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Balancing Discretion And Fairness: The Potential Pitfalls Of Allowing Judges Too Much Discretion In Sentencing, Kelly A. Mclaughlin
Balancing Discretion And Fairness: The Potential Pitfalls Of Allowing Judges Too Much Discretion In Sentencing, Kelly A. Mclaughlin
Missouri Law Review
Nearly eighty percent of individuals in federal prison for drug offenses are Black or Latino. The War on Drugs, a global campaign started by President Nixon, had an objectively moral goal: reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States. However, in reality, the results of the campaign sparked inequalities in sentencing regimes, which has led to a disproportionate incarceration of minority groups. Most notably, there was a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between crimes involving crack cocaine (crack) and crimes involving powder cocaine. While this distinction historically claimed to address the theory that powder cocaine has more dangerous health effects; it …
Police Mistakes Of Law, Heien V. North Carolina And Significant Fourth Amendment Interpretive Cases: An Empirical Examination Of Officer Perception, Knowledge And Performance, Christopher D. Totten, Gang Lee, Michael De Leo
Police Mistakes Of Law, Heien V. North Carolina And Significant Fourth Amendment Interpretive Cases: An Empirical Examination Of Officer Perception, Knowledge And Performance, Christopher D. Totten, Gang Lee, Michael De Leo
Missouri Law Review
This empirical study examines legal aspects of policing in relation to the landmark Fourth Amendment United States Supreme Court case of Heien v. North Carolina. In Heien, the Court found that objectively reasonable mistakes of law by police can support traffic stops. By doing so, Heien extends the permissible margin of error for these stops by law enforcement officers. Due to the potential far-reaching implications of Heien for law enforcement conduct and Fourth Amendment privacy protections, this study aims to empirically examine officer perception and knowledge regarding Heien, including officers’ decision-making behavior with respect to Heien and its core concept …
Highspeed Pursuit Of A Claim For Negligence: Analyzing Police Liability In A Vehicular Accident Involving Bystanders, Harry Bell Iii
Highspeed Pursuit Of A Claim For Negligence: Analyzing Police Liability In A Vehicular Accident Involving Bystanders, Harry Bell Iii
Missouri Law Review
Between 1994 and 2002, 3,146 people died as a result of highspeed police pursuits. Many of these decedents were pedestrians, bicyclists, or occupants of an uninvolved vehicle. In fact, statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) indicate that bystander fatalities make up approximately 42% of total fatalities resulting from highspeed pursuits by law enforcement. Deaths related to these pursuits may be even greater than the statistics suggest due to underreporting on the matter. How is fault attributed when a highspeed police pursuit harms an innocent bystander? Can a court attribute liability to law enforcement? Are there legal remedies available …
Dark Clouds Looming: The Uncertain Safety Of Welfare Benefits For Probationers And Parolees, Anthony M. Whalen
Dark Clouds Looming: The Uncertain Safety Of Welfare Benefits For Probationers And Parolees, Anthony M. Whalen
Missouri Law Review
How much is thirty dollars per month worth to the average American? For many, it is not much—it can be the cost of a streaming subscription or a ticket to a baseball game. For others, however, thirty dollars is the cost of freedom from incarceration. In January 2019, Randall Graves failed to meet the conditions of his probation, which required that he pay a monthly intervention fee of thirty dollars to the Department of Corrections instead of serving his six-year prison sentence. To some, thirty dollars may not be worth much, but to Graves, it was a metric of freedom.
