Law Commons^™

Schools Fail To Get It Right On Rap Music, Andrea L. Dennis

Popular Media

School officials treat rap music as a serious threat to the school environment. Fear and misunderstanding of, as well as bias against, this highly popular and lucrative musical art form negatively shape their perspectives on this vital aspect of youth culture.

As a result, students who express themselves through rap music in a way that challenges the schoolhouse setting risk the possibility of suspension, permanent exclusion and referral to the criminal justice system.

The ongoing case of Taylor Bell is the latest and most complex battleground on which this issue is playing out.

Electroshock Injustice In Athens-Clarke County, Part 4, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

This article, part 4 in a series, reviews the Athens Clarke County Police Department's (ACCPD) decision to purchase tasers and looks at comments from ACCPD's new police chief.

Police Fatally Tase Another Georgian, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

This article looks at the most recent taser fatality in Georgia.

Guerrilla Warfare And The Constitution, Sonja R. West

Popular Media

Earlier this week, the United States Supreme Court upheld, by a 5-4 vote, the states’ ability to execute death row inmates with a three-drug lethal injection cocktail that critics argue causes excruciating pain. The Court reasoned that states should be allowed to use the drug in question, despite its involvement in several botched executions, in part because states can no longer attain more effective alternatives. In the majority opinion, the justices spin an erroneous tale about “anti-death-penalty advocates” pressuring pharmaceutical companies into refusing to supply other, more humane drugs to the states for use in capital punishment. This alleged radical …

Tasers Kill: Electroshock Injustice In Athens-Clarke County, Part 3, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

The Athens-Clarke County Police Department’s campaign to popularize its decision to begin using taser electroshock weapons on the local citizenry must be recognized for what it is—a public-relations crusade based on clever misrepresentations and shifty evasions, as well as outright denials of fact. This articles reviews the the concerns about implementing tasers in Athens.

Electroshock Injustice Coming To Athens-Clarke County Part 2: More On The "Benefits" Of Police Tasering, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

This article reviews the Athens-Clarke County police department's arguments in implementing tasers and argues against using them in police enforcement.

Protecting The Constitutional Right To Counsel For Indigents Charged With Misdemeanors - Testimony Of Erica J. Hashimoto Before The U.S. Senate, Erica J. Hashimoto

Presentations and Speeches

Testimony of Professor Erica J. Hashimoto before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on May 13, 2015 about the denial of the right to counsel in criminal misdemeanor cases. Professor Hashimoto's testimony begins at the 56:10 mark.

Taser Time: Electroshock Injustice Coming Soon To Athens-Clarke County, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

On Sunday, Apr. 19, 2015, an article in the daily newspaper in Athens announced that Athens-Clarke County Police have already received a shipment of 145 tasers and will soon begin using them on the citizenry of this county.

Although taser electroshock devices are technically classified as nonlethal weapons, this means only that their purpose is to avoid fatalities, not that they are incapable of resulting in fatalities. Use of a nonlethal weapon may and sometimes does result in death or serious injury. In recent years, at least 600 Americans, perhaps as many as 1,000, have died suddenly, unexpectedly, or shortly …

Suffocated Habeas Corpus And Merciless Clemency In The Execution Of Warren Hill, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

On Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, the state of Georgia executed Warren Lee Hill, Jr. by lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson. This state unconstitutionally wielded its most dangerous and irreversible power, the power to kill. A prisoner with significantly sub-average intellectual functioning, a 54-year old man with the mind of a boy, was strapped down and killed in flagrant violation of a provision of the Bill of Rights intended to maintain human dignity.

This article discusses capital punishment against intellectually disabled individuals and how the erosion of habeas corpus at the Federal and state level and the abandonment …

Collateral Consequences And The Preventive State, Sandra G. Mayson

Scholarly Works

Approximately eight percent of adults in the United States have a felony conviction. The “collateral consequences” of criminal conviction (CCs) — legal disabilities imposed by legislatures on the basis of conviction, but not as part of the sentence — have relegated that group to permanent second class legal status. Despite the breadth and significance of this demotion, the Constitution has provided no check; courts have almost uniformly rejected constitutional challenges to CCs. Among scholars, practitioners and mainstream media, a consensus has emerged that the courts have erred by failing to recognize CCs as a form of additional punishment. Courts should …

Applications Of Neuroscience In Criminal Law: Legal And Methodological Issues, John B. Meixner Jr.

Scholarly Works

The use of neuroscience in criminal law applications is an increasingly discussed topic among legal and psychological scholars. Over the past 5 years, several prominent federal criminal cases have referenced neuroscience studies and made admissibility determinations regarding neuroscience evidence. Despite this growth, the field is exceptionally young, and no one knows for sure how significant of a contribution neuroscience will make to criminal law. This article focuses on three major subfields: (1) neuroscience-based credibility assessment, which seeks to detect lies or knowledge associated with a crime; (2) application of neuroscience to aid in assessments of brain capacity for culpability, especially …