Digital Commons Network^™

Drug Ideologies Of The United States, Macy Montgomery

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

The United States has been increasingly creating lenient drug policies. Seventeen states and Washington, the District of Columbia, legalized marijuana, and Oregon decriminalized certain drugs, including methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine. The medical community has proven that drugs, including marijuana, have myriad adverse health side effects. This leads to two questions: Why does the United States government continue to create lenient drug policies, and what reasons do citizens give for legalizing drugs when the medical community has proven them harmful? The paper hypothesizes that the disadvantages of drug legalization outweigh its benefits because of the numerous harms it causes, such as …

Using Korematsu To Teach Professional Responsibility (Word With Government Documents At End), Lorraine Bannai

Using Korematsu to Teach Across the Law School Curriculum

No abstract provided.

Prayers In Prisons? The Politics And Performance Of Christian Faith-Based Initiatives In The Us, Ashley Edliq

Access*: Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Research and Scholarship

This article will address the mission of Christian Faith-Based Initiatives and the correlation of this mission to positive reform in the United States carceral state. The method of identifying positive reform is dependent on the increase in rehabilitation programs, the decrease in recidivism rates, and the anecdotal evaluation of reentry into society. The demographic will primarily focus on men and women between the ages 18 to 65, including all ethnic and racial backgrounds, and use the previous religious affiliation to predict the effectiveness of Christian Faith-Based Initiatives. This article will assess the level of significance of progressive Christian Faith-Based Initiatives …

Boots And Bail On The Ground: Assessing The Implementation Of Misdemeanor Bail Reforms In Georgia, Andrea Woods, Sandra G. Mayson, Lauren Sudeall, Guthrie Armstrong, Anthony Potts

Georgia Law Review

This Article presents a mixed-methods study of misdemeanor bail practice across Georgia in the wake of reform. We observed bail hearings and interviewed system actors in a representative sample of fifty-five counties to assess the extent to which pretrial practice conforms to legal standards clarified in Senate Bill 407 and Walker v. Calhoun. We also analyzed jail population data published by county jails and by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. We found that a handful of counties have made promising headway in adhering to law and best practices, but that the majority have some distance to go. Most counties …

Admissibility Of Scientific Evidence Under Daubert: The Fatal Flaws Of ‘Falsifiability’ And ‘Falsification’, Barbara P. Billauer Esq

barbara p billauer esq

Abstract: The Daubert mantra demands that judges, acting as gatekeepers, prevent para, pseudo or ‘bad’ science from infiltrating the courtroom. To do so, the Judges must first determine what “science” is? And then, what ‘good science’ is? It is submitted that Daubert is seriously polluted with the notions of Karl Popper who sets ‘falsifiability’ and ‘falsification’ as the demarcation line for that determination. This inapt philosophy has intractably infected case law, leading to bad decisions immortalized as stare decisis. Among other problems, is the intolerance of Popper’s system for multiple causation, a key component of toxic- torts. Thus, the primary …

Gandhi’S Prophecy: Corporate Violence And A Mindful Law For Bhopal, Nehal A. Patel

Nehal A. Patel

AbstractOver thirty years have passed since the Bhopal chemical disaster began,and in that time scholars of corporate social responsibility (CSR) havediscussed and debated several frameworks for improving corporate responseto social and environmental problems. However, CSR discourse rarelydelves into the fundamental architecture of legal thought that oftenbuttresses corporate dominance in the global economy. Moreover, CSRdiscourse does little to challenge the ontological and epistemologicalassumptions that form the foundation for modern economics and the role ofcorporations in the world.I explore methods of transforming CSR by employing the thought ofMohandas Gandhi. I pay particular attention to Gandhi’s critique ofindustrialization and principle of swadeshi (self-sufficiency) …

Inherent Racial Biases Woven Into America’S Criminal Justice Institutions: A Reexamination Of To Kill A Mockingbird, Joshua B. Lanphear

Joshua B. Lanphear

This is article considers the concept of inherent racial biases woven into America’s criminal justice institutions as reflected in Harper Lee’s novels To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman. Mockingbird—published in 1960, but set in the 1930s, in the fictitious racist-south of Maycomb, Alabama—portrays this concept through the trial of Tom Robinson, a sympathetic African American accused of raping the white Mayella Ewell. Key representatives of Maycomb’s institutions—Officer Heck Tate, Judge John Taylor, Mr. Gilmer, Atticus Finch, and Tom’s jury—perpetuate these inherent racial biases throughout Tom’s experience with the criminal justice system until he is ultimately killed under …