The Exclusionary Rule And Judicial Integrity: An Empirical Study Of Public Perceptions Of The Exclusionary Rule, Matthew D. Kim
The Exclusionary Rule And Judicial Integrity: An Empirical Study Of Public Perceptions Of The Exclusionary Rule, Matthew D. Kim
Missouri Law Review
Fourth Amendment violations call upon courts to resolve the difficult question of who will benefit from past misconduct—the factually guilty defendant or the overreaching government. Either way, courts are forced to punish the misdeed of one actor and allow the other to profit from its misconduct, potentially undermining the public’s trust in the courts. The Supreme Court opined that suppressing unlawfully obtained evidence through the exclusionary rule deters police misconduct and better preserves judicial integrity. However, with the recent discrediting of the police deterrence rationale and the growing belief that the suppression of probative evidence instead undermines judicial integrity, the …
Impeachment In A System Of Checks And Balances, Keith E. Whittington
Impeachment In A System Of Checks And Balances, Keith E. Whittington
Missouri Law Review
Measured by any yardstick, it is hard to think that the first impeachment of President Donald Trump was particularly successful. But there are important broader questions raised particularly by the first Trump impeachment that have significance for how we think about the impeachment power moving forward. If future impeachment efforts are to be more successful, or even useful, Congress will have to understand the nature of the constitutional task that it is undertaking.
Valuing The Vulnerable: A Proposed Approach To Cyclical Competency, Kirsten Pryde
Valuing The Vulnerable: A Proposed Approach To Cyclical Competency, Kirsten Pryde
Missouri Law Review
The competency evaluation system in the United States is in crisis. The criminal justice system has long recognized that a criminal defendant has a right to a fair trial, and being competent to stand trial is a necessary component of that right. Mental illness is increasingly prevalent in our inmate population, and while mental illness and incompetence are not synonymous, the two are often correlated. Unsurprisingly then, competency evaluation requests have skyrocketed in recent years. But importantly, competency is not static. Cycles of compensation and decompensation may require a defendant to go through the competency evaluation system multiple times before …
Children Sentenced To Die In Prison: Why A Lifetime Behind Bars Is No Longer Justified For Juvenile Offenders, Logan Moore
Children Sentenced To Die In Prison: Why A Lifetime Behind Bars Is No Longer Justified For Juvenile Offenders, Logan Moore
Missouri Law Review
Brett Jones turned fifteen years old the summer before he was set to start high school. Twenty-three days later, he was arrested and charged as an adult. Now, he will spend the rest of his life behind bars. In the United States, a fifteen-year-old child cannot legally vote, drink alcohol, or – in most states – drive a car without adult supervision. That same fifteen-year-old, however, who is not considered responsible enough to buy a ticket to an R-rated movie, may be sentenced to life in prison without the opportunity for parole (“LWOP”). Not only is the United States the …
Creating An Impossible Burden: State Ex Rel. Becker V. Wood And Prosecutorial Vindictiveness, Rachael Moore
Creating An Impossible Burden: State Ex Rel. Becker V. Wood And Prosecutorial Vindictiveness, Rachael Moore
Missouri Law Review
In the American criminal justice system, prosecutors have an enormous amount of discretion and power. With dockets growing more cramped, prosecutors often use threats of harsher charges and sentences to deter defendants from exercising their right to a jury trial or an appeal. Prosecutors can also wield this power for purely vindictive or retaliatory purposes, as one prosecutor noted when reflecting on his career: Sometimes a public defender or a defense lawyer will just try and bust your ass all the time. Frankly, you end up busting theirs back. You get irritated, but you try not to take it out …
Money Doesn’T Grow On Trees: Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Is A Necessary Precursor To Police Reform, Elizabeth Weaver
Money Doesn’T Grow On Trees: Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Is A Necessary Precursor To Police Reform, Elizabeth Weaver
Missouri Law Review
Communities are scrutinizing the credibility of law enforcement as concerns associated with unfair treatment and police misconduct mount. Despite ever-present demands for reform, law enforcement policy and practices continue to undercut efforts to build community relationships. Calls to defund police, whether by abolitionists or those who argue that modern policing encompasses job duties law enforcement should never perform, entered mainstream conversations about police reform after the death of Eric Garner in 2014, and reemerged when George Floyd was murdered in 2020. While it is true that financial constraints can force policy change, defunding the police could have unintended negative consequences …
A “20/20” Vision: Supreme Court Of Missouri Revisits Admissibility Of Eyewitness Expert Testimony After More Than 30 Years, Emily Miller
A “20/20” Vision: Supreme Court Of Missouri Revisits Admissibility Of Eyewitness Expert Testimony After More Than 30 Years, Emily Miller
Missouri Law Review
Since 1989 the admissibility of expert testimony regarding eyewitness identifications has been unaddressed in Missouri’s courts. During this time, over 2,000 scientific studies have illustrated the fallibility of eyewitness testimony. The United States Supreme Court has long recognized the “vagaries” of eyewitness identification and the real potential for erroneous identifications leading to wrongful convictions. Most recently, advanced capabilities with DNA evidence have highlighted the tragic consequences of erroneous eyewitness identification. Indeed, a now often-cited fact: Of the 375 exonerations since 1989, nearly seventy percent involved wrongful convictions founded at least in part on eyewitness identification.
