Law Commons^™

Plea Bargaining As Dialogue, Rinat Kitai-Sangero

Akron Law Review

This Article proposes turning plea bargaining into a dialogical process, which would result in lessening a defendant’s sense of alienation during the progress of the criminal justice procedure. This Article argues that plea bargaining constitutes an opportunity to circumvent restrictions existing during a trial or outside a trial, such as the inadmissibility of character evidence and the need for the victim's consent in restorative justice proceedings. This Article proposes to navigate the plea bargaining process in a way that creates a real dialogue with defendants. Such a dialogue can reduce the sense of alienation that defendants feel from their position …

Book Review: Crime In America, Joseph H. Hill

Akron Law Review

Americans have traditionally been able to meet the challenge of critical situations once the collective consciences of the people have been united and committed to a common cause. If we are aware of the causes of crime as stated by Ramsey Clark, then such a united effort must be launched if America is to remain a country where all men are free to live in peace and without fear.

Suspicious Person Ordinances - Due Process Standards; Columbus V. Thompson, Joel R. Campbell

Akron Law Review

In the absence of circumstances involving First Amendment rights, we are left without guidelines as to the conduct which may be made criminal by local suspicious person ordinances. Because of this lack of adequate standards, a case by case determination of criminal conduct under the various ordinances is necessary. In Thompson the defendant's conduct was questionable and the court found the ordinance unconstitutionally vague. We can only hope that this decision has a sufficient impact upon law enforcement officials and local courts to minimize the injury resulting from vagueness.

Book Review: Crime In America, Joseph H. Hill

Akron Law Review

The main method of the author in describing crime in America is to relate criminal cases, cite statistics, and to generally show the economic and social factors of this country that deny persons access to legitimate opportunities. The illegitimate opportunities that exist for potential criminals are unlimited and admittance to the criminal class demonstrates the belief in another road to win social rewards-money and prestige by sheer physical exertion and stamina.

Suspicious Person Ordinances - Due Process Standards; Columbus V. Thompson, Joel R. Campbell

Akron Law Review

In the absence of circumstances involving First Amendment rights, we are left without guidelines as to the conduct which may be made criminal by local suspicious person ordinances. Because of this lack of adequate standards, a case by case determination of criminal conduct under the various ordinances is necessary. In Thompson the defendant's conduct was questionable and the court found the ordinance unconstitutionally vague. We can only hope that this decision has a sufficient impact upon law enforcement officials and local courts to minimize the injury resulting from vagueness.

Criminal Law - Search And Seizure - Scope Of The Term - "Frisk"; State V. Henry, Anthony J. Occhipinti Jr.

Akron Law Review

State v. Henry is a case involving prosecution for the unlawful possession of narcotic drugs. Henry was convicted on evidence obtained as a result of a "frisk." It should be made clear at the outset that a "frisk" is not a "full" search as is permitted in situations where there is probable cause for arrest. The "frisk" is limited to a protective search or pat-down of the outer clothing for the purpose of detecting weapons. Even though probable cause is not a condition precedent to a "frisk," the "frisk" is, nevertheless, governed by the Reasonableness Clause of the Fourth Amendment. …

Criminal Law - Search And Seizure - Scope Of The Term - "Frisk"; State V. Henry, Anthony J. Occhipinti Jr.

Akron Law Review

State v. Henry' is a case involving prosecution for the unlawful possession of narcotic drugs. Henry was convicted on evidence obtained as a result of a "frisk." It should be made clear at the outset that a "frisk" is not a "full" search as is permitted in situations where there is probable cause for arrest. The "frisk" is limited to a protective search or pat-down of the outer clothing for the purpose of detecting weapons. Even though probable cause is not a condition precedent to a "frisk," the "frisk" is, nevertheless, governed by the Reasonableness Clause of the Fourth Amendment. …

Book Review: Psychiatric Justice, Alice M. Batchelder

Akron Law Review

In an era in which extensive judicial emphasis has been placed on "due process of law" in criminal proceedings, both in the federal courts and in the state courts, Dr. Szasz's book serves as a jarring reminder that in at least one vital area of the concept of due process, much remains to be done. The emerging definition of due process has enunciated the rights guaranteed the individual by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments; and viewed within that framework, this book, although published in 1965, remains particularly timely, for Szasz, speaking as a psychiatrist, endeavors to demonstrate how …

