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Articles 1 - 30 of 97
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Picking Up The Pieces Of The Gordian Knot: Towards A Sensible Merger Methodology, Bruce A. Antkowiak
Picking Up The Pieces Of The Gordian Knot: Towards A Sensible Merger Methodology, Bruce A. Antkowiak
ExpressO
This question of merger is one of the most perplexing that courts face in the criminal sentencing process. This article not only explores that question but proposes specific new methods a court may use to resolve this question in a way consonant with the Constitution and the intent of the legislature.
The article takes as its starting point a brilliant analysis of the Double Jeopardy doctrine set out by Professor Ann Poulin of Villanova Law School in an article entitled Double Jeopardy and Multiple Punishment: Cutting the Gordian Knot, 77 U. Colo. L. Rev. 595 (2006). Professor Poulin’s work demonstrates …
An Unprecedented Curtailment Of Liberty: Samson V. California And Its Gift Of A Limitless Blank Check For “Arbitrary, Capricious, Or Harassing” Searches And Seizures , Jillian Ostrove
ExpressO
No abstract provided.
Child Statements In A Post-Crawford World: What The United States Supreme Court Failed To Consider With Regard To Child Victims And Witnesses, Allie Phillips
Child Statements In A Post-Crawford World: What The United States Supreme Court Failed To Consider With Regard To Child Victims And Witnesses, Allie Phillips
ExpressO
With the issuance of Crawford v. Washington, 514 U.S. 36 (2004), by the United States Supreme Court on March 8, 2004, wide spread confusion and concern swept through the nation’s prosecutorial community. The new rule announced in Crawford created too many questions and provided few answers by the Court. In particular, anxiety arose from the child protection community in regard to one primary issue: Are forensic interviews of child victims and witnesses, and other statements made by children, considered “testimonial statements” according to Crawford, thus requiring the child to take the witness stand? The Court further confused the new rule …
Detention For The Purpose Of Interrogation As Modern "Torture", Rinat Kitai-Sangero
Detention For The Purpose Of Interrogation As Modern "Torture", Rinat Kitai-Sangero
ExpressO
Although the Court in Miranda stated that custodial interrogation is designed to undermine the will of the interogee, it has not prohibited the admission of confession given under such circumstances. It rather assumed that it is possible to dispel the pressures of a custodial interrogation by means of proper safeguards. The article claims that there is no plausible way to dispel the coercive atmosphere engendered by a custodial interrogation. Custody today constitutes a refined version of torture used in the past in order to extract confessions. Consequently, the confession of a suspect under circumstances of custodial interrogation is involuntary and …
Taking Judicial Notice Of Genocide? The Problematic Law And Policy Of The Karemera Decision, Ralph Mamiya
Taking Judicial Notice Of Genocide? The Problematic Law And Policy Of The Karemera Decision, Ralph Mamiya
ExpressO
On June 16, 2006, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda issued a decision in Prosecutor v. Karemera taking judicial notice of the fact that genocide occurred in Rwanda in 1994. This decision startled many court observers. While no internationally respected commentator would today question whether the Rwanda genocide took place, should such an event be judicially noticed without evidence? This paper examines that question, arguing that the ICTR Appeals Chamber’s expansive use of judicial notice in Karemera was both illogical and unwise. Genocide, whether as an historical fact or legal charge, fails to meet the “common …
Death Penalty Jurisprudence In New York And The Supremacy Clause Of The United States Constitution: How Supreme Is It ?, Joseph E. Fahey
Death Penalty Jurisprudence In New York And The Supremacy Clause Of The United States Constitution: How Supreme Is It ?, Joseph E. Fahey
ExpressO
This article deals with the treatment of the Supremacy Clause by the New York Court of Appeals in the evolution of its death penalty jurisprudence. It traces the application of the Clause by the Court and its abandonment in its imposition of stronger guarantees under the New York State Constitution
A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp
A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp
ExpressO
The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.
