicted?

He’s been quick to point out his admirable work in Illinois getting legislation passed to require mandatory taping of police interrogations and enact some death penalty and racial profiling reforms. He has complained about the racial disparity in crack-powder cocaine sentences and once advocated abolishing mandatory minimums….  More recently, he has retreated to promising a review of mandatory minimum sentences.

Since the mainstream media seems incapable of presenting anything but his words promising change, hope, optimism and a “working majority” (meaning compromise with Republicans), I took an afternoon to research his record going back to 1998.  The results, some progressive and laudatory, others decidedly not, as well as my prior posts on his crime record and statements as U.S. Senator and presidential candidate, are detailed [in this post].

Though not exactly on-point, anyone interested in looking even deeper Obama’s professional history should be sure to check out this post at the WSJ Law Bog, titled “Barack Obama Was Once a Lowly Law-Firm Associate.”