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Obama's Failed Attempt To Close Gitmo: Why Executive Orders Can't Bring About Systemic Change, Erin B. Corcoran

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Miscarriage Of Juvenile Justice: A Modern Day Parable Of The Unintended Results Of Bad Lawmaking, Amy Vorenberg

Law Faculty Scholarship

Sensationalized cases increasingly create the context for public policy discussion. Stories about violent crime are a common feature of the local evening news and their emotional nature can often create the hook politicians need to showcase their “tough on crime” agendas. Often anecdotal and lurid, stories of criminal misdeeds are widely used to convince the public of a need to create or change laws. This article demonstrates the perils of making law by extrapolating from a few random, albeit attention-grabbing, events. Specifically, the article examines the impact of a 1995 change in New Hampshire state law that lowered the age …

The Emerging Death Penalty Jurisprudence Of The Roberts Court, Kenneth C. Haas

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “In 1976, four years after finding the nation’s death penalty laws to be constitutionally flawed, the U.S. Supreme Court established the parameters of modern American death penalty jurisprudence. Since then the Court has gone through several phases. The Court proceeded cautiously from 1977 to 1982, limiting the death penalty to those who committed murder in a manner deemed especially heinous and despicable by judges and juries, requiring even-handedness and consistency in capital sentencing, and insisting that sentencing authorities examine the individual characteristics of each offender and the particular circumstances of his crime. From 1983 to 2001, however, the Court …

Completely Unguided Discretion: Admitting Non-Statutory Aggravating And Non-Statutory Mitigating Evidence In Capital Sentencing Trials, Sharon Turlington

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “As an attorney practicing exclusively in the area of death penalty defense at the trial level for the last ten years, my perspective on the problems inherent in the system seems vastly different from that presented in academic research and even in case law. While most of the recent changes in death penalty law have focused on the right of the defendant to have sentencing enhancing elements of an offense proven to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, much of the evidence presented in an actual death penalty jury trial is non-statutory aggravation and non-statutory mitigation. Generally, non-statutory aggravating …

Death Is Unconstitutional: How Capital Punishment Became Illegal In America—A Future History, Jur. Eric Engle Ph.D.

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “A constitution is an organic fact of every state: it is a part of the being of the state. People, like the state, also have a constitution—a character. Just as people change over time, so do states. But just as there are natural limits on what people can or cannot become, so there are natural limits on what the state can and cannot fairly do. No man, nor any group of men, ex ante may justly take the life of another person, though perhaps their killing may be excused (or forgiven) ex post.”

"The death of Death would surely …

Table Of Contents, Volume 6, Number 3, 2008, The Death Penalty, Editorial Board

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Table of contents for a special issue on the topic of capital punishment.

The Abolitionist’S Dilemma: Establishing The Standards For The Evolving Standards Of Decency, Dwight Aarons

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “For those who believe that the death penalty should be declared unconstitutional and that the U.S. Supreme Court is the institution that should make that declaration, these are interesting times. On one hand, the Rehnquist Court, which had previously not been a reliable friend of criminal defendants, in 2002, ruled that it was unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded defendants, and in 2005 it came to the same conclusion as to defendants who committed a capital crime before his or her eighteenth birthday. On the other hand, close scrutiny of these opinions evidences that the Court all but casts aside …

The Death Penalty And Reversible Error In Massachusetts, Alan Rogers

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “This article will survey Massachusetts homicide cases from 1805 to 1996 in which the SJC found reversible error. For comparative purposes, the data will be grouped into three periods: from 1805, the year the SJC began to publish its decisions, to 1891, the year original jurisdiction for homicide cases was transferred from the SJC to the Superior Court; 1892 to 1939, the year Massachusetts law allowed the SJC to review the facts as well as the law of capital cases; and from 1940 to 1996, the year Chief Justice Paul Liacos resigned from the court and the importance of …

How The Justice System Responds To Juvenile Victims: A Comprehensive Model., David Finkelhor, Theodore P. Cross, Elise N. Cantor

Crimes Against Children Research Center

The justice system handles thousands of cases involving juvenile victims each year. These victims are served by a complex set of agencies and institutions, including police, prosecutors, courts, and child protection agencies. Despite the many cases involving juvenile victims and the structure in place for responding to them, the juvenile victim justice system model presented in this Bulletin is a new concept. Although the juvenile victim justice system has a distinct structure and sequence, its operation is not very well understood. Unlike the more familiar juvenile offender justice system, the juvenile victim justice system has not been conceptualized as a …

