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Full-Text Articles in Law

Same Crime, Different Time: Sentencing Disparities In The Deep South & A Path Forward Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Hailey M. Donovan Jan 2024

Same Crime, Different Time: Sentencing Disparities In The Deep South & A Path Forward Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Hailey M. Donovan

Seattle University Law Review

The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. The American obsession with crime and punishment can be tracked over the last half-century, as the nation’s incarceration rate has risen astronomically. Since 1970, the number of incarcerated people in the United States has increased more than sevenfold to over 2.3 million, outpacing both crime and population growth considerably. While the rise itself is undoubtedly bleak, a more troubling truth lies just below the surface. Not all states contribute equally to American mass incarceration. Rather, states have vastly different incarceration rates. Unlike at the federal level, …


No Child Left Behind Bars: Applying The Principles Of Strict Scrutiny When Sentencing Juveniles Tried As Adults, Max Chu Apr 2022

No Child Left Behind Bars: Applying The Principles Of Strict Scrutiny When Sentencing Juveniles Tried As Adults, Max Chu

William & Mary Law Review

The Commonwealth of Virginia was the first in the nation to pass legislation that provides judges with the discretion to veer away from the mandatory minimum sentence and to impose trauma-informed and age-appropriate sentences for juvenile offenders convicted of felonies and tried as adults. Although Virginia’s new law, House Bill 744 (HB 744), is a pioneering step in the right direction, this Note argues that the law may now provide judges with too much discretion. In other words, HB 744 alone, without more guidance, does not go far enough to protect the rights of juvenile offenders.

Therefore, this Note proposes …


Race-Based Remedies In Criminal Law, Ion Meyn Oct 2021

Race-Based Remedies In Criminal Law, Ion Meyn

William & Mary Law Review

This Article evaluates the constitutional feasibility of using race-based remedies to address racial disparities in the criminal system. Compared to white communities, communities of color are over-policed and over-incarcerated. Criminal system stakeholders recognize that these conditions undermine perceptions of legitimacy critical to ensuring public safety. As jurisdictions assiduously attempt race-neutral fixes, they also acknowledge the shortcomings of such interventions. Nevertheless, jurisdictions dismiss the feasibility of deploying more effective race-conscious strategies due to the shadow of a constitutional challenge. The apprehension is understandable. Debates around affirmative action in higher education and government contracting reveal fierce hostility toward race-based remedies.

This Article, …


Orange Is The New Equal Protection Violation: How Evidence-Based Sentencing Harms Male Offenders, Shaina D. Massie Dec 2015

Orange Is The New Equal Protection Violation: How Evidence-Based Sentencing Harms Male Offenders, Shaina D. Massie

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.


Procedurally Criminal: How Peremptory Challenges Create Unfair And Unrepresentative Single-Gender Juries, Chelsea V. King Dec 2014

Procedurally Criminal: How Peremptory Challenges Create Unfair And Unrepresentative Single-Gender Juries, Chelsea V. King

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

No abstract provided.


Lawrence As An Eighth Amendment Case: Sodomy And The Evolving Standards Of Decency, Sheldon Bernard Lyke Apr 2009

Lawrence As An Eighth Amendment Case: Sodomy And The Evolving Standards Of Decency, Sheldon Bernard Lyke

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

This Article offers an alternate reading of Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down the Texas sodomy statute that criminalized private, consensual, and adult same-sex intercourse. While most scholars discuss Lawrence as a substantive due process case and struggle to find meaning in the ambiguity of the decision's language, I propose that Lawrence is better read as an Eighth Amendment case. This Article argues that the majority opinion analyzed the constitutionality of the Texas sodomy law as it would analyze the cruelty and unusualness of a criminal law in an Eighth Amendment evolving standards of …


Some Effects Of Identity-Based Social Movements On Constitutional Law In The Twentieth Century, William N. Eskridge Jr. Aug 2002

Some Effects Of Identity-Based Social Movements On Constitutional Law In The Twentieth Century, William N. Eskridge Jr.

Michigan Law Review

What motivated big changes in constitutional law doctrine during the twentieth century? Rarely did important constitutional doctrine or theory change because of formal amendments to the document's text, and rarer still because scholars or judges "discovered" new information about the Constitution's original meaning. Precedent and common law reasoning were the mechanisms by which changes occurred rather than their driving force. My thesis is that most twentieth century changes in the constitutional protection of individual rights were driven by or in response to the great identity-based social movements ("IBSMs") of the twentieth century. Race, sex, and sexual orientation were markers of …


Equal Protection Jan 1993

Equal Protection

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.


Equal Protection Jan 1992

Equal Protection

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.


Constitutional Law - Corrections - Prisoners' Constitutional Right Of Access To Courts Imposes Duty On State To Provide Prison Law Libraries, Amanda M. Shaw Jan 1978

Constitutional Law - Corrections - Prisoners' Constitutional Right Of Access To Courts Imposes Duty On State To Provide Prison Law Libraries, Amanda M. Shaw

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.


Wealth, Bail, And The Equal Protection Of The Laws, Richard A. Cohen Jan 1977

Wealth, Bail, And The Equal Protection Of The Laws, Richard A. Cohen

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Communication Of The Supreme Court's Criminal Procedure Decisions: A Preliminary Mapping, Stephen L. Wasby Jan 1973

The Communication Of The Supreme Court's Criminal Procedure Decisions: A Preliminary Mapping, Stephen L. Wasby

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Courts' Responsibility For Prison Reform, Edmund B. Spaeth Jr. Jan 1971

The Courts' Responsibility For Prison Reform, Edmund B. Spaeth Jr.

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Legal Controversy As It Relates To Correctional Institutions - A Prison Administrator's View, Joseph R. Brierley Jan 1971

The Legal Controversy As It Relates To Correctional Institutions - A Prison Administrator's View, Joseph R. Brierley

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Correctional Institution As A Rehabilitation Center - A Former Inmate's View, Victor Taylor Jan 1971

The Correctional Institution As A Rehabilitation Center - A Former Inmate's View, Victor Taylor

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.


Prisoners' Rights And The Correctional Scheme: The Legal Controversy And Problems Of Implementation, Joseph R. Brierley, Victor Rabinowitz, Edmund B. Spaeth Jr., James D. Crawford Jan 1971

Prisoners' Rights And The Correctional Scheme: The Legal Controversy And Problems Of Implementation, Joseph R. Brierley, Victor Rabinowitz, Edmund B. Spaeth Jr., James D. Crawford

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.


Prisoner's Rights And The Correctional Scheme: The Legal Controversy And Problems Of Implementation - A Symposium - Introduction, Donald W. Dowd Jan 1971

Prisoner's Rights And The Correctional Scheme: The Legal Controversy And Problems Of Implementation - A Symposium - Introduction, Donald W. Dowd

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Expansion Of Prisoners' Rights, Victor Rabinowitz Jan 1971

The Expansion Of Prisoners' Rights, Victor Rabinowitz

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.


Prisoners' Rights - A Prosecutor's View, James D. Crawford Jan 1971

Prisoners' Rights - A Prosecutor's View, James D. Crawford

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.


Prison Reform In The Future - The Trend Toward Expansion Of Prisoners' Rights, Monrad G. Paulsen Jan 1971

Prison Reform In The Future - The Trend Toward Expansion Of Prisoners' Rights, Monrad G. Paulsen

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.


Assistance In Addition To Counsel For Indigent Defendants: The Need For, The Lack Of, The Right To, Dennis W. Alexander Jan 1970

Assistance In Addition To Counsel For Indigent Defendants: The Need For, The Lack Of, The Right To, Dennis W. Alexander

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.