Law Commons^™

Meaning And Motive In The Law Of Homicide (Reviewing Samuel H. Pillsbury, Judging Evil: Rethinking The Law Of Murder And Manslaughter), Guyora Binder

Book Reviews

Many criminal law scholars have criticized the Model Penal Code’s restrictive conception of culpability as awareness of risk, and have sought to incorporate motives and desires into culpoability analysis. In his excellent book Judging Evil, Samuel Pillsbury has applied this richer conception of culpability to homicide law. The result is a comprehensive theory of homicide liability, unified by an effort to predicate liability on deficient moral reasoning rather than merely awareness of risk. This review essay explicates and commends Pillsbury’s theory but also criticizes one crucial deficiency. Pillsbury shrinks from one of the most obvious but potentially most controversial implications …

Manslaughter And Other Homicides, Paul C. Giannelli

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Violence-Related Injuries Treated In Hospital Emergency Departments, Us Department Of Justice

National Institute of Justice Office of Justice Programs

No abstract provided.

Dangerous Games And The Criminal Law, Daniel B. Yeager

Faculty Scholarship

This essay means to correct the ways in which the law of homicide deals with lucky winners or survivors of dangerous games that end in the deaths of unlucky (dead) "losers" or even unluckier non-participants. Drag racing and Russian roulette are my focus, not only because they are so frequently litigated, but also because most other (unlawful) excessive risk-taking ventures are not, grammatically, what we mean when we say "game." It is not so much my intention to evaluate the role that "moral luck" plays generally in the world or specifically in the criminal law. It is my position that …

Introduction: O.J. Simpson And The Criminal Justice System On Trial, Christopher B. Mueller

Publications

No abstract provided.

Reducing Violent Crimes And Intentional Injuries, Us Department Of Justice

National Institute of Justice Office of Justice Programs

No abstract provided.

Self-Defense In Colorado, H. Patrick Furman

Publications

No abstract provided.

Improving The Investigation Of Violent Crime: The Homicide Investigation And Tracking System, Us Department Of Justice

National Institute of Justice Research in Brief

No abstract provided.

Self-Defense In Kentucky: A Need For Clarification Or Revision, Robert G. Lawson, William S. Cooper

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Recent prosecutions have pushed Kentucky’s concept of self-defense beyond the limits of tolerance for complexity and confusion. There is little doubt that there exists a critical need to clarify or to revise the Kentucky law of self-defense. A demonstration of this need and a description of its nature are the principal objectives of this article. To accomplish these objectives, it is necessary to provide some information about the recent history of homicide and self-defense in Kentucky and to describe some important recent interpretations of this law by the Supreme Court of Kentucky.

Constructive Murder And The Charter: In Search Of Principle, A. Wayne Mackay, Isabel Grant

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article explores the principle of "constructive" murder and how it interacts with the sentencing and the parties sections of the Criminal Code. The authors re-examine these issues in light of the Charter. They conclude that constructive murder has no place in a post-Charter Canada.

Criminal Law, Richard A. Williamson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Jury And The English Law Of Homicide, 1200-1600, Thomas A. Green

Articles

The early English jury was self-informing and composed of persons supposed to have first-hand knowledge of the events and persons in question. The judge instructed the jury on the law, but was himself almost entirely dependent upon the jury for his knowledge of the case. By stating the evidence in a way that made the result it wanted a necessary conclusion, the medieval jury was able to alter the impact of formal rules of law to conform with prevailing social attitudes.

Review Of The King's Pardon For Homicide To A.D. 1307, Thomas A. Green

Reviews

NAOMI D. Hurnard's The King's Pardon for Homicide before AD 1307 is significant and instructive for both legal and social historians. The author has painstakingly pieced together the available evidence from a variety of classes of mediaeval English public records to achieve a clear statement of the law of excusable homicide, i.e., non-felonious but requiring a royal pardon. She has lucidly presented the procedure which marks out the legal life story of persons deserving pardon, from the pardonable slaying to the formal proclamation of the king's peace. But she has also accomplished much more. Through careful and generally sound use …

Societal Concepts Of Criminal Liability For Homicide In Medieval England, Thomas A. Green

Articles

THE early history of English criminal law lies hidden behind the laconic formulas of the rolls and law books. The rules of the law, as expounded by the judges, have been the subject of many studies; but their practical application in the courts, where the jury of the community was the final and unbridled arbiter, remains a mystery: in short, we know little of the social mores regarding crime and crimi- nals. This study represents an attempt to delineate one major aspect of these societal attitudes. Its thesis is that from late Anglo-Saxon times to the end of the middle …

People V. Wilburn, Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

Although defendant engaged in a shoot-out with a retired police officer who walked in on a robbery, the evidence pointed to the conclusion that a bullet fired from defendant's gun killed a decedent. Thus, he was guilty of first-degree murder.

People V. Granados [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

Defendant was entitled to modification of his conviction of first degree murder to second degree murder because no competent evidence established that he engaged in sexual molestation of a child under the age of 14.

People V. Moore [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

A verdict of first-degree murder was proper under the felony murder doctrine because the evidence showed that the killing occurred in the course of an attempted rape.

People V. Hardenbrook, Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

The prior consistent statement of a witness was properly admitted to refute an inference of recent fabrication of the testimony. A lay witness was not competent to testify as to defendant's ability to commit premeditated murder.

People V. Riser [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

In a capital murder prosecution, a trial court's grant of the prosecution's challenge to a juror, who stated that in no event would he vote for the death penalty, was not error.

People V. Penny, Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

A conviction for involuntary manslaughter was reversed because the jury was erroneously instructed on a civil standard of negligence rather than criminal negligence and the lack of due caution and circumspection.

Coyle V. The Commonwealth, Henry W. Rogers

Articles

"Homicidal mania must be proved, not assumed, nor confounded with reckless frenzy; To instruct, however, that it must be proved by 'clearly preponderating evidence' is error. All the authorities require is that the evidence proving it should 'fairly' preponderate.

"An attempt at suicide is not of itself evidence of insanity, and raises no legal presumption thereof....

"It was clearly proved that Coyle killed Emily Myers. That fact is admitted. The only defence set up is that he was insane at the time."