Digital Commons Network^™

Racial Discrimination In Jury Selection: The Urgent Need For Sixth Amendment Protections For Black Capital Defendants, Claire Austin

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

In the U.S., death row is made up of a disproportionate number of black persons. In capital trials, black defendants often face all white juries. The deep-rooted racial discrimination in the justice system impacts jury selection because prosecutors use peremptory strikes to remove black jurors from the jury panel. As the law stands today, the Sixth Amendment guarantee of an impartial jury made up of a fair representation of the jury applies only to the pool of jurors called in for jury service, not those who are actually selected to hear the case.

This comment analyzes the Supreme Court decision, …

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

Marquette Law Review

None.

Punitive Instead Of Rehabilitative: The Role Of Restitution In The Juvenile Justice System And The Need For Reconstruction, Sydney Ford

Georgia Criminal Law Review

The juvenile justice system was founded on the premise of giving specific attention to the needs of youth and rehabilitating them. Over the years, the juvenile justice system evolved to include more rights and protections for youth while still maintaining that their goal was to rehabilitate justice-involved youth. Restitution, one method of disposition, began as a way to continue this rehabilitation-based mission and provide an alternative to incarceration. However, rehabilitation’s disproportionate and punitive application, with a lack of consistency across state lines, does not coincide with rehabilitation anymore. This article argues that restitution does not align with rehabilitation, the core …

Legalize For Legal Highs: How Georgia Can Address Racial Disparities In The Criminal Legal System By Legalizing Recreational Cannabis, Nneka Ewulonu

Georgia Criminal Law Review

Cannabis prohibition is a policy failure that nevertheless continues to impact more than half of Americans, including Georgians. Remaining true to its roots in racism and xenophobia, cannabis criminalization has disparate impacts, with Black Americans being more likely to be arrested or incarcerated for a cannabis related offense. Furthermore, cannabis criminalization results in tens of millions of missed tax dollars for the state. This article argues for a clear policy solution; it is time for Georgia to legalize cannabis. As demonstrated by the 21 states that have legalized recreational cannabis as of Fall 2022, legalizing recreational cannabis creates both economic …

Progressive Prosecution, Sherry Boston, Rachel Foran, Deborah Gonzalez

Georgia Criminal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Juvenile Sentencing In Georgia, Randee Waldman, Emily Boness, Kaitlyn Barnes, Aakeem Woodard

Georgia Criminal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Carl Vinson Institute Presentation, Holly Lynde

Georgia Criminal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Event Overview, Georgia Criminal Law Review Editors

Georgia Criminal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Georgia Criminal Law Review Editors

Georgia Criminal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Examining Remorse In Attributions Of Focal Concerns During Sentencing: A Study Of Probation Officers, Colleen M. Berryessa

International Journal on Responsibility

This research, using interviews with probation officers in the United States (n = 151) and a constant comparative method for analysis, draws from the focal concerns framework to qualitatively model a process by which probation officers use a defendant’s remorse to attribute focal concerns in order to guide their sentencing recommendations in pre-sentencing reports. The model suggests that officers use expressions of remorse to make attributions about mitigated criminal intention (blameworthiness and notions of responsibility), reduced dangerousness and a high potential for reform (community protection), and organization-level effects for increasing caseload efficiency and using correctional resources (practical effects of …

Lone Star Crime: The Criminal Enforcement Of Environmental Law In The State Of Texas, Dr. Joshua Ozymy, Dr. Melissa Jarrell Ozymy

St. Mary's Law Journal

Most transgressions of environmental law in the United States are remedied with civil or administrative tools. When crimes involve significant harm or culpable conduct, criminal enforcement tools may be applied. With the importance of environmental criminal enforcement for punishing offenders and deterring future offenses, we still have little empirical understanding of this phenomenon in Texas. We use content analysis of 2,588 federal environmental criminal prosecutions that result from EPA criminal investigations from 1983 to 2019 and select all prosecutions occurring in Texas. Our approach allows us to explore prosecution patterns over time, examine charging and sentencing trends, and draw out …

The History Of Forensic-Science Evidence In Criminal Trials And The Role Of Early “Success” In Establishing Its Putative Reliability, Carrie Leonetti

St. Mary's Law Journal

This Article posits the history of forensic-science evidence plays a significant role in the unquestioning manner of its modern acceptance. It traces early high-profile forensic science “successes” and the public reactions to them. It argues the public perception of the “advances” of forensic science continues to play a role in the lack of scrutiny given to these disciplines in admissibility decisions today. It concludes, when it comes to forensic science, history should play a different role by serving as a critical warning rather than a congratulatory buttress.

