Digital Commons Network^™

Improperly Performed Abortion As Fetal Homicide: An Uneasy Coexistence Becomes More Difficult, Laura E. Back

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Is the difference between abortion and fetal homicide the pregnant woman's choice-or the provider's medical license? Reports of a recent Texas case suggest that ever-proliferating fetal homicide laws may be applied to charge non-medical abortion providers with murder. Although the state has legitimate interests in protecting women's health through prohibition of dangerous non-medical abortions, it defies justice to enforce such prohibitions by charging violators with murder of the aborted fetus. This Note explores how constitutional limitations on permissible state interests in regulating abortion provide a basis for Eighth Amendment proportionality and due process challenges to this misuse of fetal homicide …

Public Interest Drift Revised: Tracing The Sources Of Social Change Commitment Among Black Harvard Law Students, Jenee Desmond-Harris

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Although "public interest drift"-the phenomenon of law students' interest in public interest careers decreasing over the course of legal education-has been studied extensively, author Jene Desmond- Harris argues that rates among black law students deserve a specially tailored analysis because of the black community's longstanding faith in the law and lawyers as instruments of social change. Through a study of current black Harvard Law students, admitted students, and alumni, she investigates the interactions between the Harvard Law School experience and the development of black law students' attitudes about pursuing careers aimed at affecting social change. Incorporating her own research with …

Providing Race Discrimination In Criminal Cases Using Statistical Evidence, Marc Price Wolf

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Proving race discrimination in a criminal case using statistical evidence has been a difficult endeavor since the Supreme Court's rulings in McCleskey and Armstrong. In those cases, the Court set a high threshold for using statistics to prove constitutional violations. This note argues that this threshold is not insurmountable. Studies can be crafted to overcome the strict guidelines set out in McCleskey and Armstrong. Additionally, lower courts have interpreted these cases too broadly, such that validly presented statistical studies have unfairly been brushed aside. This note also argues that the Court analyzes social scientific studies differently when those studies are …

The Hague Convention On The Civil Aspects Of International Childhood Abduction: Where Are We, And Where Do We Go From Here, Dan Beth Finkey

UC Law SF International Law Review

Each year, hundreds innocent children are abducted from their homes and taken to foreign countries - victims of international parental abduction. In 1980, the U.N. developed The Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Childhood Abduction in order to protect children from wrongful international abduction, and to ensure that abducted children are safely returned to their homes. Although scholars laud the Convention as being generally effective, perverse results sometimes arise in the U.S., where courts are struggling to interpret the Convention's provisions so that they do not harm victims of domestic violence. This note suggests a novel way to improve …

Letting Katz Out Of The Bag: Cognitive Freedom And Fourth Amendment Fidelity, Christian M. Halliburton

UC Law Journal

What would life be like if it became impossible to keep a secret? We may find out with the advent of a new technology called "Brain Fingerprinting" and other technologies that allow access to our very thoughts. This Article first discusses the advent of technology like Brain Fingerprinting and its kin, and their impact on cognitive autonomy. The Article then posits the question, what would the Constitution have to say about evidentiary inquiries into the mind through the use of such technology? The author argues that current Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, including Katz v. United States, is inadequate to address such …

Blakely's Silver Lining; Sentencing Guidelines, Judicial Discretion, And Crime, Joanna Shepherd

UC Law Journal

The Supreme Court's recent decisions in United States v. Booker and Blakely v. Washington, invalidating mandatory criminal sentencing guidelines, could have the unexpected benefit of reducing crime. This Article is the first to use regression analysis to explore the relationship between sentencing guidelines and crime. It shows that adoption of guidelines is associated with significant increases in crime, contrary to the expectations of many of the original supporters of sentencing guidelines.

After developing several economic theories about the relationship between guidelines and crime, the author investigates this relationship empirically using a large, state-level data set. The analysis shows that guidelines …

Initiative Funding Through Targeted Taxes: Proposition 63, Mental Health, And The Crossroads Of Direct Democracy, Andrew M. Holmes

UC Law Journal

It took over forty-one years, but on November 2, 2004, President John F. Kennedy's vision of mental health care became a reality in California when 53.8% of the voters of California ratified Proposition 63. Proposition 63 (the Proposition) was criticized, however, the proponents of sought to bring relief to California's mental health system after decades of broken promises. The controversy surrounding Proposition 63 is not whether treatment for the mentally ill is a priority of the State but whether the novel funding structure is abusive.

The Note will first trace the roots of the controversy through a historical analysis of …

Battered Women, Homicide Convictions, And Sentencing: The Case For Clemency, Carol Jacobsen, Kammy Mizga, Lynn O'Orio

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

For battered women who are forced to kill their attackers, unequal treatment by the law and gendered modes of punishment often lead to unfair convictions and sentences. In a study conducted by the Michigan Battered Women's Clemency Project, startling levels of discrimination in the courts against women who were victims of domestic violence were revealed. In this study, victims of domestic violence had higher conviction rates and longer sentences than all other defendants charged with homicide. The criminal and legal systems have failed to protect battered women from being killed or being forced to kill. Clemency remains the only hope …

Marital Rape: A Unique Blend Of Domestic Violence And Non-Marital Rape Issues, Morgan Lee Woolley

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Marital rape is frequently treated within the frameworks of domestic violence and non-marital rape. However, social attitudes and legislation regarding domestic violence are often caught in a tension between family privacy and victim/survivor protection, whereas non-marital rape is often lodged between problems of consent and evidentiary proof. Thus, subsuming marital rape under either paradigm, to assess marital rape as we would treat domestic violence or non-marital rape, fails to account for the unique circumstances and consequences of rape that is perpetrated by one's own spouse. This Note addresses those unique circumstances and takes a look at current marital rape legislation …

Authentically Innocent: Juries And Federal Regulatory Crimes, Jeffrey A. Meyer

UC Law Journal

Few ideals reign more supreme than the jury as conscience of our community and moral arbiter of a criminal defendant's conduct. These ideals are no more than myth for most federal criminal cases today. For a wide range of the most commonly charged federal crimes, judges routinely instruct juries to convict defendants regardless of their moral culpability. This issue arises with regulatory or public order crimes, which include drug trafficking, weapons, immigration, and environmental offenses. They are usually general intent crimes, defined by Congress without identifying precisely what the prosecution must prove a defendant knew or intended. General intent crimes …