Offenders Incarcerated For Crimes Against Juveniles., David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod

Crimes Against Children Research Center

This study uses data from the 1997 Survey of Inmates in State Correctional Facilities to examine the characteristics of persons incarcerated for victimizing children and youth. This OJJDP Bulletin, part of the Crimes Against Children series, presents a wide range of information pertaining to victimizers of children, including offense characteristics, offender histories, overall trends, and the severity of sentences received by such criminals. Significant differences between offenders incarcerated for crimes against juveniles and offenders imprisoned for crimes against adults are highlighted. Figures and tables illustrate the Survey's major findings.

Homicides Of Children And Youth., David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Provides a statistical portrait of juvenile homicide victimization by drawing on FBI and other data. As part of OJJDP's Crimes Against Children Series, the Bulletin offers detailed information about overall crime patterns and victim age groups. Specific types of juvenile homicide, including maltreatment homicides, abduction homicides, and school homicides, are discussed in further detail. The Bulletin also explores initiatives designed to prevent homicides of children and youth.

Child Abuse Reported To The Police., David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Child abuse is commonly regarded as a child welfare problem, and a considerable amount of information has been amassed from this perspective. When a child is assaulted, however, it is not only a child welfare problem, it is a crime, and yet there is a lack of law enforcement data available for researchers to analyze. Use of the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which collects detailed data about crime and its victims, should help fill this gap. This Bulletin describes NIBRS and its role in depicting police experience with child abuse and reports key findings derived from NIBRS data. Analysis …

The Decline In Child Sexual Abuse Cases., Lisa M. Jones, David Finkelhor

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Of all crimes against children, sexual abuse has arguably captured the greatest share of attention from child advocates, professionals, policymakers, and the general public. During the 1980’s, increasing numbers of victims were identified each year (American Association for the Protection of Children, 1988) and concerns about this crime intensified. However, a dramatic shift in child sexual abuse trends has occurred. Data from child protective services (CPS) agencies across the country indicate that the increases of the 1980’s were followed by an extensive period of marked declines in the 1990’s. Unfortunately, little effort has been expended to uncover the reasons why …

Juvenile Victims Of Property Crimes., David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Property crime is the most frequent kind of criminal victimization and one with important economic and psychological consequences, although it has not received the same public attention as violent crime in recent years. Property crime victimization rates are much higher for juveniles than for adults, but very little attention has been paid to property crimes against juveniles or the particular features that characterize these crimes. This Bulletin tries to fill this gap by examining the characteristics of property crimes against juveniles. It uses crime information from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) for 1996–97 and the National Incident-Based Reporting System …

Kidnaping Of Juveniles: Patterns From Nibrs., David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod

Crimes Against Children Research Center

The kidnaping of children has generated a great deal of public concern, not to mention confusion and controversy. These crimes, from the kidnaping of the Lindbergh baby to the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh, have been some of the most notorious and highly publicized news stories of recent history, occupying a central place in the fears and anxieties of parents. Yet, an ongoing debate has raged over how frequently such crimes occur, which children are most at risk, and who the primary offenders are.

Reporting Crimes Against Juveniles., David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod

Crimes Against Children Research Center

The American justice system is in the midst of an effort to evaluate and reform its handling of the criminal victimization of children and youth. Juveniles are unusually vulnerable to crime victimization (Hashima and Finkelhor, 1999), but concerns have been raised about the effectiveness and sensitivity of the justice system’s response to these crimes. The findings presented in this Bulletin indicate that a majority of victimizations of juveniles ages 12 to 17 are not being reported to police or other authorities. Even serious victimizations involving weapons and injury are significantly less likely to be reported when they happen to juveniles …

Law, Order, And The Consent Defense, Keith M. Harrison

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] Among the benefits that we gain on leaving the state of nature and joining together in a "civilized society" is some amount of added protection of our individual possessions and person. Among our losses is the ability to plunder, at will, the possessions and bodies of those who are weaker than we are. These two statements are generally, but not absolutely, true. I propose that one hallmark of civilization is the security of everyone who lives under its authority that they are free from the unwanted interferences of others with their personal integrity and property rights.' One way to …