Law Commons^™

Private Actors And Public Corruption: Why Courts Should Adopt A Broad Interpretation Of The Hobbs Act, Megan Demarco

Michigan Law Review

Federal prosecutors routinely charge public officials with “extortion under color of official right” under a public-corruption statute called the Hobbs Act. To be prosecuted under the Hobbs Act, a public official must promise official action in return for a bribe or kickback. The public official, however, does not need to have actual authority over that official action. As long as the victim reasonably believed that the public official could deliver or influence government action, the public official violated the Hobbs Act. Private citizens also solicit bribes in return for influencing official action. Yet most courts do not think the Hobbs …

Introduction To The West Virginia Law Review Flawed Forensics And Innocence Symposium, Valena E. Beety

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments; Immigration And Naturalization -- Effect Of State Conviction Of Minor Drug Offense By Youthful Offenders -- Availability Of Relief From Mandatory Deportation Based On State Certificate Of Relief From Disabilities Granted As A Result Of The Conviction (Rehman V. Immigration And Naturalization Service, 2d Cir 1976), Donna R. Christie

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Law Of The Groves: Whittling Away At The Legal Mysteries In The Prosecution Of The Groveland Boys, William R. Ezzell

University of Massachusetts Law Review

This Article tells the legal story of one of the South’s most infamous trials – the Groveland Boys prosecution in central Florida. Called “Florida’s Little Scottsboro,” the Groveland case garnered international attention in 1949 when four young black men were accused of the gang rape of a white woman in the orange groves north of Orlando. Several days of rioting, Ku Klux Klan activity, three murders, two trials, and three death penalty verdicts followed, in what became the most infamous trial in Florida history. The appeals of the trial reached the United States Supreme Court, with the NAACP’s Thurgood Marshall …

White Slavery In The Northwoods: Early U.S. Anti–Sex Trafficking And Its Continuing Relevance To Trafficking Reform, Bonnie Shucha

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Creative Capitalism And Human Trafficking: A Business Approach To Eliminate Forced Labor And Human Trafficking From Global Supply Chains, Dana Raigrodski

William & Mary Business Law Review

A great amount of revenue generated by businesses in the global economy can be linked to the trafficking and enslavement of human beings. Yet, the current discourse on human trafficking fails to recognize the magnitude of benefit consumers, businesses, and economies gain from the work of forced and trafficked labor. Moreover, the limited efforts that seek to address this situation have focused on ways to encourage businesses to voluntarily adopt more socially responsible practices. These measures have had only limited success, and are generally believed to be in tension with the for-profit purposes of businesses. Hence, the task of convincing …

Protecting The Imperfect Victim: Expanding “Safe Harbors” To Adult Victims Of Sex Trafficking, Christine Anchan

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Kate Price

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Voting To End Vulnerability: Understanding The Recent Proliferation Of State-Level Child Sex Trafficking Legislation, Kate Price, Keith Gunnar Bentele

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Article first focuses on the history of CSEC (commercially sexually exploited children) legislation in the United States by contextualizing the history of state anti-trafficking laws within the larger anti-trafficking policy framework of federal U.S. statutes and United Nations’ (U.N.) protocols. The second and third sections address the variables, statistical model, and results of our data analysis. The fourth section discusses the implications of these findings. The Article concludes with practical considerations for future CSEC legislative efforts on the state level.

When Sex Trafficking Victims Turn Eighteen: The Problematic Focus On Force, Fraud, And Coercion In U.S. Human Trafficking Laws, Julianne Siegfriedt

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

License To Abuse: Confronting Coach-Inflicted Sexual Assault In American Olympic Sports, Haley O. Morton

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Joint Criminal Trials

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Prosecutorial Accountability 2.0, Bruce Green, Ellen Yaroshefsky

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article describes the rhetorical and regulatory changes that characterize

the new prosecutorial accountability, identifies the conditions that

have enabled them to occur, and considers their implications. While identifying

various necessary conditions, the Article argues that information technology

has been the essential catalyst; the evolution could not be sustained

without the aggregation, accessibility, and communication of data and commentary

about prosecutorial misconduct that new information technology

makes readily available to the public. Given the permanence of information

technology in modern society, the Article concludes by cautiously predicting

that the contemporary regulatory movement will be sustained; the pendulum

will not swing …

Correctional Change Through Neuroscience, Arielle R. Baskin-Sommers, Karelle Fonteneau

Fordham Law Review

Currently, the U.S. criminal justice system is under intense scrutiny. High- profile cases question the appropriateness of specific types of evidence, decision making in sentencing, and the treatment of convicted offenders. Clearly, these issues are not new. And, as has been historically the case, the justice system looks toward science for assistance in addressing and redressing problems with the delivery of justice.