Combating Terrorism In Bosnia-Herzegovina: Explaining And Assessing Article 201 Of The Bosnian Criminal Code, Henry M. Lovat
Combating Terrorism In Bosnia-Herzegovina: Explaining And Assessing Article 201 Of The Bosnian Criminal Code, Henry M. Lovat
ExpressO
This paper explores the legal measures that have been enacted in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) to counter the threat of terrorism, focusing particularly on the international and domestic political context in which the reform of the Bosnian criminal code was carried out, on the apparent origins of Article 201 of the BiH criminal code in the European Union Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism of June 2002 and on the strengths and weaknesses of this definition in the Bosnian context. The paper argues firstly that the events of 9/11, while certainly of significance, were less salient to the definition of terrorism adopted in …
Off To Elba: The Legitimacy Of Sex Offender Residence And Employment Restrictions, Joseph L. Lester
Off To Elba: The Legitimacy Of Sex Offender Residence And Employment Restrictions, Joseph L. Lester
ExpressO
Overborne by a mob mentality for justice, officials at every level of government are enacting laws that effectively exile convicted sex offenders from their midst with little contemplation as to the appropriateness or constitutionality of their actions. These laws fundamentally alter the liberties and freedom of convicted sex offenders to satisfy the ignorant fear of the masses. As a result, residence and employment restrictions which in theory are to protect society, in practice only exacerbate the perceived recidivism problem. When such laws are passed and the political process is broken, it is necessary for the judicial branch to step forward …
Troubles With Hiibel: How The Court Inverted The Relationship Between Citizens And The State, John A. Fennel, Richard Sobel
Troubles With Hiibel: How The Court Inverted The Relationship Between Citizens And The State, John A. Fennel, Richard Sobel
ExpressO
This essay shows why the Supreme Court’s decision in Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District of Nevada violates precedent, the Constitution, and the very basis for the relationship between government and the governed. First, the Court has violated the clear limits Terry v. Ohio set on the restricted searches based on reasonable suspicion within the restrictions of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. By using the power of the state to compel citizens to produce identification, it also violates the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments as well as the unenumerated rights that conceptually link the enumerated rights in the Court’s jurisprudence. Finally, …
Turning A Blind Eye To Misleading Scientific Testimony: Failure Of Procedural Safeguards In A Capital Case, William C. Thompson
Turning A Blind Eye To Misleading Scientific Testimony: Failure Of Procedural Safeguards In A Capital Case, William C. Thompson
ExpressO
In September 1999, Robin Lovitt was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a pool hall manager in Arlington, Virginia. The DNA evidence that was a key part of the government’s case was presented in a misleading and unfair manner. In this case study, we first examine the way in which DNA evidence was misused. We then discuss the failure of the legal system at all levels to recognize and remedy this problem. Our goal is to explain how a system that supposedly leaves no stone unturned in capital trials managed to miss or ignore a crucial problem …
Wallace V. City Of Chicago And Accrual Of 1983 Claims, Michael D. Frisch
Wallace V. City Of Chicago And Accrual Of 1983 Claims, Michael D. Frisch
ExpressO
This comment will analyze the recent 7th circuit case, Wallace v. City of Chicago. By ruling that claims under 1983 accrue from the moment of the injury, Wallace basically prevents convicts from recovering under 1983. I will examine the case and suggest resolutions for when the Supreme Court hears the case this term. See 440 F.3d 421
One Small Step: The Past, Present, And Future Of The Federal Sentencing System , Matthew Jill
One Small Step: The Past, Present, And Future Of The Federal Sentencing System , Matthew Jill
ExpressO
The federal sentencing guidelines, which focus on offense based statistical consistency, had a ripple effect that molded the entire federal sentencing system in it’s wake; this article is an individual case study demonstrating the flaws of a consistency based sentencing system, the injustice such a system can create, and why United States v. Booker is only the first step in creating a fair and effective sentencing system.