Two Steps Forward, One Step…Back? Missouri Legislature Targets Rise In Violent Crime, Sarah Walters
Two Steps Forward, One Step…Back? Missouri Legislature Targets Rise In Violent Crime, Sarah Walters
Missouri Law Review
In May 2020, the Missouri Legislature passed Senate Bill 600, a controversial crime bill which made modifications to a handful of criminal provisions in an effort to tackle the violent crime plaguing the state’s largest cities. According to Senator Tony Luetkemeyer, the bill’s sponsor, inspiration for the legislation stemmed from an August 2019 USA Today report ranking Kansas City and St. Louis as the fifth- and first-most-dangerous cities in the country, respectively, and Springfield as the twelfth-most-dangerous. In a similar USA Today report ranking the most dangerous states, Missouri broke the top ten, coming in at number eight overall, with …
Black Lawyers Of Missouri: 150 Years Of Progress And Promise, Willie J. Epps Jr.
Black Lawyers Of Missouri: 150 Years Of Progress And Promise, Willie J. Epps Jr.
Missouri Law Review
In this Article, Judge Epps amasses and orchestrates an unprecedented amount of information about Missouri’s Black lawyers from 1871 to 2021. As Missouri marks its bicentennial, and the sesquicentennial of the first Black lawyer admitted to practice here, this Article offers analysis and insights about the most well-known Black lawyers, including new details on many previously unknown Black lawyers. According to Judge Epps, the earliest of these legal pioneers courageously practiced law when Blacks had few or no rights under the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Constitution, and de jure and de facto discrimination reigned in Missouri. His research shows …
One Tire, One Time: The Supreme Court Of Missouri’S Expansion Of Reasonable Suspicion, Luke A. Hawley
One Tire, One Time: The Supreme Court Of Missouri’S Expansion Of Reasonable Suspicion, Luke A. Hawley
Missouri Law Review
All drivers are familiar with the white “fog line” that separates the road from the shoulder. What Missouri drivers may not be familiar with is the fact that they can be pulled over any time one of their tires cross that line. This fact may surprise Missouri drivers, in part because it has only recently become the law. While fog line infractions may seem trivial on their face, the traffic stops that result from fog line infractions trigger significant constitutional repercussions.
