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A grand jury “presentment” is a document that reflects the results of an investigatory grand jury’s investigation. Abandoned by the federal system in 1946, several states continue to rely on presentments in their grand jury practice. One such state is Pennsylvania.

On November 5, 2011, a Pennsylvania investigating grand jury issued a presentment targeted toward former Penn State assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky. The twenty-three-page document was released to the public on the same day and, in it, the presentment included a handful of statements relevant to former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno. Although Paterno was not the …

The officer walking the beat has numerous tools at her disposal to effectuate a warrantless search, the most popular of which is the consent search. Academics, courts, and the public appear skeptical of current consent search practices; so, how did we get here? Step back to 1969 when President Nixon appointed Warren Burger to replace Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. At that time, many believed Burger’s “law and order” background foretold Miranda’s overruling. That never happened; a handful of commentators and historians therefore view the Burger Court’s criminal procedure decisions as anticlimactic. That view overlooks the …

A competent United States Attorney should easily win any federal drug case. The elements of federal drug crimes are easy to prove, easy to explain, and easy for juries to comprehend. Why then does the government need members of law enforcement to testify as experts in federal drug prosecutions? The answer: they do not. Yet district courts routinely admit (and appellate courts uphold) expert agent and officer testimony on a wide array of drug topics—including when officers testify both as expert and lay witnesses. Were the examples of law enforcement expert testimony few, perhaps no problem would arise. But this …

Nearly all confessions obtained by interrogators nationwide are inadmissible, but nonetheless admitted. In the process, police arrest the wrong suspect and allow the guilty to go free. An unshakeable addiction to pseudo-scientific interrogation methods – initially created in the 1940s – is to blame. The so-called “Reid technique” of interrogation was initially a welcome and revolutionary change from the violent “third degree” method it replaced. But, we no longer live in the 1940s and, not surprisingly, we no longer drive 1940s automobiles, practice early twentieth century medicine, or dial rotary phones. Why, then, are police still using 1940s methods of …

How exactly should we teach the first-year criminal law course? How many credits should the course receive? What should go in the syllabus? How much of what is in the syllabus must be covered? In this essay, I humbly offer some thoughts – from the “newbie’s” standpoint – for your consideration in response to each of these questions. I conclude with some limited comments (reminders?) directed gently to my senior colleagues about teaching this generation of first-year law students.

The Article first provides an overview of the history and prevailing motivations behind the promulgation of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Then, using the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit as an illustrative example, the Article contends that, notwithstanding the supposed “far-reaching” implications of both Blakely and Booker, the judiciary's continued reliance on the “advisory” Guidelines has practically changed federal sentencing procedures very little in form or function. For a contrasting response to Booker, the Article thereafter examines the State of Maine's sentencing scheme and its response to the Supreme Court's Booker/Blakely decisions. By arguing that Maine's sentencing procedure …