Herding Bullfrogs Towards A More Balanced Wheelbarrow: An Illustrative Recommendation For Federal Sentencing Post-Booker, Brian R. Gallini, Emily Q. Shults
Herding Bullfrogs Towards A More Balanced Wheelbarrow: An Illustrative Recommendation For Federal Sentencing Post-Booker, Brian R. Gallini, Emily Q. Shults
ExpressO
The Article argues in favor of shifting the balance in federal sentencing toward a more indeterminate system. By exploring the post-Booker legal landscape at both the federal and state levels, the Article asserts that the judiciary's continued reliance on the “advisory" Guidelines has practically changed federal sentencing procedures very little in form or function. Accordingly, the Article proffers that, rather than insisting upon the Guidelines' immutability, federal sentencing would do well to reflect upon its own history, and the evolution of its state counterparts.
Losing Control: Regulating Situational Crime Prevention In Mass Private Space, Robert E. Pfeffer
Losing Control: Regulating Situational Crime Prevention In Mass Private Space, Robert E. Pfeffer
ExpressO
In this article the author puts forth an approach to regulating Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) (i.e. steps to preemptively eliminate or reduce crime, such as preemptive exclusion and closed circuit TV monitoring in Mass Private Space (i.e. private property that has characteristics normally associated with public spaces, such as a large shopping mall).
It has become increasingly common for owners of mass private space to employ SCP techniques such as close circuit television monitoring, exclusion of persons based upon behavior or risk factors and limits on attire, such as colors associated with gangs. While there has been a lively scholarly …
Corporations And Social Costs: The Wal-Mart Case Study, Benedict Sheehy
Corporations And Social Costs: The Wal-Mart Case Study, Benedict Sheehy
ExpressO
This article examines the role of the corporate vehicle in the creation of social costs. The article identifies some of the political commitments and philosophies behind the differing notions of corporations. Social costs are those activities which result from business activity and cause uncompensated harm to society. The founding contribution to the law and economics discussion by Ronald Coase is given a thorough treatment. The paper next, turns to the dominant explanation of corporate structure, namely the law and economics model developed expounded by Easterbrook and Fischel. It then applies the theoretical discussion in a case study of the world’s …
Conversational Standing: A New Approach To An Old Privacy Problem, Christopher M. Drake
Conversational Standing: A New Approach To An Old Privacy Problem, Christopher M. Drake
ExpressO
American society has long considered certain conversations private amongst the participants in those conversations. In other words, when two or more people are conversing in a variety of settings and through a variety of media, there are times when all parties to the conversation can reasonably expect freedom from improper government intrusion, whether through direct participation or secret monitoring. This shared expectation of privacy has been slow to gain judicial recognition. Courts have indicated that the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution only protects certain elements of the conversation, such as where and how it takes place, but that …
Toward An International Criminal Procedure: Due Process Aspirations And Limitations, Gregory S. Gordon
Toward An International Criminal Procedure: Due Process Aspirations And Limitations, Gregory S. Gordon
ExpressO
The breathtaking growth of international criminal law over the past decade has resulted in the prosecution of Balkan and Rwandan mass murderers, the development of a substantial body of atrocity law jurisprudence and the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court with jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The growth of international criminal procedure, unfortunately, has not kept pace. Among its shortcomings, critics have pointed to lengthy pre-trial detention without a real possibility of provisional release, the use of affidavits and transcripts instead of live witnesses at trial, the absence of juries, and the right of prosecutorial …
Cyberstalking, A New Crime: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Current State And Federal Laws, Naomi Harlin Goodno
Cyberstalking, A New Crime: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Current State And Federal Laws, Naomi Harlin Goodno
ExpressO
Imagine a distressed woman discovering the following message on the Internet that was falsely attributed to her: “Female International Author, no limits to imagination and fantasies, prefers group macho/sadistic interaction . . . stop by my house at [current address] . . . . Will take calls day or night at [current telephone number] . . . I promise you everything you ever dreamt about. Serious responses only.” This is an example of cyberstalking – which involves the use of the Internet, e-mail, or other means of electronic communication to stalk another individual. Current statistics suggest that tens of thousands …
Searches & The Misunderstood History Of Suspicion & Probable Cause: Part One, Fabio Arcila
Searches & The Misunderstood History Of Suspicion & Probable Cause: Part One, Fabio Arcila
ExpressO
This article, the first of a two-part series, argues that during the Framers’ era many if not most judges believed they could issue search warrants without independently assessing the adequacy of probable cause, and that this view persisted even after the Fourth Amendment became effective. This argument challenges the leading originalist account of the Fourth Amendment, which Professor Thomas Davies published in the Michigan Law Review in 1999.