Rehabilitation Of Illicit Behaviours In The Post-Rtl Era: Disputes And Proposals, Zhenjie Zhou

Zhenjie ZHOU

How to rehabilitate illicit behaviours that were subject to the re-education through labour system has been a topic of rigorous debate since the abolition of the system. Proposals brought forward so far can generally be categorised into a criminalisation approach and an administrative approach. This article asserts that the rehabilitation of these behaviours shall strictly observe principles of efficiency, transparency and fairness and proposes that the Legislature adopt the Law on Correction of Illicit Behaviour under pilot implementation to consign illicit behaviours that were subject to the re-education through labour system to a mixed decision-making procedure. This will constitute a …

Workshop Report: Sustainable Mining, International Law, And The Rights Of Women And Girls, Sara Seck, Kirsten Md Stefanik

Law Events

Canada is a leading player in mining exploration and development both domestically, in communities across Canada, and internationally, with mining operations around the world. The Canadian Government has expressed a commitment to corporate social responsibility and sustainable development in international extractive operations.

This Workshop aimed to begin a conversation between academics and civil society working on the rights of women and girls and the extractive sector. The objective was to build an enriched understanding amongst attendees and bridge gaps between the work of organizations interacting directly with affected women and communities and the work of academics who research international national …

Promoting Inclusion Through Exclusion: Higher Education's Assault On The First Amendment, Adam Lamparello

Adam Lamparello

To obtain a meaningful educational experience and achieve the benefits of a diverse student body, students should confront beliefs they find abhorrent and discuss topics that bring discomfort. As it stands now, universities are transforming classrooms and campuses into sanctuaries for the over-sensitive and shelters for the easily-offended. In so doing, higher education is embracing a new, and bizarre, form of homogeneity that subtly coerces faculty members and students into restricting, not expressing, their views, and creating a climate that favors less, not more, expressive conduct. This approach undermines First Amendment values and further divorces higher education from the real …

Gender-Based Violence And Honest Victim Scripting In The Twitterverse, Francine Banner

Francine Banner

This article critically analyzes Tweets regarding recent allegations of interpersonal violence against celebrities in order to explore societal perceptions of and expectations about alleged victims and perpetrators. The article concludes that Twitter may be viewed as a micro-courtroom in which victims’ veracity and perpetrators’ responses are evaluated, interrogated, and assessed. A key, feminist critique of rape law is that the determination of guilt or innocence of the perpetrator too often hinges on assessment of the character of the victim. This is borne out on Twitter, where the terms “gold digger,” “slut,” and “ho” are engaged to describe those who come …

Miranda 2.0, Tonja Jacobi

Tonja Jacobi

Fifty years after Miranda v. Arizona, significant numbers of innocent suspects are falsely confessing to crimes while subject to police custodial interrogation. Critics on the left and right have proposed reforms to Miranda, but few such proposals are appropriately targeted to the problem of false confessions. Using rigorous psychological evidence of the causes of false confessions, this article analyzes the range of proposals and develops a realistic set of reforms directed specifically at this foundational challenge to the justice system. Miranda 2.0 is long overdue; it should require: warning suspects how long they can be interrogated for; delivering …

Implementing The Lessons From Wrongful Convictions: An Empirical Analysis Of Eyewitness Identification Reform Strategies, Keith A. Findley

Keith A Findley

Learning about the flaws in the criminal justice system that have produced wrongful convictions has progressed at a dramatic pace since the first innocent individuals were exonerated by postconviction DNA testing in 1989. Application of that knowledge to improving the criminal justice system, however, has lagged far behind the growth in knowledge. Likewise, while considerable scholarship has been devoted to identifying the factors that produce wrongful convictions, very little scholarly attention has been devoted to the processes through which knowledge about causes is translated into reforms.

Using eyewitness misidentification—one of the leading contributors to wrongful convictions and the most thoroughly …

The Second Dimension Of The Supreme Court, Joshua B. Fischman, Tonja Jacobi

Tonja Jacobi

Describing the justices of the Supreme Court as ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives’ has become so standard—and the left-right division on the Court is considered so entrenched—that any deviation from that pattern is treated with surprise. Attentive Court watchers know that the justices are not just politicians in robes, deciding each case on a purely ideological basis. Yet the increasingly influential empirical legal studies literature assumes just that—that a left-right ideological dimension fully describes the Supreme Court. We show that there is a second, more legally-focused dimension of judicial decision-making. A continuum between legalism and pragmatism also divides the justices, in ways …

