Digital Commons Network^™

Asymmetries And Incentives In Plea Bargaining And Evidence Production, Saul Levmore, Ariel Porat

Ariel Porat

Legal rules severely restrict payments to fact witnesses, though the government can often offer plea bargains or other nonmonetary inducements to encourage testimony. This asymmetry is something of a puzzle, for most asymmetries in criminal law favor the defendant. The asymmetry seems to disappear where physical evidence is at issue. One goal of this Essay is to understand the distinctions, or asymmetries, between monetary and nonmonetary payments, testimonial and physical evidence, and payments by the prosecution as opposed to the defense. Another is to suggest ways in which law could better encourage the production of evidence, and thus the efficient …

Advocating Socio-Economic Justice: Some Experiences Of The Icc-India Campaign And The Potential For A Law Clinic, Saumya Uma

Dr. Saumya Uma

Book Review: Negotiating The Labyrinth: Disability And The Queensland Justice System By Dan Toombs, Jodie O'Leary

Jodie O'Leary

No abstract provided.

Criminal Defense Advice: Why Do Lawyers Defend The Guilty?, William Thies

William Thies

Criminal Law is not the easiest legal matter to discuss. When discussing the topic, many questions surface from concerned clients and observers of society. Interestingly, many individuals become uncomfortable with the laws that allow solicitors to defend the guilty.

Meeting The Challenges Faced By Girls In The Juvenile Justice System: Testimony Before The Healthy Families And Communities Subcommittee Of The U.S. House Of Representatives Education And Labor Committee, Francine T. Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

Testimony by Francine T. Sherman, Clinical Professor and Director, Juvenile Rights Advocacy Project at Boston College Law School before the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee, on March 11, 2010, at 10:00 AM. More information about the hearing, including an archived webcast, is available at http://edworkforce.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=193429.

The Federal Common Law Of Crime, Robert C. Palmer

Robert T. Palmer, PhD

No abstract provided.

Limited Leverage: Federal Remedies And Policing Reform, Rachel A. Harmon

Rachel A. Harmon

With respect to deterring police misconduct, federal remedies are almost as good as they are ever going to get. Federal remedies for police misconduct, and most other remedies for misconduct, promote change by making misconduct costly for police departments and municipalities. Improving federal remedies would encourage some additional departments to seek the positive expected return on reform measures likely to reduce misconduct. But existing federal remedies all focus on either increasing the cost of misconduct or reducing its benefits. The problem is that even if existing federal remedies are altered to maximize deterrence, they cannot be employed to impose a …

The Label Of Life Imprisonment In Australia: A Principled Or Populist Approach To An Ultimate Sentence, John L. Anderson

John L Anderson

No abstract provided.

‘Emaciated’ Defense Or A Trend To Independence And Equality Of Arms In Internationalized Criminal Tribunals?, Richard J. Wilson

Richard J. Wilson

No abstract provided.

International Justice Marks Its Fifteenth Anniversary: A Preliminary Assessment Of The Icty’S Impact In Serbia, Diane Orentlicher

Diane Orentlicher

No abstract provided.

Conference Highlight-Northstar Award: Spotlight On Angela Davis , Jamin Raskin, Cynthia Jones

Cynthia E. Jones

No abstract provided.

A Case Study On Burying Alive Of Two Women In Balochistan, Sohail Ahmed Ansari Advocate

Sohail Ahmed Ansari Advocate

Violence against women is present in a variety of forms in Pakistan. From domestic abuse & sexual harassment to child marriages and honour killing; a range of anti-women atrocities are carried out. Pakistani women face systematic discrimination from the day they are born. The patriarchal mindset of society refuses to recognize them as human beings deserving of equality, human rights and justice. Unfortunately in some parts of Balochistan a brutal custom of justice prevails; where the women are treated as trading objects. They are being tried without hearing their cause. They are not allowed to plea their case. They are …

Bridging The Barriers: Public Health Strategies For Expanding Drug Treatment In Communities, Ellen M. Weber