The focus in this first article is upon an analysis of the common law and how it reflected the Fourth Amendment’s restrictions. Learned treatises in particular, and to a lesser extent a …
Executive-Branch Regulation Of Criminal Defense Counsel, Darryl K. Brown
Executive-Branch Regulation Of Criminal Defense Counsel, Darryl K. Brown
ExpressO
The dominant story of American political process and criminal law is one of democratic dysfunction. Criminal law is a distinctive issue for legislatures and democratic politics generally. Legislators respond to strong majoritarian preferences that make votes against crime creation—or votes to repeal antiquated crimes—politically implausible. Thus criminal law is “one-way ratchet”: it expands but does not contract. On this account, America’s excessive criminal codes are products of structural failures in political process and democratic institutions.
Yet this story fails to account for much of American criminal law policy and practice. As this article documents in the first systematic study of …
Rethinking Civil Contempt Incarceration, Jessica C. Kornberg
Rethinking Civil Contempt Incarceration, Jessica C. Kornberg
ExpressO
Under current federal law civil contempt is governed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, yet it often results in incarceration. This incarceration can, and in a few cases has been, indefinite. The unlimited duration of civil contempt represents the pinnacle of judicial power, and yet it is a topic which has generated surprisingly little scholarship or case law. This Article explores the history and development of modern contempt law, and finds that while the federal law treats all civil contemnors equally, historically and in many states, contemnors are classified by the type of civil contempt committed. This Article proposes …
Criminal Law Beyond The State: Popular Trials On The Frontier, Andrea Mcdowell
Criminal Law Beyond The State: Popular Trials On The Frontier, Andrea Mcdowell
ExpressO
Before the civil war, “lynching” signified all forms of group-inflicted punishments, including vigilantism and mob killings. By this definition, lynchings happen in every country. Only in America, however, was lynching widespread and socially accepted. Scholars say this shows that the American commitment to due process often succumbed to “vigilante values,” that is, the desire for speedy, certain and severe penalties. They contend that vigilante values triumphed on the frontier, where courts were weak and vigilance committees strong. This article demonstrates that this view must be substantially qualified because due process was of great concern to Americans on the frontier, especially …
The Crimmigration Crisis: Immigrants, Crime, & Sovereign Power, Juliet P. Stumpf
The Crimmigration Crisis: Immigrants, Crime, & Sovereign Power, Juliet P. Stumpf
ExpressO
This article provides a fresh theoretical perspective on the most important development in immigration law today: the convergence of immigration and criminal law. Although the connection between immigration and criminal law, or “crimmigration law,” is now the subject of national debate, scholarship in this area is in a fledgling state. This article begins to fill that void. It proposes a unifying theory – membership theory – for why these two areas of law recently have become so connected, and why that convergence is troubling. Membership theory restricts individual rights and privileges to those who are members of a social contract …
Stuck In The Thicket: Struggling With Interpretation And Application Of California's Anti-Gang Step Act, Martin Baker
Stuck In The Thicket: Struggling With Interpretation And Application Of California's Anti-Gang Step Act, Martin Baker
ExpressO
California’s Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act (Penal Code Sections 186.20 et seq.) was enacted in 1988 in response to a perceived “state of crisis . . . caused by violent street gangs” throughout the state. The “STEP” Act created a distinct crime of active participation in a criminal street gang, as well as providing enhanced penalties for any crime committed with the intent to facilitate criminal gang activity.