Dangerous Tongues: Storytelling In Congressional Testimony, Clare Keefe Coleman

Clare Keefe Coleman

The important and dangerous use of storytelling in making legislation has been largely ignored by legal academics. Although notable scholars, including Justice Scalia and Cass Sunstein, have written extensively about the use of legislative history in statutory interpretation, and much has been written about the use of storytelling in advocacy, the important role that stories play in making legislation has been overlooked by the legal academy, outside of a few articles relating to criminal statutes. The Congressional Record on a recent farm bill is full of stories told by special interests that draw on metaphors, archetypes, and myths. Snow White’s …

Legal Thinking, The Adversarial Process And Exonerating Innocent Defendants: A Socio-Legal View Of The Wrongful Conviction Process., Gary J. Kowaluk

Gary J Kowaluk

Little is as frustrating as advocating the release of an innocent defendant who has been wrongfully convicted. Surprisingly, most of the wrongfully convicted fail to overturn their cases through the courts, and rely on government officials and prosecutor’s to find other ways to release them from custody. Too often the wrongful conviction process leaves lawyers and judges arguing to legally support injustices in the face of a practical common sense indicating a defendant’s innocence. This paper is an attempt to understand the tendency of legal professionals to argue against remedying a wrongful conviction in favor of the continued social injustice …

Domestic Violence And The Confrontation Clause: The Case For A Prompt Post-Arrest Confrontation Hearing, Robert M. Hardaway

Robert Hardaway

Prior to the Supreme Court’s 2004 decision in case of Crawford v. Washington, a prosecutor could pursue a domestic violence case and introduce the prior accusatory testimonial statement of the victim even where the victim refused to appear at trial, declined to testify at trial, retracted a prior statement made to police, or claimed lack of memory as to the events described in her prior statement if: 1) the victim was unavailable, and 2) the statement bore ‘adequate indicia of reliability’ as indicated by falling within a ‘firmly rooted hearsay exception’, or satisfied ‘particularized guarantees of trustworthiness’. Ohio v. Roberts …

Limiting Leukophobia: Looking Beyond Lockup. Debunking The Strategy Of Turning White Collars Orange, Jared J. Hight

Jared J Hight

The legal and political landscape of the past 30 years has resulted in the abandonment of the utilitarian principle of parsimony as applied to white collar criminals. In response to preceding decades of minor punishments meted out for serious white collar crimes, the Federal Sentencing Commission abandoned the typical past practices of sentencing judges and instead formulated Guidelines that are wildly excessive and no longer balance the need for community safety with the need for that same community to remain economically efficient. The guiding principles of deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation have been deemphasized in a new model that focuses primarily …

Should Mere Direct Participation In Hostilities Be Treated As A War Crime?, Andrea Harrison

Andrea Harrison

This article attempts to argue that acts that constitute mere direct participation in hostilities during armed conflict should not be treated as war crimes, but rather should be criminalized domestically, or addressed through amnesties when appropriate. In order to support this argument, the author looks at both International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Criminal Law (ICL) and their respective treatment of direct participation in hostilities. The author then examines offenses within the 2009 Military Commissions Act which would normally be deemed as mere participation in hostilities and compares these to offenses normally found under international law. Finally, the author explains …

Unheard Victims: Extending Victims’ Rights To The Civil Commitment Proceedings Of Sexually Violent Predators In Washington State, Mercedes M. Donchez

Mercedes M Donchez

No abstract provided.

Twenty-First Century Regression: The Disparate Impact Of Hiv Transmission Laws On Gays, Siobhan E. Murillo

Siobhan E Murillo

No abstract provided.

Stop Blaming The Prosecutors: The Real Causes Of Wrongful Convictions And Rightful Exonerations, And What Should Be Done To Fix Them, Adam Lamparello, Charles E. Maclean, James J. Berles

Adam Lamparello

Wrongfully convicted and rightfully exonerated criminal defendants spent, on average, ten years in prison before exoneration, and the ramifications to the defendants, the criminal justice system, and society are immeasurable.Prosecutorial misconduct, however, is not the primary cause of wrongful convictions. To begin with, although more than twenty million new adult criminal cases are opened in state and federal courts each year throughout the United States, there have been only 1,281 total exonerations over the last twenty-five years. In only six percent of those cases was prosecutorial misconduct the predominant factor resulting in those wrongful convictions. Of course, although prosecutorial misconduct …

Reconsidering Federal And State Obstacles To Human Trafficking Victim Status And Entitlements, Amanda J. Peters

