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Victim Impact Statements And Sentencing, Sam Garkawe
Victim Impact Statements And Sentencing, Sam Garkawe
Associate Professor Sam Garkawe
Legislation allowing for victim impact statements ('VIS') to be presented during sentencing hearings has been introduced into the criminal justice systems of most common law nations, notwithstanding many reservations from defence lawyers and civil libertarians. Despite such legislation being widespread throughout the common law world, the use of VIS remains controversial. The main purpose of this article is to utilise basic sentencing principles in order to critically analyse the question of whether, and if so, to what extent, VIS are relevant to an offender's sentence. In such cases adequate procedural safeguards need to be instituted to ensure that offender's rights …
The People V. Orenthal James Simpson: Race And Trial Advocacy, Angela Davis
The People V. Orenthal James Simpson: Race And Trial Advocacy, Angela Davis
Angela J Davis
This chapter focuses on the trial story behind the high profile case of People v. Orenthal James Simpson. As the author points out, the Simpson case focused attention on some of the most important issues in the criminal justice system, including class and race disparities, DNA evidence, and police perjury. The author here focuses on the issue of race--its significance in the trial and how it affected the advocacy of the lawyers. She discusses the emotional conflicts over race within the defense and prosecution teams and compares and contrasts the approaches that each side ultimately decided to take. The author …