Digital Commons Network^™

Prior Racist Acts And The Character Evidence Ban In Hate Crime Prosecutions, Paul F. Rothstein, Ronald J. Coleman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The killing of unarmed African-American Ahmaud Arbery and others ignited a wave of public outrage and re-focused attention on race and the criminal justice system. During the recent federal hate crimes proceedings for Arbery’s death, the prosecution introduced evidence relating to the alleged past racist acts of the defendants. This type of evidence may be seen as highly probative and desperately needed to do justice in hate crimes cases. On its face, however, such type of evidence appears to be inadmissible owing to the well-known—but little understood— evidentiary ban on character evidence prescribed in Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) and …

When We Need Someone To Blame: Officer Suicide, Justice, And The Felony Murder Rule In The Casey White Case, Mallory Sadler

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Barrock Lecture: Democracy In The Criminal Justice System: An Assessment, Carissa Byrne Hessick

Marquette Law Review

None.

Law School News: Joyce And Bill Cummings Of Cummings Foundation To Deliver Keynote Address At Rwu Commencement 4-20-2023, Jill Rodrigues

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Changemakers: The Long Road To The Law : Kiron Ireland, Michelle Choate

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Should Prison Be Abolished? 10-6-2022, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

'To Empower And Amplify Lgbtq+ Voices' 09-16-2022, Michelle Choate

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

My Three Criminal Justice Careers, Brisa Sanchez

Undergraduate Scholarly Works

This undergrad research paper is about the basics of the three components of criminal justice careers and the careers and salaries they do for a living.

Credible: Why We Doubt Accusers And Protect Abusers: A Book Talk With Author Deborah Tuerkheimer, Deborah Tuerkheimer, Emily Sack

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Hip Hop And The Law : Presented By Intellectual Property Law Association 03/31/2022, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Extraordinary (Circumstances) Injustice, Melissa Capalbo

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The box . . . . It’s a small room, so you really don’t move
around a lot. You wake up, and there’s a toilet right next to
your head. You look out the window and you see birds fly-
ing, and that only leads your mind into wanting freedom
more. And since it’s a small room, it makes you think cra-
zy. . . .Right now, I’m five-foot-seven. I grew. I came here
when I was five feet tall.

This is Rikers Island. The 19-year-old boy who shared his story is certainly not alone. Thousands of youth from …

Citizen's Arrest And Race, Ira P. Robbins

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

I begin with a mea culpa. In 2016, I published an article about citizen’s arrest. The idea for the article arose in 2014, when a disgruntled Virginia citizen attempted to arrest a law school professor while class was in progress. I set out to research and write a “traditional” law review article. In it, I traced the origins of the doctrine of citizen’s arrest to medieval England, imposing a positive duty on citizens to assist the King in seeking out suspected offenders and detaining them. I observed that the need for citizen’s arrest lessened with the development of organized and …

Changemakers: Master Of Studies In Law: 'Radical Imagination, Radical Listening', Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Changemakers: To Empower And Amplify Lgbtq+ Voices, Michelle Choate

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Changemakers: Master Of Studies In Law: 'Law Isn't A Foreign Language Anymore', Roger Williams University School O Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Police Or Pirates? Reforming Washington's Civil Asset Forfeiture System, Jasmin Chigbrow

Washington Law Review

Civil asset forfeiture laws permit police officers to seize property they suspect is connected to criminal activity and sell or retain the property for the police department’s use. In many states, including Washington, civil forfeiture occurs independent of any criminal case—many property owners are never charged with the offense police allege occurred. Because the government is not required to file criminal charges, property owners facing civil forfeiture lack the constitutional safeguards normally guaranteed to defendants in the criminal justice system: the right to an attorney, the presumption of innocence, the government’s burden to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, …

Talking Back In Court, M. Eve Hanan

Washington Law Review

People charged with crimes often speak directly to the judge presiding over their case. Yet, what can be seen in courtrooms across the U.S. is that defendants rarely “talk back” in court, meaning that they rarely challenge authority’s view of the law, the crime, the defendant, the court’s procedure, or the fairness of the proposed sentence.