Denial Of Speedy Trial - Mandamus For Dismissal: Smith V. Hooey, Charles F. Brumbach

Akron Law Review

The Court reasoned that the timely assertion by defendant-petitioner of his constitutional right to a speedy trial gave rise to a corresponding duty on the part of the state to bring him to trial without undue delay.The Court rejected the state's argument that Texas was, in this instance, free from Sixth Amendment constraints, observing that this argument was based on an erroneous conception of the nature of comity.

Given the recognized right to a speedy trial, and given the corresponding duty on the part of the state to affirmatively secure that constitutional right, the breach of such a duty will …

Infanticide - Requirement That The Victim Be Born Alive; State V. Dickinson, Richard R. Wilfong

Akron Law Review

This case is unique, because it is the first time a court has imposed a conviction of homicide for the death of a viable unborn fetus caused by an unlawful but unintentional act. The evidence is persuasive beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, without due regard for the safety and rights of others, and in such a manner as to endanger the life or property of other persons in lawful use of the streets and highways. The soundness of the court's finding depends upon a determination of the …

Duty Of Trial Judge When Defendant Objects To Competency Of His Counsel; State V. Deal, Nicholas T. George

Akron Law Review

Obviously, from the quoted statement, Justice Schneider felt that the Supreme Court had no way of knowing whether or not the objection was valid. The record failed to reveal why there was no alibi defense filed or why there were no defense witnesses called. The record being silent, one could hypothesize that appointed counsel talked to defendant's witnesses and felt that their testimony would be of no avail. Moreover, it is possible that after appointed counsel investigated the alibi defense he found it useless. It is here, to this third issue, that the force of the Supreme Court's decision must …

Book Review: Imaginative Programing In Probation And Parole, James C. Shew

Akron Law Review

The tactics and policies of criminal courts and penologists are now approaching Robert Frost's "two roads diverging in a yellow wood." Like Frost's lone traveler, society must choose which road to take: the well-traveled one or the newly-charted one. Paul W. Keve, Director of Court Services in Minneapolis, has become a pace-setter in the use of probation and parole by choosing the latter course. For first offenders and one-time repeaters Keve substitutes a restrained but flexible leniency for a rigid strictness; individual attention for an impersonal assemblyline procedure; and positive stimuli for punitive measures.

Using counseling (by caseworkers), group sessions, …

Application Of Ohio Post-Conviction Procedure - Effect Of Prior Judgment On.; Coley V. Alvis, Thomas A. Geraci Jr.

Akron Law Review

In the per curiam decision of Coley v. Alvis' the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed an Ohio District Court decision dismissing Coley's petition for habeas corpus for failure to exhaust his state remedies. The circuit Court remanded, stating that it would be futile for petitioner to attempt to void his conviction under the Ohio post-conviction statute because of the narrow limits placed on it by the state courts and that there was consequently no longer any effective state remedy. Since the grounds that petitioner set forth to sustain his writ did not fall within any …

Book Review: Sex Offenders, Emery J. Leuchtag

Akron Law Review

There has been a long-standing interest in sex offenses and sex offenders, and with the growth of the behavioral sciences this subject has been given increasing attention. Articles have been written, legislatures have either revised old statutes or enacted new ones, and the news media have published numerous studies of sexual offenses.

Nevertheless, despite all of this coverage of modern sexuality, little is known about sex offenders. Because of this, the Institute For Sex Research of Indiana University, founded by Alfred Kinsey, has added another volume to its growing library of publications concerning human sexual behavior.