How Prosecutors And Defense Attorneys Differ In Their Use Of Neuroscience Evidence, Deborah W. Denno

Fordham Law Review

Much of the public debate surrounding the intersection of neuroscience and criminal law is based on assumptions about how prosecutors and defense attorneys differ in their use of neuroscience evidence. For example, according to some commentators, the defense’s use of neuroscience evidence will abdicate criminals of all responsibility for their offenses. In contrast, the prosecution’s use of that same evidence will unfairly punish the most vulnerable defendants as unfixable future dangers to society. This “double- edged sword” view of neuroscience evidence is important for flagging concerns about the law’s construction of criminal responsibility and punishment: it demonstrates that the same …

A Glimpse Inside The Brain’S Black Box: Understanding The Role Of Neuroscience In Criminal Sentencing, Bernice B. Donald, Erica Bakies

Fordham Law Review

This Article begins by discussing what neuroscience and the smaller associated field of study, neuropsychology, are and what they can tell us about an individual. It then recounts a brief history of sentencing in the United States. Additionally, it expounds on how the legal system currently utilizes neuroscience in the courts, noting specifically the ways in which neuroscience can be presented during the sentencing phase of trial. Finally, it discusses the use of neuroscience as a mitigating factor during sentencing and how judges can use neuroscience to combat their implicit biases.

Neuroscience And Sentencing, Nancy Gertner

Fordham Law Review

This symposium comes at a propitious time for me. I am reviewing the sentences I was obliged to give to hundreds of men—mostly African American men—over the course of a seventeen-year federal judicial career. As I have written elsewhere, I believe that 80 percent of the sentences that I imposedwereunfair,unjust,anddisproportionate. EverythingthatIthought was important—that neuroscientists, for example, have found to be salient in affecting behavior—was irrelevant to the analysis I was supposed to conduct. My goal—for which this symposium plays an important part—is to reevaluate those sentences now under a more rational and humane system, this time at least informed by …

A Perspective On The Potential Role Of Neuroscience In The Court, Ruben C. Gur, Oren M. Gur, Arona E. Gur, Alon G. Gur

Fordham Law Review

This Article presents some lessons learned while offering expert testimony on neuroscience in courts. As a biomedical investigator participating in cutting-edge research with clinical and mentoring responsibilities, Dr. Ruben Gur, Ph.D., became involved in court proceedings rather late in his career. Based on the success of Dr. Gur and other research investigators of his generation, who developed and validated advanced methods for linking brain structure and function to behavior, neuroscience findings and procedures became relevant to multiple legal issues, especially related to culpability and mitigation. Dr. Gur found himself being asked to opine in cases where he could contribute expertise …

When Empathy Bites Back: Cautionary Tales From Neuroscience For Capital Sentencing, Sheri Lynn Johnson, Amelia Courtney Hritz, Caisa Elizabeth Royer, John H. Blume

Fordham Law Review

This Article examines the implications of emerging neuroscientific findings regarding empathy for capital trials. We have approached this task with caution because neuroscientists’ understanding of the human brain is still evolving. As with any new field, if neuroscience is completely trusted before it is thoroughly tested, there is a risk of embracing the new phrenology. Given the state of the research, our advice to defense lawyers is quite modest, but we believe that there are some important lessons for lawyers, judges, legislators, and other stakeholders in the capital punishment system.

Neuroscience And The Civil/Criminal Daubert Divide, Erin Murphy

Fordham Law Review

This Article speculates on the course of neuroscience-as-proof with an eye toward the actual admissibility standards that will govern the acceptance of such evidence by courts, not just as a matter of formal law but also as a function of historical custom. Given the legal system’s spotty record with scientific evidence—which is to say, both the demonstrated willingness of the system to admit unproven “science” or to exclude evidence despite a seemingly adequate scientific foundation—the trajectory of neuroscience in the courts cannot be predicted simply by asking about its scientific legitimacy in the abstract. Rather, an observer must ponder whether …

Too Sick To Be Executed: Shocking Punishment And The Brain, Joel Zivot

Fordham Law Review

Capital punishment, to be lawfully delivered, must occur without needless cruelty. Cruelty, defined in the setting of punishment, will naturally evolve with the maturation of civil society. Cruel punishment will always be a relative standard, and punishment cannot exceed what is morally shocking. In the setting of public executions, observers and victims share an aspect of the experience of punishment. The inmate has little opportunity to evaluate and report back on cruelty in the moments before death. Once dead, the inmate is necessarily silent on the matter. Empathy allows observers to evaluate punishment as cruel or not. Attempts by the …

