Former Deputy Attorney General, Delaware,  defense attorney, entrepreneur, and a former prisoner and addict.

From 1974 to 1979, Ken was a deputy attorney general for Delaware with statewide authority and jurisdiction prosecuting all manner of criminal cases, thousands of them, from investigations through trials and appeals. Then, as a defense attorney, he represented the first person in the state to be prosecuted under a drug law requiring a mandatory minimum sentence. A veteran of winning  more than 400 jury trials and about 200 non- jury trials, Ken has seen the system when it worked well.

He says, “During my unlawful incarceration, I learned as much as any lawyer on the planet about prisoner civil rights issues and other prison related issues. I learned about all types of post-conviction litigation, where I got a good look at the state of what America now calls its criminal justice system.”

Ken is acutely aware of the dangers of drugs as a former cocaine addict who spent five years (four unlawfully) incarcerated. Having recovered and having  educated himself concerning addiction, and being active in of NA/AA meetings  for years, and learning what he describes as a “boatload of information about addiction and related behavioral  problems”, Ken has seen that punitive drug laws and incarceration only make the problem worse. Treatment is needed, not prison. Ken is also a member of the Speakers’ Bureau for LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), and a former Rotarian.

“These laws strip us of reason and judgment,” he says of mandatory sentencing laws. “They endanger officers every day and do nothing to stem the flow of drugs. There is a better solution: legalize, regulate and tax.” Ken explains that he could see from his first mandatory-minimum case that the war on drugs would be a futile catastrophe. He advocates for a reformed system to legalize and regulate drugs.

Ken is a graduate of the Penn State Dickinson School of Law, Kenyon College. and The Peddie School.  He lives in Delaware, where after retiring, he founded Citizens for Criminal JUSTICE, a fast-growing nonprofit organization  created to address the myriad problems plaguing today’s criminal justice system, including a Church Reentry Program to ai.d prisoners reentering society. 96% of inmates will  be released; When we help them we help our communities