Constitutional Rights Of Youthful Offenders; In The Matter Of Gault, Robert M. Kunczt

Akron Law Review

After the decisions in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U. S. 335 (1963), Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966), and Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U. S. 478 (1964), which revealed the Supreme Court's solicitude of the constitutional rights of adults, it seemed improbable that the lower courts would long be permitted to continue ignoring the constitutional rights of juveniles. Thus the decision in the principal case, which represents a breakthrough in the assurance of a fair hearing to minors, comes as no surprise. The case holds that under the Fourteenth Amendment a juvenile has a right to notice of …

Confessions, Miranda's Applicability; Clewis V. Texas, Howard E. Mentzer

Akron Law Review

Recent United States Supreme Court decisions concerning the admissibility of statements or confessions into evidence have sharply curtailed haphazard interrogation procedures. As courts have become more punctilious about "due process" and other constitutional guarantees, a greater degree of care and fairness has been demanded in soliciting information and advising uninformed individuals of their rights.

Ohio's Post-Conviction Appeal Remedy, Timothy J. Murty

Akron Law Review

Ohio has recently adopted legislation intended to provide a prisoner with a means of testing, in the court which originally imposed sentence, the constitutional validity of his sentence. This legislation is intended to provide a remedy which will supplement the writ of habeas corpus. Jurisdiction in habeas corpus proceedings lies in the court of the county in which the prisoner is confined. In recent years the courts located in counties containing state correctional institutions have been deluged with habeas corpus petitions.

Criminal Responsibility: Knowledge, Will And Choice, Robert J. Willey

Akron Law Review

The Court acknowledged that the M'Naghten formula was the recognized test for insanity, that it was a test of criminal responsibility rather than a medical test of insanity, that it has been followed in a classic fashion, that each doctor had compressed his final conclusion into the required M'Naghten strait jacket, and that the defense had proved by the greater weight of the evidence that the defendant was not guilty by reason of insanity.

Both of these courts claimed to be following M'Naghten, though the Colby court decried its present use, and the Keaton court approved an instruction that included …

Rights Of State Prisoners - Federal Court Intervention In State Prison Administration; Jones V. Wittenberg, Ronald L. Collins

Akron Law Review

The path to federal court intervention into state prison administration has been a tortuous and rocky one.... Jones v. Wittenberg carries federal court intervention into state prison administration to new lengths. Until more basic and lasting changes are made on the part of society and the states, such intervention seems to be the best chance for ameliorating conditions in our state penal systems.

The Admissibility Of Polygraph ("Lie Detector") Evidence Pursuant To Stipulation In Criminal Proceedings, Bruce C. Heslop

Akron Law Review

American courts have traditionally held that evidence pertaining to the results of a lie-detector test is inadmissible in a criminal proceeding on behalf of either the prosecution or defense….In recent years, however, a few jurisdictions have withdrawn from the traditional approach and have admitted lie-detector evidence in limited situations, notwithstanding objection by the adverse party….The decision of whether or not to adopt the approach presented here must critically evaluate the potential value of polygraph evidence along with its potential dangers. In so doing, the courts of Ohio should determine whether a procedure may be devised to maximize the value and …

Book Review: Narcotics And Drub Abuse; By Samuel F. Levine, Raymond T. Royko

Akron Law Review

O NE OF THE MOST urgent school problems of the early 1970's has little to do with formal education or the old-fashioned triad of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instead, the key words are "uppers," "downers," "grass," and "smack"--amphetamines, barbiturates, marijuana and heroin, and there has been a steady decline of the age at which youngsters are introduced to them on what is known as the drug scene. In July, 1969, President Nixon called attention to the rise by almost 800% of juvenile drug arrests and stated that "within the last decade the abuse of drugs has grown from essentially a …

Evidence - Admissibility Of Statements To Parole Officer - Miranda Warnings; State V. Gallagher, Thomas A. Treadon

Akron Law Review

The opinion handed down in this recent decision from the Montgomery County Court of Appeals examined a question of first impression in the courts of Ohio. The issue presented was "whether a parole or probation officer is a law enforcement officer within the contemplation of Miranda and thus subject to the Miranda requirements of constitutional warnings to suspects during custodial interrogation...."