Ellen M. Weber

States around the country have begun to adopt programs to divert drug offenders from jails and prisons to community-based drug treatment services. For this strategy to succeed, local officials will need to expand the availability of outpatient and residential treatment programs and address the barriers to siting treatment services, the most significant of which are community opposition and government zoning policies that facilitate community resistance. Civil rights laws, including the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act (FHA), prohibit zoning discrimination against persons with histories of alcoholism and drug dependence and provide a solid legal foundation for …

Teaching Tips: Personal Criminal History Analysis Paper, Gordon Crews, Angela Crews

Angela Crews

Students often have difficulty visualizing the practical application of criminological theory. The following activity assists instructors to develop students‘ abilities in evaluating behaviors and determining the theoretical perspectives that potentially could be used to explain those behaviors. It also is designed to assist students in comprehending how their own experiences impact their views on law-violating behavior and its etiology. This exercise facilitates students‘ awareness of how their beliefs about the causes of law-violating behavior inevitably impact their beliefs about potential solutions or responses to this type of behavior. Eventually, students unfailingly begin to realize the artificial dichotomy between us, as …

The Death Penalty In The Twenty-First Century , Stephen B. Bright, Edward Chikofsky, Laurie Ekstrand, Harriet C. Ganson, Paul D. Kamenar, Robert E. Morin, William G. Otis, Jasmin Raskin, Ira P. Robbins, Diann Rust-Tierney, Charles F. Shilling, Andrew L. Sooner, Ronald J. Rabak, David V. Drehle, James Wootton

Ira P. Robbins

No abstract provided.

The Prosecutor As Minister Of Justice: Preaching To The Unconverted From The Post-Conviction Pulpit, Daniel S. Medwed

Daniel S. Medwed

This Article, which is part of a symposium on prosecutorial ethics, urges for a fuller realization of the minister of justice ideal for prosecutors in the post-conviction process where the factual innocence of a criminal defendant is in question. Specifically, to truly effectuate the minister of justice goal, prosecutors should take a more active part in rectifying wrongful convictions by considering the formation of internal post-conviction review boards or "innocence units" geared toward ferreting out potential wrongful convictions and assisting in presenting them to courts. Part I of this Article discusses the minister of justice ideal for prosecutors, as articulated …

Beyond Biology: Wrongful Convictions In The Post-Dna World, Daniel S. Medwed

Daniel S. Medwed

Post-conviction DNA testing first exonerated an innocent prisoner nearly twenty years ago. During this period, we have learned many lessons from the 200 subsequent DNA exonerations, including insight into the factors that led to those wrongful convictions at trial and the procedural obstacles that can make it difficult for inmates whose cases contain biological evidence to procure DNA testing after conviction. Yet, as I have often written in the past, these exonerations are just the tip of the proverbial innocence iceberg. As a threshold matter, very few criminal investigations result in the collection of biological evidence whatsoever; over time, moreover, …

Conditions Of Pre-Trial Bail In Texas -- Oppressive And Excessive?, Charles B. Frye

Charles B Frye

Judges have wide discretion in not only setting the amount of the pre-trial bond in a criminal case, but also in requiring "conditions" which apply to the defendant's behavior during pre-trial release. Often, these conditions are as onerous as the punishment for the crime for which the defendant has been accused, but not yet convicted.

Misdemeanors, Alexandra Natapoff

Alexandra Natapoff

The New Scheme For Foreign National Prisoners: Vigilance Is Key, Patrick Matthew Hassan-Morlai

Patrick Matthew Hassan-Morlai

The provision governing the Tariff Expired Removal Scheme (TERS) is contained in section 32A of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 as inserted by section 119 of the LASPO Act. In broad terms, TERS applies only to foreign national prisoners whom the secretary of state can remove from the UK if the foreign national prisoner is serving a life sentence that includes an IPP sentence, has served their minimum term, i.e. tariff, and is liable to removal from the UK. Section 119 adopts the definition of liability to removal from the UK in section 259 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

The Icc Against Entrenching Impunity: The African Tenth Anniversary View’, Lucky Michael Mgimba Mr.

