Bad checks, Debtor's Prisons, and Prosecuting Attorneys: State v. Orth and Criminal Justice Policy

• NCJ Number: 119641
• Journal: Criminal Law Bulletin Volume: 25 Issue: 4 Dated: (July-August 1989) Pages: 362-365
• Author(s): M Smith
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 3 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

While the decriminalization of indebtedness is a constitutional promise in America, the so-called bad-check laws have rendered it a promise often broken; the jailing of poor people for insufficient-funds checks had been commonplace in some localities.

Abstract

A recent and unique decision of West Virginia's highest court, State v. Orth, may be the harbinger of a policy shift. The Orth decision ends the prosecuting attorney's role as the handmaiden of commercial business interests and enhances economic class neutrality in the criminal justice system. 11 references. (Publisher abstract)