Criminal Law And Procedure, Aaron J. Campbell

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminals Behind The Veil: Political Philosophy And Punishment, Chad Flanders

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Deborah W. Denno

Fordham Law Review

This Foreword provides an overview of Criminal Behavior and the Brain: When Law and Neuroscience Collide, a symposium hosted by the Fordham Law Review and cosponsored by the Fordham Law School Neuroscience and Law Center. While the field of neuroscience is vast—generally constituting “the branch of the life sciences that studies the brain and nervous system”— this symposium focused on the cutting-edge ties between neuroscience evidence and the different facets of criminal law. Such an intersection invited commentary from an expert group on a wide span of topics, ranging from the historical underpinnings between law and neuroscience to the …

Innocent Suffering: The Unavailability Of Post-Conviction Relief In Virginia Courts, Kaitlyn Potter

University of Richmond Law Review

This comment examines actual innocence in Virginia: the progress it has made, the problems it still faces, and the possibilities for reform. Part I addresses past reform to the system, spurred by the shocking tales of Thomas Haynesworth and others. Part II identifies three of the most prevalent systemic challenges marring Virginia's justice system: (1) flawed scientific evidence; (2) the premature destruction of evidence; and (3) false confessions and guilty pleas. Part III suggests ways in which Virginia can, and should, address these challenges to ensure that the justice system is actually serving justice.

Can Neuroscience Help Predict Future Antisocial Behavior?, Lyn M. Gaudet, Jason P. Kerkmans, Nathaniel E. Anderson, Kent A. Kiehl

Fordham Law Review

Part I of this Article reviews the tools currently available to predict antisocial behavior. Part II discusses legal precedent regarding the use of, and challenges to, various prediction methods. Part III introduces recent neuroscience work in this area and reviews two studies that have successfully used neuroimaging techniques to predict recidivism. Part IV discusses some criticisms that are commonly levied against the various prediction methods and highlights the disparity between the attitudes of the scientific and legal communities toward risk assessment generally and neuroscience specifically. Lastly, Part V explains why neuroscience methods will likely continue to help inform and, ideally, …

Unconventional Methods For A Traditional Setting: The Use Of Virtual Reality To Reduce Implicit Racial Bias In The Courtroom, Natalie Salmanowitz

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial lie at the core of the United States justice system. While existing rules and practices serve to uphold these principles, the administration of justice is significantly compromised by a covert but influential factor: namely, implicit racial biases. These biases can lead to automatic associations between race and guilt, as well as impact the way in which judges and jurors interpret information throughout a trial. Despite the well-documented presence of implicit racial biases, few steps have been taken to ameliorate the problem in the courtroom setting. This Article discusses the …

Seeing Voices: Potential Neuroscience Contributions To A Reconstruction Of Legal Insanity, Jane Campbell Moriarty

Fordham Law Review

Part I of this Article explains the insanity defense in the United States. Next, Part II discusses some of the brain-based research about mental illness, focusing on schizophrenia research. Then, Part III looks at traumatic brain injury and the relationship among injury, cognition, and behavior. Finally, Part IV explains how a new neuroscience-informed standard might better inform our moral decision making about legal insanity.

Young Adulthood As A Transitional Legal Category: Science, Social Change, And Justice Policy, Elizabeth S. Scott, Richard J. Bonnie, Laurence Steinberg

Fordham Law Review

This Article seeks to advance discussions about the potential implications for justice policy of recent neuroscientific, psychological, and sociological research on young adults. In doing so, we emphasize the importance of not exaggerating either the empirical findings or their policy relevance. The available research does not indicate that individuals between the ages of eighteen and twenty are indistinguishable from younger adolescents in attributes relevant to criminal offending and punishment. Thus, we are skeptical on both scientific and pragmatic grounds about the merits of the proposal by some advocates that juvenile court jurisdiction should be categorically extended to age twenty-one. But …

Lonely Too Long: Redefining And Reforming Juvenile Solitary Confinement, Jessica Lee

Fordham Law Review

Solitary confinement is a frequently used penal tool in all fifty states against all types of offenders. However, since its development in the 1800s, solitary confinement has been found to have damaging psychological effects. Juvenile inmates in particular suffer the greatest psychological damage from solitary confinement because their brains are still in a developmental state. This has led many to propose various reforms that would either end or limit the use of solitary confinement for those under the age of eighteen. However, new neurological studies on brain development show that inmates between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five also suffer …