Digital Commons Network^™

Insecure Communities: Examining Local Government Participation In Us Immigration And Customs Enforcement’S “Secure Communities” Program, Rachel R. Ray

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Protecting Confidential Investigations Or Gagging The Press? Freedom Of Expression And Interference With The Administration Of Justice At The Extraordinary Chambers In The Courts Of Cambodia, Krista L. Nelson

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Understanding Human Trafficking And Its Victims, Won Kidane

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Defining Child Trafficking & Child Prostitution: The Case Of Thailand, Heather Montgomery

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Supporting The Criminal Defense Bar’S Compliance With Padilla: It Begins With Conversations, Shanti Prema Raghu

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Intimately Related To The Criminal Process: Examining The Consequences Of A Conviction After Padilla V. Kentucky And State V. Sandoval, Travis Stearns

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Back To The Drawing Board: Rethinking Protections Available To Victims Of Trafficking, Ankita Patel

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

O.P.P.: How "Occupy's" Race-Based Privilege May Improve Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence For All, Lenese C. Herbert

Seattle University Law Review

This Article submits that Occupy’s race problem could, ironically, prove to be a solution if protesters grow more serious about exposing the injury of political subordination and systems of privilege that adhere to the criminal justice system. Privilege is a “systemic conferral of benefit and advantage [as a result of] affiliation, conscious or not and chosen or not, to the dominant side of a power system.” Accordingly, now that police mistreatment affects them personally, Occupy may finally help kill a fictitious Fourth Amendment jurisprudence that ignores oppression through improper policing based on racial stigma. Occupy may also help usher in …

Methodological Issues In Biased Policing Research With Applications To The Washington State Patrol, Clayton Mosher, J. Mitchell Pickerill

Seattle University Law Review

Racial profiling violates the United States Constitution’s premise that all people are equal under the law, as well as the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee that people should be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Racial profiling has been found to result from individual officer racism or stereotyping, from institutionalized biases, and from the organizational culture of law enforcement agencies. We begin this Article by discussing the history of racial profiling before proceeding to consider various studies from a select number of American jurisdictions. We then examine important methodological and theoretical issues in conducting research on racial profiling and racially biased policing, …

Introduction, Hon. Steven C. Gonzàlez

Seattle University Law Review

At Seattle University School of Law’s Symposium on Racial Bias and the Criminal Justice System, students, faculty, judges, scholars, lawyers, and community members gathered to address racial disparity in the criminal justice system and to explore ways to keep the promise of our democracy that we all are equal before the law. Race, ethnicity, skin color, and national origin profoundly influence our legal structure and our liberty. The way that race influences perceptions and actions is critically important in the context of our criminal justice system—a system that changes lives, disrupts and protects communities, and represents a key part of …

Preliminary Report On Race And Washington's Criminal Justice System, Task Force On Race And The Criminal Justice System

Seattle University Law Review

For this Report, the Research Working Group reviewed evidence on disproportionality in Washington’s criminal justice system and considered whether crime commission rates accounted for this disproportionality. We found that crime commission rates by race and ethnicity are largely unknown and perhaps unknowable, but that some researchers simply take arrest rates as good proxies for underlying commission rates for all crimes.We found that use of arrest rates likely overstates black crime commission rates for several reasons.68 But even if arrest rates are used as a proxy for underlying crime commission rates, the extent of racial disproportionality is not explained by commission …

Analyzing Stops, Citations, And Searches In Washington And Beyond, Mario L. Barnes, Robert S. Chang

Seattle University Law Review

Racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system is a fact. But the fact of racial disproportionality is the beginning and not the end of the conversation. The fact that blacks are overrepresented in stop, arrest, charge, pretrial detention, conviction, and incarceration statistics demonstrates only correlation and not causation. A number of commentators caution that disproportionality and the overrepresentation of blacks, Native-Americans, and Hispanics in Washington State’s prisons do not prove racial discrimination. Further, the fact of disproportionality at each stage of criminal justice processing does not prove that racial discrimination occurs at each particular stage. For example, the observed disproportionality …

Actual Versus Perceived Performance Of Judges, Theodore Eisenberg, Talia Fisher, Issi Rosen-Zvi

Seattle University Law Review

Perceptions of judges ought to be based on their performance. Yet, few studies of the relation between perceived and actual judicial performance exist. Those claiming judicial bias should be especially sensitive to the relation between perception and performance. Judges perceived by the public or by the legal community as disfavoring a group may be regarded as biased, but that perception is unfair if the judges’ votes in cases do not disfavor the group. For example, it may be unfair to accuse an appellate judge of pro-state bias in criminal cases if the judge votes for defendants at a higher rate …

Race Bias And The Importance Of Consciousness For Criminal Defense Attorneys, Andrea D. Lyon

Seattle University Law Review

This Article will begin with a discussion of race bias and will examine who in the criminal justice system has such biases. These concepts will provide a backdrop to the next Part, where I will turn to an analysis about the need for criminal defense lawyers to be conscious of race bias. I focus on two specific circumstances in which awareness of one’s own racial bias is imperative: interacting with clients and voir dire. But first, we must come to an understanding about the nature of race bias itself.

