Digital Commons Network^™

Civil Rights Without Representation, Joanna C. Schwartz

William & Mary Law Review

Although much recent attention has been paid to qualified immunity, the biggest threat to civil rights enforcement is actually the lack of lawyers able and willing to represent people whose constitutional rights have been violated. There are small, tight-knit communities of civil rights lawyers with expertise and passion in the cities of the Great Migration, but few civil rights attorneys practice outside those urban areas. Limits on attorneys’ ability to recover fees mean that even attorneys willing to take civil rights cases will have financial incentives to decline meritorious cases if they would be expensive to litigate or if the …

No Child Left Behind Bars: Applying The Principles Of Strict Scrutiny When Sentencing Juveniles Tried As Adults, Max Chu

William & Mary Law Review

The Commonwealth of Virginia was the first in the nation to pass legislation that provides judges with the discretion to veer away from the mandatory minimum sentence and to impose trauma-informed and age-appropriate sentences for juvenile offenders convicted of felonies and tried as adults. Although Virginia’s new law, House Bill 744 (HB 744), is a pioneering step in the right direction, this Note argues that the law may now provide judges with too much discretion. In other words, HB 744 alone, without more guidance, does not go far enough to protect the rights of juvenile offenders.

Therefore, this Note proposes …

Force-Feeding Pretrial Detainees: A Constitutional Violation, Bryn L. Clegg

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Looking Beyond Batson: A Different Method Of Combating Bias Against Queer Jurors, Anna L. Tayman

William & Mary Law Review

On November 27, 1978, Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California’s history, was murdered. He was shot five times, twice in the head. His murderer, Dan White, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and served only five years in prison.

The Dan White trial is the most famous example of queer juror exclusion in American history. While White’s defense attorney, Douglas Schmidt, could not directly ask the jurors about their sexual orientation, he had another strategy: find the gays and allies and keep them out, and find the Catholics and keep them in. Schmidt struck a woman who …

Is Guilt Dispositive? Federal Habeas After Martinez, Justin F. Marceau

William & Mary Law Review

Federal habeas review of criminal convictions is not supposed to be a second opportunity to adjudge guilt. Oliver Wendell Holmes, among others, has said that the sole question on federal habeas is whether the prisoner’s constitutional rights were violated. By the early 1970s, however, scholars criticized this rights-based view of habeas and sounded the alarm that postconviction review had become too far removed from questions of innocence. Most famously, in 1970 Judge Friendly criticized the breadth of habeas corpus by posing a single question: Is innocence irrelevant? In his view habeas review that focused exclusively on questions of rights in …

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures: Reclassifying Drug Possession Offense In Response To The Indigent Defense Crisis, Kaitlin C. Gratton

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tragic Rights: The Rights Critique In The Age Of Obama, Robin L. West

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Wide Should The Actual Innocence Gateway Be? An Attempt To Clarify The Miscarriage Of Justice Exception For Federal Habeas Corpus Proceedings, Jennifer Gwynne Case

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unconstitutional Conditional Release: A Pyrrhic Victory For Arrestees' Privacy Rights Under United States V. Scott, Andrew J. Smith

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

When 2 Or 3 Come Together, Tracey L. Meares, Kelsi Brown Corkan

William & Mary Law Review

This Article investigates policies that are responsive to crime in disadvantaged, urban neighborhoods from a community-based context. The vehicle is an analysis of a community-wide prayer vigil held in Chicago in May of 1997. The vigil resulted from a collaboration between the Chicago Police Department and hundreds of mostly African-American churches on Chicago's West Side. Strikingly, the local police district's commander facilitated the vigil. The Article explains the sociological and political significance of this collaboration by drawing on the "Chicago School" of urban sociology, and demonstrating theoretically and empirically the potential for collaboration, through the integration of key community institutions, …

Rethinking The History Of American Freedom, Michael J. Klarman

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Political And Civil Rights In The United States, Morris D. Forkosch

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Court And The Criminal, Robert J. Steamer

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.