Amanda J Peters

Federal and state anti-trafficking laws describe the victim in the process of criminalizing the act of human trafficking. Nearly half of all states adopt the federal definition of victim, which requires proof of forced, defrauded or coerced labor, whereas the other half narrows this definition thereby limiting the number of victims qualifying for state victims services. Using this definition, victims must prove their status before they can access victim entitlements. Even when victims prove their status, they may be denied traditional crime victim benefits like restitution and Crime Victim Compensation funds. In this way, their victim status may be rendered …

Law Enforcement And Technology: Requiring Technological Shields To Serve And Protect Citizen Rights, Ryan C. Pulley

Ryan C Pulley

An often revisited topic is the tension between law enforcement and the citizens they aim to protect. One side of this discussion seeks to mitigate the tension by explaining the hard decisions that law enforcement officers must make to protect citizens and themselves, while the other emphasizes the corruption that exists within police departments. Recently, this discussion has begun a critical examination of the role of technology within police department to determine whether police officers are properly monitored and trained.

Both citizens and police forces alike should require that law enforcement officers utilize publicly available technologies that protect citizens’ rights. …

Betting Against The (Big) House: Bargaining Away Criminal Trial Rights, Raymond J. Mckoski

Raymond J. McKoski

No abstract provided.

Democracy Enhancement And The Sixth Amendment Right To Choose, Janet Moore

Janet Moore

A democracy deficit undermines the legitimacy of criminal justice systems. People enmeshed in these systems are disproportionately poor people and people of color with little voice in creating or implementing the governing law. A stark example is the Sixth Amendment right to choose a lawyer. This understudied and undertheorized right is protected for criminal defendants who can afford to hire counsel. Yet according to Supreme Court dicta and rulings by other courts across the country, poor people “have no right to choose” their lawyers. This Article argues that the Sixth Amendment right to choose should apply to the overwhelming majority …

Deferred Corporate Prosecution As Corrupt Regime: The Case For Prison

Lawrence E. Mitchell

Abstract: This paper looks at the growing phenomenon of deferred corporate criminal prosecutions from a new perspective. The literature accepts the practice and is largely concerned with the degree to which efficient and effective criminal deterrence is achieved through pretrial diversion. I examine the practice and conclude that it presents, from a structural perspective, a case of a corrupt law enforcement regime centered in the United States Department of Justice. The regime works in effective –if unintentional-- conspiracy with corporate officials to produce an inefficient enforcement regime that disregards democratic processes and threatens a loss of respect for the rule …

Dumping Daubert, Popping Popper And Falsifying Falsifiability: A Re-Assessment Of First Principles, Barbara P. Billauer Esq

barbara p billauer esq

Abstract: The Daubert mantra demands that judges, acting as gatekeepers, prevent para, pseudo or bad science from infiltrating the courtroom. To do so, the Judges must first determine what is ‘science’ and what is ‘good science.’ It is submitted that Daubert is deeply polluted with the notions of Karl Popper who sets ‘falsifiability’ and ‘falsification’ as the demarcation line for that determination. This philosophy has intractably infected case law, leading to bad decisions immortalized as stare decisis, and an unworkable system of decision-making, which negatively impacts litigant expectations. Among other problems is the intolerance of Popper’s system for multiple causation, …

Calling Out Maryland V. King: Dna, Cell Phones, And The Fourth Amendment, Jennie Vee Silk

Jennie Vee Silk

In Maryland v. King, the Supreme Court narrowly upheld a Maryland statute that permits police to obtain a DNA sample from an arrestee without a search warrant. A year later, the Court drastically changed course and provided significantly more protection to an arrestee’s privacy. In a unanimous decision, the Court in Riley v. California held that police must obtain a search warrant before they can search the cell phone of an arrestee.

This article is the first to compare the Court’s conflicting decisions in Riley and King. Riley and King present the same issue: governmental invasion of privacy for …

Co-Occurring Substance Use Disorder And Mental Illness In Criminal Offenders, Jayme M. Reisler

Jayme M Reisler

The high rate of comorbid substance use disorder and other mental illness (“dual diagnosis”) poses an enormous obstacle to public policy and sentencing in criminal cases. It is estimated that almost half of all Federal, State, and jail inmates suffer from dual diagnosis – a significantly higher prevalence than in the general population. Yet such inmates lack access to proper and effective treatments for their conditions. Several etiological theories have been put forth to explain the occurrence of dual diagnosis in general. However, virtually no studies have explored possible etiological reasons for the higher prevalence of dual diagnosis specifically in …