The Impact Of Implicit Racial Bias On The Exercise Of Prosecutorial Discretion, Robert J. Smith, Justin D. Levinson

Seattle University Law Review

The Article is organized as follows: Part II provides an introduction to implicit bias research, orienting readers to the important aspects of implicit bias most relevant to prosecutorial discretion. Part III begins the examination of implicit bias in the daily decisions of prosecutors. The Part presents key prosecutorial discretion points and specifically connects each of them to implicit bias. Part IV recognizes that, despite compelling proof of implicit bias in a range of domains, there is no direct empirical proof of implicit bias in prosecutorial decision-making. It thus calls for an implicit bias research agenda designed to further examine how …

“If Justice Is Not Equal For All, It Is Not Justice”: Racial Bias, Prosecutorial Misconduct, And The Right To A Fair Trial In State V. Monday, Michael Callahan

Seattle University Law Review

This Note argues that of the three opinions from Monday, Washington state courts should follow Chief Justice Madsen’s concurring opinion. The Monday decision also raises three questions that none of the opinions adequately answer: who does Monday apply to, what conduct does Monday forbid, and what is the legal source of the rules from Monday? The court will have to answer these questions in the future to determine the scope of its new rules. Part II of this Note discusses how Washington courts previously addressed the issue of prosecutorial misconduct and appeals to racial bias in trials. Part …

“Like Wolves In Sheep’S Clothing”: Combating Racial Bias In Washington State’S Criminal Justice System, Krista L. Nelson, Jacob J. Stender

Seattle University Law Review

Despite their differences, both the majority and concurring opinions in Monday present new ways to address prosecutorial misconduct, deter the injection of racial bias into courtroom proceedings, and create substantively similar outcomes. Part II of this Note discusses the traditional prosecutorial misconduct test in Washington State, as well as the rules articulated by the Monday majority and concurrence. Part III discusses the implications of both the majority and concurring opinions, the primary differences in their approaches to deterrence, the degree of racial bias they require to warrant reversal of a conviction, and the discretion they afford the judiciary. Part III …

Slavery Revisited In Penal Plantation Labor, Andrea C. Armstrong

Seattle University Law Review

This Article argues that society must critically examine the types of labor we require our inmates to perform and prohibit the imposition of slavery, even when the enslaved is an inmate. Part II focuses on the text and history of Section 1 of the Thirteenth Amendment11 and argues that the Amendment’s exception allowing forced inmate labor is not as broad as it first appears. Part III examines the Eighth Amendment and how the imposition of slave status on inmates should be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Lastly, Part IV applies these concepts to the history and operation of one such …

Domestic Violence And The Budget Crisis: The Use Of A Risk Assessment Tool To Manage Cases In Prosecutors’ Offices, Carrie M. Hobbs

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment addresses the growing concern that the incompatible forces of shrinking budgets and increased caseloads are leading to ineffective domestic violence case management, particularly in prosecutors’ offices. With so many cases and so few resources, prosecutors need tools to discern which cases should have priority. Recognizing that risk assessment tools have many drawbacks, this Comment advocates for development of a risk assessment tool that can help prosecutors determine which cases to pursue and assist them in making other pretrial determinations. Part II of this Comment provides a background on domestic violence research and isolates the issues that arise in …

Protect Me From Myself: Determining Competency To Waive The Right To Counsel During Civil-Commitment Proceedings In Washington State, Jacob J. Stender

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment argues that an unarticulated, heightened standard of competency to waive counsel, under which Washington currently operates, is the ideal standard to address the unique concerns that exist in civil- commitment proceedings. This Comment clarifies the existing law governing the determination of a party’s right to waive counsel, as well as the determination of the validity of such a waiver. This Comment also articulates a comprehensive inquiry standard for trial courts, both within and outside of Washington, to apply when determining the competency of a party and the validity of a waiver. The goal of this express determination standard …

Work, Caregiving, And Masculinities, Ann C. Mcginley

Seattle University Law Review

Williams demonstrates the vulnerability of parent workers in working class America. In Chapter 2, “One Sick Child Away from Being Fired,” she examines the records of ninety-nine union arbitrations to analyze the problems of working class parents who struggle to juggle their working and parenting responsibilities. Because this chapter is a tour de force in an overall excellent book, and because it suggests an area that my research has focused on over the past number of years, in this Essay, I limit my discussion almost exclusively to this chapter. My approach is to use masculinities theory, a body of social …

Conviction, Confrontation, And Crawford: Gang Expert Testimony As Testimonial Hearsay, Hon. Jack Nevin

Seattle University Law Review

This Article will discuss how gang expert reliance on testimonial hearsay violates Crawford. Both the spirit and letter of Crawford are violated when the information relied on by law enforcement has not passed the “crucible” of pretrial cross-examination mandated by Crawford to assure reliability. Moreover, this Article will offer a way to reconcile ER 703 with the requirements of Crawford.

Part II of this Article will discuss the history and application of Crawford and its expansion into virtually every area of testimonial hearsay. Part III will discuss the evolving and growing area of gang expert testimony as a …

Taking It Seriously: Repairing Domestic Violence Sentencing In Washington State, Patricia Sully

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment explores Washington State’s recent increase in sentencing for chronic domestic violence offenders, concluding that the increase is a significant step towards treating domestic violence with the seriousness it deserves. Part II discusses the costs and consequences of domestic violence. Part III provides a brief history of domestic violence laws and discusses the evolution of domestic violence sentencing in Washington State. Part IV explains HB 2777. Part V explores the strengths and weaknesses of HB 2777. Finally, Part VI concludes and offers suggestions for change.