A Comprehensive Consideration Of The Structural-Error Doctrine, Zachary L. Henderson
A Comprehensive Consideration Of The Structural-Error Doctrine, Zachary L. Henderson
Missouri Law Review
Court proceedings are rarely perfect – far from it. Errors happen regularly before and during litigation, and when they do, courts must decide how to handle them. Gone are the days when a typo might demand a new trial: many errors – typos certainly, but also much more serious mistakes – are regularly deemed harmless by the court, meaning those errors had no prejudicial effect on the outcome of the case (and so do not warrant a new trial). Yet even after the development of the harmless-error doctrine in the early part of the twentieth century, errors involving constitutional rights …
Twenty-Nine Photographs And The Deterioration Of The Missouri Relevance Rule, Luke A. Hawley
Twenty-Nine Photographs And The Deterioration Of The Missouri Relevance Rule, Luke A. Hawley
Missouri Law Review
Courts generally prohibit the admission of unfairly prejudicial evidence. The idea is that jurors should not be shown evidence if it has a substantially greater likelihood of prejudicing the jurors against the defendant than it does of helping them determine the facts of the case. Barring objections on other evidentiary grounds, if a piece of evidence provides substantially more probative than prejudicial value, the evidence can be shown to the jury. For decades, Missouri courts have limited the admissibility of unfairly prejudicial evidence. While federal courts are governed by the Federal Rules of Evidence, Missouri is one of the few …
Remorse In Parole Hearings: An Elusive Concept With Concrete Consequences, Nicole Bronnimann
Remorse In Parole Hearings: An Elusive Concept With Concrete Consequences, Nicole Bronnimann
Missouri Law Review
Remorse is a profound and complicated emotion and it is one that is evaluated in a surprising number of legal contexts. One particularly high-stakes evaluation of remorse occurs in the context of discretionary parole, when a parole board is deciding whether to release an inmate back to the community. This Article explains the arguments justifying the evaluation of remorse in parole hearings, evaluates how remorse is directly and indirectly incorporated into a typical parole hearing, presents legal and psychological research about the effect that the presence or absence of remorse may have on parole commissioners’ judgment of inmates’ culpability and …
Indoctrination And Social Influence As A Defense To Crime: Are We Responsible For Who We Are?, Paul H. Robinson, Lindsay Holcomb
Indoctrination And Social Influence As A Defense To Crime: Are We Responsible For Who We Are?, Paul H. Robinson, Lindsay Holcomb
Missouri Law Review
A patriotic prisoner of war is brainwashed by his North Korean captors into refusing repatriation and undertaking treasonous anti-American propaganda for the communist regime. Despite the general abhorrence of treason in time of war, the American public opposes criminal liability for such indoctrinated soldiers, yet existing criminal law provides no defense or mitigation because, at the time of the offense, the indoctrinated offender suffers no cognitive or control dysfunction, no mental or emotional impairment, and no external or internal compulsion. Rather, he was acting purely in the exercise of free of will, albeit based upon beliefs and values that he …
Bail Reform: A Possible Solution To Missouri's Broken Public Defender System?, Dana Kramer
Bail Reform: A Possible Solution To Missouri's Broken Public Defender System?, Dana Kramer
Missouri Law Review
No abstract provided.
Deconstructing The Paradox Of The Constitutional Incarceration Of Innocent Citizens, Rebecca Charles
Deconstructing The Paradox Of The Constitutional Incarceration Of Innocent Citizens, Rebecca Charles
Missouri Law Review
No abstract provided.
Children Are Our Future: Resurrecting Juvenile Rehabilitation Through "Raise The Age" Legislation In Missouri, Brittany L. Briggs
Children Are Our Future: Resurrecting Juvenile Rehabilitation Through "Raise The Age" Legislation In Missouri, Brittany L. Briggs
Missouri Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Uncertain Future Of Felon Disenfranchisement, Bruce E. Cain, Brett Parker
The Uncertain Future Of Felon Disenfranchisement, Bruce E. Cain, Brett Parker
Missouri Law Review
Felons represent a large majority of disenfranchised adult Americans, with a significant proportion remaining unable to vote even after completing the entirety of their sentences. As voter eligibility requirements become an increasingly contested partisan battlefield, the fate of these disenfranchised individuals has become increasingly unclear. With this backdrop in mind, we consider recent developments in felon disenfranchisement, the prospects for future legislative action, and the legal arguments that litigants might employ to challenge the practice. In so doing, we exploit newly collected polling data to determine (1) whether Americans are ready to end felon disenfranchisement, and (2) under what circumstances …
The Best Laid Plans: How Administrative Burden Complicates Voting Rights Restoration Law And Policy, Jennifer L. Selin
The Best Laid Plans: How Administrative Burden Complicates Voting Rights Restoration Law And Policy, Jennifer L. Selin
Missouri Law Review
Despite significant literature on the electoral and democratic implications of laws that restore the right to vote to individuals with felony convictions, few scholars have explored whether these reforms result in practical changes. This Article examines the effect of administrative capacity and individual experience on policy implementation and finds that, even in the face of de jure felon rights restoration, policymakers can (knowingly or unwittingly) alter de facto restoration. Specifically, states have limited administrative capacity to absorb the costs of rights restoration. As a result, the burden of restoration falls onto citizens. Facing learning, compliance, and psychological hurdles to the …
New Tricks For An Old Dog: Deterring The Vote Through Confusion In Felon Disenfranchisement, Emily Rong Zhang
New Tricks For An Old Dog: Deterring The Vote Through Confusion In Felon Disenfranchisement, Emily Rong Zhang
Missouri Law Review
Felon disenfranchisement laws do not just disenfranchise. They also confuse. By imposing heavy penalties for failing to correctly navigate complex provisions, these statutes confuse eligible voters and discourage them from exercising their right to vote. In this way, felon disenfranchisement laws resemble modern voter suppression laws: they deter eligible voters from voting. Modest reforms can and should be implemented to affirmatively inform formerly incarcerated individuals of their restored voting rights.