Lucky Michael Mgimba

For most of the 20th century the International legal community with Africa Inclusive worked towards the creation of a permanent international criminal court. Upon which the goal of establishing a permanent institution to prosecute the most egregious violations of international criminal law culminated with the formation of the International criminal Court (ICC). As it enters its Tenth anniversary, the ICC vested with the power to prosecute the four categories of offences: the crime of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, and the Crime of Aggression which are in essence the most serious crimes of international concern was indeed a reverie …

Smuggling Of Asylum-Seekers And Criminal Justice, Vladislava Stoyanova

Vladislava Stoyanova

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the legal implications for asylum-seekers flowing from their resort to falsified documents as a method of gaining access to the territory of asylum countries. Article 31(1) of the Refugee Convention is supposed to act as a shield against punishment for illegal entry. However, the paper identifies four issues relating to the application of Article 31 which make the functioning of the shield difficult. The first issue relates to the procedure of applying Article 31 and in particular the interrelationship between the refugee status determination procedure and the criminal procedure initiated as a …

The Proscription Of Incorporated Law Practices (Ilps) In Nigeria: The Legal And Constitutional Issues Arising, Abdullahi Saliu Ishola

Abdullahi Saliu Ishola

This paper critically examines the legality and constitutionality of the provision of Rule 5 sub-rule (5) of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners, 2007 (the Rules), prohibiting the practice of law in Nigeria as a corporation. The appraisal is done on the scales of the provisions of Sections 40 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended (the Constitution), providing for rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly and freedom from discrimination, respectively; on one hand, and, Section 18 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), allowing any two or …

The Newest Jim Crow And The Incarceration Of Black Males, Edward Earl Bell

Dr. Edward E. Bell

Black males are in jail. Are "we" to blame? The New Jim Crow is alive.

Medical Oxymoron Or Necessary Prevention Of Repeat Sex Offenses: An Examination Of The Appropriateness Of Existing Chemical Castration Statutes, Robert Watters

Robert Watters

The current chemical castration statutes in six states are full of logical constitutional, medical and ethical questions and concerns. The basis for the criticism can be traced to how the schemes were developed compared to the those used in Europe. The castration statutes enacted after long trial and error periods are, therefore, easily discernible from those signed into law quickly as a reaction to some outside event.

Race And The Doctrine Of Self Defense: The Role Of Race In Determining The Proper Use Of Force To Protect Oneself, Richard Klein

Richard Daniel Klein

No abstract provided.

Ensuring Fair Trial In Cases Of Children In Conflict With The Laws: The Tanzanian Paradox’, Lucky Mgimba

Lucky Michael Mgimba

The Issue of managing or dealing with children coming into conflict with the law has historically haunted nations and Tanzania is no exception. Although there have already been important headways, much remains to be done in ensuring a child friendly justice system in Tanzania. This work comes in place to analyze the legal and institutional framework under the International, regional and national (Tanzanian) levels; with a view of determining as to how much consistent are they with the accepted legal standards. It however ends by recommending a Child friendly justice system which aims at restorative justice.

8. Child Witnesses And The Confrontation Clause., Thomas D. Lyon, Julia A. Dente

Thomas D. Lyon

Hollywood's White Legal Heroes And The Legacy Of Slave Codes, Katie Rose Guest Pryal

Katie Rose Guest Pryal

This chapter explores the portrayal of black defendants in mainstream legal cinema and draws connections between these portrayals, the legacy of slave codes, and the Supreme Court's rejection of statistical and historical proof of racism in the application of the death penalty. I focus on a sub-genre of legal cinema, what I call the "White Legal Hero" narrative. The typical white legal hero film tells the story of an innocent or otherwise righteous black male defendant facing a capital charge. He is represented by a white male "hero" lawyer who tries to overcome the racist justice system. The failure of …

Ten Questions With Beau James Brock, Pamela Labbe

Beau James Brock

Interview of Beau James Brock published in the Baton Rouge Bar Association legal journal, Around the Bar.