Searches And Seizures - Arrest - Motor Vehicle Exception To Warrant Requirement - Limits? People V. Dumas, Gordon D. Arnold

Akron Law Review

On May 11, 1970, officers of the Los Angeles Police Department approached the apartment of Clay Dumas. Based on a report from a reliable informant, whose information had been corroborated by independent police investigation, the police had obtained a warrant to search Dumas' apartment and "all trash cans, storage areas, garages and carports which are assigned to and/or used by occupants of the aforesaid apartment." The objects of the search were certain stolen bonds and bank checks which, according to the police informant, Dumas had been in possession of for about eight weeks; also narcotics and narcotics gear. The police …

The Era Of Libertarian Repression - 1948 To 1973: From Congressman To President, With Substantial Support From The Liberal Establishment, Frank Wilkerson

Akron Law Review

Such is not the case today. Crime, the modern fear, whether street or organized, is real and is increasing. Year after year, according to the understatements available on the problem from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, crime has increased-both in actual number committed and in proportion to the population growth. The political manipulation of the public's well-founded fear of crime in the present era has take rhetorical form in the political appeals for law and order during the 1968, 1970, and 1972 national campaigns, resulting in overwhelming and bi-partisan Congressional approval of ill-conceived and patently repressive laws in 1968 and …

The Reach Of The Law: Sin, Crime And Poor Taste, Alexander B. Smith, Harriet Pollack

Akron Law Review

The past decade has been a period of intensive reevaluation of the law. The criminal law, in particular, has been subjected to an especially intensive criticism. These attacks fall largely into two categories: criticisms of the legitimacy of our penal codes, and criticisms of their efficiency.
Starting with the Civil Rights Movement of the Kennedy era with its heavy emphasis on civil disobedience as a tool of protest, the legitimacy of many of our laws was called into question. When Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, she was not simply breaking the law; she …

Entrapment - An End? State V. Rowan, Kenneth D. Morse

Akron Law Review

Rowan creates a trap for the individual who is confronted by the undercover narcotics agent and who had no intention of committing the crime. That the crime is more likely to occur under Rowan cannot be doubted. It is of utmost significance that the narcotics agent may sell and deliver drugs. Courts cannot ignore a change of social mores which have occurred. 25 More and more people are willing to accept the existence of conduct which was previously branded as criminal behavior. It is precisely these people that the Rowan decision sets out to trap.

Book Review: Justice Is The Crime, James G. France

Akron Law Review

[R]eform suggestions are bold, sometimes to the point of brashness. Many of them are urgently needed, but few are new. They bear a curious resemblance to those offered by the National Conference on the Judiciary in its Concensus Report, and to some of the more recent reports and recommendations of state court studies, all financed by L.E.A.A. grants, some of them quite substantial. It is as if the real source of the proposals was in the Department of Justice in Washington, all for the benefit of the untutored provincials. These suggestions are of three types: Those which are untried and …

Book Review: Insanity Defense: By Richard Arens, Gustav Goldberger

Akron Law Review

It is not often that the average criminal trial lawyer will seriously contemplate the use of the insanity defense. The law presumes a defendant sane and counsel will naturally attribute sanity to his client unless obvious signs trigger the consideration of the insanity defense.

Reforming The Mental Health Law Of Ohio, James K. Feldman

Akron Law Review

IT WAS A COLD, SNOWY DAY toward the end of November, 1859. C. P. Wolcott, one of Akron's prominent attorneys, bundled up on the seat of his "buckboard," was driving his team all about town, trying to obtain affidavits from various citizens of his community who could testify to his client's mad delusions, and thereby save him from execution for charges arising from his attempt to seize the federal army arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, the previous October 16th. John Brown, married and the father of 20 children, was sentenced to be hanged on December 2nd. The client sincerely believed …

Corporal Punishment In The Public Schools: The Legal Question, William Irwin Arbuckle Iii

Akron Law Review

PUBLIC EDUCATION in the United States has come a long way since the one-room schoolhouse days. This phenomenal growth has been paced by the controversy surrounding the use of corporal punishment as a means of enforcing discipline in the schools. From the oldest reported case reaching the issue of corporal punishment' back in 1833 down to the present, the proponents of corporal punishment have had to defend their actions in the courts from a wide variety of attacks based on criminal law, tort law, state statutes, school board regulations and, most recently, constitutional guarantees. Although the attacks on corporal punishment …