Texas Juvenile Justice: The Need For A “Second Look” At Juvenile Prison Sentences, Kyle Jenkins

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Meet Our New Faculty: Yvette Butler, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Associate Professor Yvette T. Butler joined the Indiana Law faculty this summer. She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota, Morris, and her law degree from The George Washington University Law School.

Victim Protection And The Dynamic Situation Of Human Trafficking: Indonesia Experience, Nathalina Naibaho

Indonesian Journal of International Law

Human trafficking is a global issue. It can arise in the context of national and/or transnational acts and are regulated by national and transnational criminal law mechanisms. However, in trafficking in person cases there are links between human trafficking and other related crimes such as drugs trafficking. Meanwhile, Indonesia has enacted laws which provide mandatory protection for victims of human trafficking. It also has mandatory drug laws which, in some cases, subject to the death penalty. This legislative conflict together with investigative and prosecutorial failure risks the conviction of human trafficked victims who are used as drug dealers in organized …

Why Abolishing The Insanity Defense Is Unconstitutional In Death Penalty Cases, Ashley Peterson

Idaho Law Review Spotlight

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Crisis: The Evolution Of Indigent Defense In Oregon, Molly Pettit

University Honors Theses

On any given day in Oregon, hundreds of people charged with a crime do not have an attorney to represent them. Many of these people are in custody, and some face charges as serious as murder. How did our public defense system reach the point of crisis? What can be done about it? This paper provides a general overview of the right to counsel nationally before narrowing the focus to the state of Oregon. Using scholarly articles, historical documents, footnotes, meeting transcripts, and interviews, I explore the beginnings of court-appointed counsel in Oregon, and document how it has grown and …

Arresting Assembly: An Argument Against Expanding Criminally Punishable Protest, Allison M. Freedman

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Youthful Offenders Sentencing Trends In Pennsylvania, Monika Nwajei

All Theses

The overwhelming majority of existing literature on the effects of age on judicial sentence decision-making focuses on juveniles (ages 18 and below) and older adults. This paper focuses on offenders between the ages of 18-29, who fall legally outside the definition of juvenile, yet do not have the full brain development or clinical maturity of an adult to provide knowledge of sentencing outcomes for different populations and a well-rounded review and critique of judicial sentence decision-making (Johnson, Blum, & Giedd, 2009). Using a series of logistic regression analyses on the Pennsylvania Commission Sentencing (PCS) data from 2001 to 2018, I …

The Trouble With Time Served, Kimberly Ferzan

All Faculty Scholarship

Every jurisdiction in the United States gives criminal defendants “credit” against their sentence for the time they spend detained pretrial. In a world of mass incarceration and overcriminalization that disproportionately impacts people of color, this practice appears to be a welcome mechanism for mercy and justice. In fact, however, crediting detainees for time served is perverse. It harms the innocent. A defendant who is found not guilty, or whose case is dismissed, gets nothing. Crediting time served also allows the state to avoid internalizing the full costs of pretrial detention, thereby making overinclusive detention standards less expensive. Finally, crediting time …

Criminalization Of Community-Based Ecotourism (Cbet) In Indonesia: The Cases Of Pari Island, Kepulauan Seribu, Janthi Dharma Shanty, Bono Budi Priambodo

Journal of Indonesian Tourism and Policy Studies

Pari islanders have revamped their island into cultural ecotourism destination since 2010. It has been successful because the activities have diverted the islanders’ dependence on the hard-pressed local coastal and fisheries resources and supplemented their income. This is a win-win situation the Indonesian government seeks to create with the 2007 Coastal Zone and Small Islands Management Law where natural conservation benefits local populace economically. The Law stipulates, among others, that community participation is one of the integrated coastal zone management principles. The Law also prioritizes coastal zones for conservation and tourism activities. Pari islanders thus have already implemented the imperatives …

Book Review: Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice: The Gerald Stanley And Colten Boushie Case, F. Tim Knight

Librarian Publications & Presentations

No abstract provided.

Why Judges Should Use 18 U.S.C. § 3553 To Assess Prison Sentences Qualitatively In The Context Of Collateral Relief, Luke Doughty

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Creating A People-First Court Data Framework, Lauren Sudeall, Charlotte S. Alexander

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Most court data are maintained--and most empirical court research is conducted--from the institutional vantage point of the courts. Using the case as the common unit of measurement, data-driven court research typically focuses on metrics such as the size of court dockets, the speed of case processing, judicial decision-making within cases, and the frequency of case events occurring within or resulting from the court system.