Balancing Act: Admissibility Of Propensity Evidence Under Article I, Section 18(C) Of The Missouri Constitution, Emily Holtzman
Balancing Act: Admissibility Of Propensity Evidence Under Article I, Section 18(C) Of The Missouri Constitution, Emily Holtzman
Missouri Law Review
The American legal system has a long-standing ban against using character evidence to show a party’s propensity to act in conformity with that character. This rule has been especially stringent in the criminal system, where the notion is that when a criminal defendant is tried for a crime, that defendant should face trial only for the crimes charged. However, certain crimes, like sex crimes, can be incredibly difficult to prosecute and, accordingly, victim advocates have pushed for changes to these rules. The Federal Rules of Evidence (“FRE”) and several states have enacted rules that allow evidence of prior bad acts …
Neutralizing Access To Justice: Criminal Defendants’ Access To Justice In A Net Neutrality Information World, Ashley Krenelka Chase
Neutralizing Access To Justice: Criminal Defendants’ Access To Justice In A Net Neutrality Information World, Ashley Krenelka Chase
Missouri Law Review
This Article examines net neutrality and its impact on criminal defendants’ ability to access the courts – and justice – through access to legal information. Research in the American legal system has moved largely online, and print resources are becoming increasingly expensive and, therefore, scarcer. The move to online legal research presents difficult issues in light of the recent demise of net neutrality: If meaningful and speedy access to the Internet becomes dependent upon being able to afford an Internet “fast lane,” users will be divided into the haves and the have-nots. Criminal defendants will surely fall into the latter …
Reconsidering Missouri’S Warrant Suppression Standard, James Sanders
Reconsidering Missouri’S Warrant Suppression Standard, James Sanders
Missouri Law Review
The search warrant is a foundational component of the American criminal justice process. Designed to limit and prevent overreach by police and other law enforcement entities, the framers of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution sought to use warrants as a tool to control the scope and breadth of searches and seizures of private property. The Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirements are a vital check on the proactive and ever-growing police efforts of state and federal authorities.
Plea Bargaining: From Patent Unfairness To Transparent Justice, Mirko Bagaric, Julie Clarke, William Rininger
Plea Bargaining: From Patent Unfairness To Transparent Justice, Mirko Bagaric, Julie Clarke, William Rininger
Missouri Law Review
No abstract provided.
Expungement Expansion: Missouri Makes More Misdemeanors Moot, Raymond Lee
Expungement Expansion: Missouri Makes More Misdemeanors Moot, Raymond Lee
Missouri Law Review
No abstract provided.
Intent Or Opportunity? Eighth Circuit Analyzes Intent Element Of Generic Burglary, Rachel Mitchell
Intent Or Opportunity? Eighth Circuit Analyzes Intent Element Of Generic Burglary, Rachel Mitchell
Missouri Law Review
No abstract provided.