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Civil Rights and Discrimination

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Cleveland State University

Excessive force

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The New Dread, Part Ii: The Judicial Overthrow Of The Reasonableness Standard In Police Shooting, Kindaka J. Sanders Jun 2023

The New Dread, Part Ii: The Judicial Overthrow Of The Reasonableness Standard In Police Shooting, Kindaka J. Sanders

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article series argues that the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on excessive force from Graham v. Connor to the present has undermined the objectivity of the reasonableness standard. In its place, the Court has erected a standard that reflects modern conservative political ideology, including race conservatism, law and order, increased police discretion, and the deconstruction of the Warren Court’s expansion of civil rights and civil liberties. Indeed, the Court, dominated by law-and-order conservatives, is one of the greatest triumphs of conservatism. Modern conservatism developed as a backlash against various social movements like the Civil Rights Movement and spontaneous urban rebellions during …


The Duty To Charge In Police Use Of Excessive Force Cases, Rebecca Roiphe Jul 2017

The Duty To Charge In Police Use Of Excessive Force Cases, Rebecca Roiphe

Cleveland State Law Review

Responding to the problems of mass incarceration, racial disparities in justice, and wrongful convictions, scholars have focused on prosecutorial overcharging. They have, however, neglected to address undercharging—the failure to charge in entire classes of cases. Undercharging can similarly undermine the efficacy and legitimacy of the criminal justice system. While few have focused on this question in the domestic criminal law context, international law scholars have long recognized the social and structural cost for nascent democratic states when they fail to charge those responsible for the prior regime’s human rights abuses. This sort of impunity threatens the rule of law and …


Restoring Independence To The Grand Jury: A Victim Advocate For The Police Use Of Force Cases, Jonathan Witmer-Rich Jul 2017

Restoring Independence To The Grand Jury: A Victim Advocate For The Police Use Of Force Cases, Jonathan Witmer-Rich

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article proposes a grand jury victim advocate to represent the interests of the complainant before the grand jury in investigations into police use of excessive force. Currently, the prosecutor has near-exclusive access to the grand jury, and as a result, grand juries have become almost entirely dependent on prosecutors. Historically, however, grand juries exhibited much greater independence. In particular, grand juries have a long history in America of providing oversight over government officials, bringing criminal charges for official misconduct even when local prosecutors proved reluctant. Permitting the alleged victim of police excessive force to be represented before the grand …


To Exhaust Or Not To Exhaust: The Prisoner Litigation Reform Act Requires Prisoners To Exhaust All Administrative Remedies Before Filing Excessive Force Claims In Federal Court, Danielle M. Mcgill Jan 2002

To Exhaust Or Not To Exhaust: The Prisoner Litigation Reform Act Requires Prisoners To Exhaust All Administrative Remedies Before Filing Excessive Force Claims In Federal Court, Danielle M. Mcgill

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note addresses this issue and recommends that excessive force claims be subject to the PLRA's exhaustion requirement, thereby requiring an inmate to exhaust administrative remedies before filing an excessive force suit in federal court. Requiring exhaustion for excessive force claims will help solve the problems associated with the overabundance of frivolous prisoner litigation and the federal judiciary's unnecessary interference into the nation's prison administrations. Moreover, the excessive force issue is in the forefront because the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Porter v. Nussle, a case dealing exclusively with this issue. The lower court, in Nussle v. Willette, allowed an …