This Article sets forth a methodological framework for reconceptualizing and restructuring court data as "people-first"-centered not on the perspective of courts as institutions but on the people who interact with the court system. We reorganize case-level …

Race Ethics: Colorblind Formalism And Color-Coded Pragmatism In Lawyer Regulation, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

The recent, high-profile civil and criminal trials held in the aftermath of the George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery murders, the Kyle Rittenhouse killings, and the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" Rally violence renew debate over race, representation, and ethics in the U.S. civil and criminal justice systems. For civil rights lawyers, prosecutors, and criminal defense attorneys, neither the progress of post-war civil rights movements and criminal justice reform campaigns nor the advance of Critical Race Theory and social movement scholarship have resolved the debate over the use of race in pretrial, trial, and appellate advocacy, and in the lawyering process more …

Estimating The Impact Of The Age Of Criminal Majority: Decomposing Multiple Treatments In A Regression Discontinuity Framework, Michael Mueller-Smith, Benjamin David Pyle, Caroline Walker

Faculty Scholarship

This paper studies the impact of adult prosecution on recidivism and employment trajectories for adolescent, first-time felony defendants. We use extensive linked Criminal Justice Administrative Record System and socio-economic data from Wayne County, Michigan (Detroit). Using the discrete age of majority rule and a regression discontinuity design, we find that adult prosecution reduces future criminal charges over 5 years by 0.48 felony cases (↓ 20%) while also worsening labor market outcomes: 0.76 fewer employers (↓ 19%) and $674 fewer earnings (↓ 21%) per year. We develop a novel econometric framework that combines standard regression discontinuity methods with predictive machine learning …

Negligent Hiring: Recidivism And Employment With A Criminal Record, Benjamin David Pyle

Faculty Scholarship

This paper tackles a difficult legal and policy challenge—reducing the impact of criminal justice records on job applicants’ chances in a manner that does not spur more discrimination—by looking at how another area of law, tort liability, impacts employers’ decision-making. It uses theoretical and empirical methods to study the most common reason employers report being reluctant to hire workers with a criminal record: legal liability generated by the tort of negligent hiring. While the purpose of the tort is ostensibly to protect and make whole those harmed when an employee misbehaves in a foreseeable manner, I show that, in practice, …

Ketentuan Tpks Dalam Kuhp Baru, Leony Sondang Suryani, Ahmad Ghozi

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Isu kekerasan seksual terus berkembang sebagaimana perkembangan kejahatan terkait kekerasan seksual. Hal ini dilatarbelakangi oleh semakin maraknya kasus-kasus kekerasan seksual di Indonesia. Untuk menjawab permasalahan ini, maka dibentuklah UU TPKS sebagai solusi dari maraknya kekerasan seksual di Indonesia. Dalam UU TPKS tidak hanya berfokus pada korban perempuan dari tindak pidana kekerasan seksual, tetapi mencakup juga yang disebut kelompok rentan. Namun demikian, reformasi Hukum Pidana Indonesia mengenal adanya KUHP baru yang di dalamnya dimuat prinsip-prinsip penting dalam perumusan eperti rekodifikasi terbuka, prinsip Keseimbangan, dan prinsip lain yang relevan dalam penyusunan KUHP Indonesia. KUHP juga sudah mengadopsi nilai-nilai yang ada dalam konvensi-konvensi …

To The Court Of Last Resort: A Prosecutorial Roadmap In The Aftermath Of State Violence In Chile And Colombia, David F. Scollan

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

A great deal of academic research and writing has been done on the most glaring examples of war crimes and crimes against humanity. But, only a small cadre of authors have endeavored to identify the ‘lower limit’ of when state action qualifies as these heinous acts. This Note strives to add to that area of legal scholarship aimed at bringing instances of in-country state perpetrated violence out from the behind the veil of sovereign police action and into the spotlight to call them what they are: crimes worthy of international condemnation and punishment. Specifically, this Note unpacks two spasms of …

Sexual Assault Of Women And Adolescent Girls With Mental Disabilities, Janine Benedet, Isabel Grant

All Faculty Publications

This Report considers the research that addresses the sexual assault of women (age 18+) and adolescent girls (12-17) with mental disabilities (disabilities that affect cognition and decision-making, including intellectual disabilities present from birth, dementia, brain injury and certain psychiatric conditions.) These victims are targeted for sexual violence at rates even higher than for women generally. Yet when these women report abuse to authorities, the criminal trial process struggles to provide them with justice, while the consequences of disclosure can be severe and participation in the criminal justice process particularly traumatizing for them.