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Full-Text Articles in Law
Undertaking The Task Of Reforming The American Character Evidence Prohibition: The Importance Of Getting The Experiment Off On The Right Foot, Edward J. Imwinkelried
Undertaking The Task Of Reforming The American Character Evidence Prohibition: The Importance Of Getting The Experiment Off On The Right Foot, Edward J. Imwinkelried
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The United States Congress and the State Legislatures of Indiana and Missouri have chosen illogical starting points in their experiments to reform the prohibition against introducing character evidence in criminal cases. Rather than start by allowing the introduction of past crimes with high recidivism rates such as burglary, these legislatures have chosen crimes with minimal probative value as predictors of the accused's conduct. By allowing the the introduction of criminal history in regard to criminal sexual conduct and child molestation, these legislatures increase the risk of wrongful conviction due to the disdain with which the average citizen views these types …
Federal Rules Of Evidence And The Political Process, David P. Leonard
Federal Rules Of Evidence And The Political Process, David P. Leonard
Fordham Urban Law Journal
An important tenet of American evidence law is the strict regulation on the introduction of character evidence. This principal has begun to be chipped away at through the adoption of amendments that allow character evidence to be introduced in certain types of cases. The Federal Rules of Evidence were subject to very little amendment during their first 20 years of use, and have always represented a blend of conservatism about evidence law and political compromise. This tension has been kept in check until the proposal of Rules 413-415, which represents a concession to the politicization of the rules. Before imposing …
Are Executions In New York Inevitable?, Ronald J. Tabak
Are Executions In New York Inevitable?, Ronald J. Tabak
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This article is an edited trascription of a program considering whether executions in New York State are inevitable. Shortly after the program a law was enacted to this effect, however, Mr. Tabak argues that the law is so badly flawed that it may not survive judicial scrutiny. Present on the panel were Barbara Paul Robinson, John Cardinal O'Connor, Dean John Feerick, Archibald Murray, Thomas McDermott, Lee Grant, Cessie Alfonso and George Kendall.
Shaping Today's Forfeiture Law: A Conversation With Senator Mcclellan, G. Robert Blakey
Shaping Today's Forfeiture Law: A Conversation With Senator Mcclellan, G. Robert Blakey
Journal Articles
In any society, the government's ability to interfere with life, liberty or property is always open for full discussion. In this conversation, Professor Blakey discusses property in the context of organized and white-collar crime, in addition to criminal forfeiture, and frames his discussion around his work with Senator John McClellan on drafting the Organized Crime Control Act.
Imagery And Adjudication In The Criminal Law: The Relationship Between Images Of Criminal Defendants And Ideologies Of Criminal Law In Southern Antebellum And Modern Appellate Decisions, Bernard Harcourt
Faculty Scholarship
Criminal law opinions often project a distinct image of the accused. Sometimes, she is cast in a sympathetic light and may appear vulnerable or impressionable: a single mother, whose husband has died, struggling to raise her two, loving children; an impoverished, nineteen-year-old African-American with a fifth-grade education, "mentally dull and 'slow to learn;'" or a defenseless "obedient servant," protecting himself from an "adversary armed with a deadly weapon." On other occasions, the defendant may appear threatening, savage or even diabolical: a cold-blooded recidivist that escapes from a prison workcrew, brutally stabs, rapes and murders a woman, and returns for a …