Since its enactment, the poorly drafted Act—described by the California Supreme Court as a “thicket of statutory construction”—has produced an array of conflicting and vague appellate opinions. This article examines the …
The Liberal Assault On The Fourth Amendment, Christopher Slobogin
The Liberal Assault On The Fourth Amendment, Christopher Slobogin
ExpressO
The Liberal Assault on the Fourth Amendment Christopher Slobogin As construed by the Supreme Court, the Fourth Amendment’s reasonableness requirement regulates overt, non-regulatory government searches of homes, cars, and personal effects–-and virtually nothing else. This essay is primarily about how we got to this point. It is fashionable to place much of the blame for today’s law on the Warren Court’s adoption of the malleable expectation of privacy concept as the core value protected by the Fourth Amendment. But this diagnosis fails to explain why even the more liberal justices have often gone along with many of the privacy-diminishing holdings …
Courts, Cops, Citizens, And Criminals, Justin David Heminger
Courts, Cops, Citizens, And Criminals, Justin David Heminger
ExpressO
The Supreme Court's 4-1-4 split decision in Missouri v. Seibert causes confusion with regard to question-first Miranda violations. Courts apply a Marks narrowest ground analysis to decide which opinion in Seibert is controlling. However, the majority approach to Seibert, which finds Justice Kennedy's concurrence controlling, is incorrect. Instead, lower courts should resolve question-first Miranda violations by applying legal principles expressed in the plurality's decision.
No Due Process: How The Death Penalty Violates The Constitutional Rights Of The Family Members Of Death Row Prisoners, Rachel C. King
No Due Process: How The Death Penalty Violates The Constitutional Rights Of The Family Members Of Death Row Prisoners, Rachel C. King
ExpressO
The article makes the case for a novel theory that the death penalty violates the constitutional rights of the family members of death row prisoners. First, the article establishes that Americans are entitled to a fundamental “right to family,” based on a long history of Supreme Court jurisprudence that has established substantive due process rights such as the right to marry, to use contraceptives, to have children, to make educational decisions for children, and decisions about how to configure ones’ household. Next, the article makes the case that the death penalty interferes with the constitutional right to family by harming …
Technoconsen(T)Sus, Andrea M. Matwyshyn
Technoconsen(T)Sus, Andrea M. Matwyshyn
ExpressO
Law is contributing to an information security paradox. Consumers are regularly “consenting” to the installation of computer code that makes them more vulnerable to harms such as identity theft. In particular, digital rights management technology accompanying digital music has recently left a wake of compromised user machines. Using the case study of security-invasive digital rights management technology, this article argues that a fundamental tension exists among intellectual property law, computer intrusion law and contract law regarding meaningful consumer consent in digital contexts. This article proposes to ease the noise in consent doctrine through creating an objective “reasonable digital consumer” standard …
Beyond Conspiracy? Anticipatory Prosecution And The Challenge Of Unaffiliated Terrorism, Robert Chesney
Beyond Conspiracy? Anticipatory Prosecution And The Challenge Of Unaffiliated Terrorism, Robert Chesney
ExpressO
How early does criminal liability attach along the continuum between planning and committing a terrorist act? And in light of the answer to that question, have we struck an appropriate balance between the benefits of prevention and the off-setting costs in terms of a potentially-increased rate of false-positives and foregone opportunities to gather additional intelligence and evidence? These questions are pressing, particularly in light of statements from senior government officials that the Justice Department will be “forward-leaning” in its interpretation of its anticipatory-prosecution powers. My aim in this article is to establish a shared understanding regarding the first question in …