With few exceptions, legal scholars have treated the occasions when defendants speak directly to the court as a problem to be solved by appointing more lawyers and better lawyers. While effective representation is crucial, this Article starts from the premise that defendants have important …

Rwu Law News: The Newsletter Of Roger Williams University School Of Law 04-2021, Michael M. Bowden, Barry Bridges, Political Roundtable

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

2021: How Gender And Race Affect Justice Now - Final Report, Justice Sheryl Gordon Mccloud, Dana Raigrodski, Sierra Rotakhina, Kelley Amburgey-Richardson

Books

In 1989, the Washington Supreme Court’s Task Force on Gender and Justice in the Courts produced a groundbreaking report on the impact of gender on selected areas of the law. It concluded that gender did affect the availability of justice. We – the Washington State Supreme Court Gender and Justice Commission – are a product of that report and its recommendations. Now, in 2021, we have completed our follow-up study.

Our legal and social science research, our data collection, and our independent pilot projects all led us to the same frustrating conclusion about the effect of gender in Washington State …

Gamble V. United States: Military Justice In Absence Of Double Jeopardy, Kelsi B. White

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law School News: 'Law Isn't A Foreign Language Anymore' 11/24/2020, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Same Grid, Different Results: Criminal Sentencing Disparities Between Arkansas Counties, Alexis Stevens

Arkansas Law Review

Abraham Davis is a resident of Fort Smith, Arkansas—and a convicted felon. In May of 2017, the Sebastian County Circuit Court, Fort Smith District, charged Davis with criminal mischief in the first degree, as a Class D felony, for purposely destroying the property of another. Davis’s charge resulted in a criminal sentence ranging from as little as probation to as much as 6 years jail time and/or up to $10,000.00 in fines. This sentencing determination is generally allocated to the judge and prosecutor. However, victim intervention persuaded the court to release Davis on probation, sparing him from a much harsher …

Law School News: Olin W. Thompson, Iii: Doctor Of Laws, Honoris Causa 05-08-2020, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Revolving Door Of Recidivism, Laura E. Bull

Classical Conversations

With the rise in the use of prisons, recidivism also grew. Recidivism, in the broadest sense, is the act of a past offender coming back into contact with the justice system. Prisons have been used as far back as the fourth century, but over time their purpose has changed. Today in the United States, the main purpose of prisons is rehabilitation. The most recent law, the First Steps Act, reflects the desire to reduce the trend of recidivism. Many programs have been used as a method of reducing recidivism. Recidivism is a cycle of pain, creating jaded prisoners and placing …

Law School News: 'Injustice Dehumanizes Everyone It Touches' 1-31-2020, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The 15th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Keynote Address 1-28-2020, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Michael M. Bowden, Andrea Hansen

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Ethical Considerations For Prosecutors: How Recent Advancements Have Changed The Face Of Prosecution, Joshua L. Sandoval

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

The prosecutor acts as a minister of justice with sweeping discretion to charge an individual with a crime, plea a case in a manner supported by the strength of the evidence, proceed to trial on a case, and even dismiss a case. He must balance the interest of the victim, the community, and the constitutional rights of the accused in every decision he makes.

This article will explore the role of the American prosecutor and discuss various ethical issues encountered on a daily basis. After a brief introduction, the author will succinctly discuss the history of the prosecutor and will …

Detention By Any Other Name, Sandra G. Mayson

Scholarly Works

An unaffordable bail requirement has precisely the same effect as an order of pretrial detention: the accused person is jailed pending trial. It follows as a logical matter that an order requiring an unaffordable bail bond as a condition of release should be subject to the same substantive and procedural protections as an order denying bail altogether. Yet this has not been the practice.

This Article lays out the logical and legal case for the proposition that an order that functionally imposes detention must be treated as an order of detention. It addresses counterarguments and complexities, including both empirical and …

Law Symposium: Adjudicating Sexual Misconduct On Campus: Title Ix And Due Process In Uncertain Times, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Michael M. Bowden

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Brett Kavanaugh Vs. The Exonerated Central Park Five: Exposing The President's "Presumption Of Innocence" Double Standard, Sofia Yakren

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

In the service of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the United States Supreme Court, the President of the United States (and Republican Senators) both misappropriated and further eroded the already compromised concepts of due process and presumption of innocence. This Essay uses the prominent “Central Park Five” case in which five teenagers of color were wrongly convicted of a white woman’s widely-publicized beating and rape to expose the President’s disparate use of the presumption along race and status lines. This narrative is consistent with larger systemic inequities that leave poor black and brown criminal defendants less likely to benefit …