Law Commons^™

How The Justice System Fails Us After Police Shootings, Caren Morrison

Caren Myers Morrison

No abstract provided.

Why It's Time For Pervasive Surveillance...Of The Police, Russell Dean Covey

Russell D. Covey

No abstract provided.

Praise Defenders, Not Just Prosecutors, Stephen E. Henderson

Stephen E Henderson

The Unconvincing Case Against Private Prisons, Malcolm M. Feeley

Malcolm Feeley

In 2009, the Israeli High Court of Justice held that private prisons are unconstitutional. This was more than a domestic constitutional issue. The court anchored its decision in a carefully reasoned opinion arguing that the state has a monopoly on the administration of punishment, and thus private prisons violate basic principles of modern democratic governance. This position was immediately elaborated upon by a number of leading legal philosophers, and the expanded argument has reverberated among legal philosophers, global constitutionalists, and public officials around the world. Private prisons are a global phenomenon, and this argument now stands as the definitive principled …

The New Penology: Notes On The Emerging Strategy Of Corrections And Its Implications, Malcolm M. Feeley, Jonathan Simon

Malcolm Feeley

The new penology argues that an important new language of penology is emerging. This new language, which has its counterparts in other areas of the law as well, shifts focus away from the traditional concerns of the criminal law and criminology, which have focused on the individual, and redirects it to actuarial consideration of aggregates. This shift has a number of important implications: It facilitates development of a vision or model of a new type of criminal process that embraces increased reliance on imprisonment and that merges concerns for surveillance and custody, that shifts away from a concern with punishing …

First Force, William A. Edmundson

William A. Edmundson

No abstract provided.

A Linguistic Analysis Of The Meanings Of "Search" In The Fourth Amendment: A Search For Common Sense, Clark D. Cunningham

Clark D. Cunningham

This article offers a new technique for analyzing and evaluating competing interpretations of a legal text and applies that technique to one of the most debated questions of modern constitutional interpretation: the meaning of "searches" in the first clause of the fourth amendment. This Technique is called the "common sense" approach because it begins with a semantic analysis of the text in terms of the sense that the key words have in everyday speech. Such analysis reveals a complex of interlocked concepts that underlies the ability of speakers to recognize meaningful uses of these words. The common sense approach then …

Rules, Standards, Sentencing, And The Nature Of Law, Russell D. Covey

Russell D. Covey

Sentencing law and practice in the United States can be characterized as an argument about rules and standards. Whereas in the decades prior to the 1980s when sentencing was largely a discretionary activity governed only by broad sentencing standards, a sentencing reform movement in the 1980s transformed sentencing practice through the advent of sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum provisions. As a result, sentencing became far less standard-like and far more rule-like. Although reform proponents believed that this "rulification" of sentencing would reduce unwarranted sentencing disparities and enhance justice, it is far from clear that these goals were achieved. Indeed, the …

Fixed Justice: Reforming Plea-Bargaining With Plea-Based Ceilings, Russell D. Covey

Russell D. Covey

The ubiquity of plea bargaining creates real concern that innocent defendants are occasionally, or perhaps even routinely, pleading guilty to avoid coercive trial sentences. Pleading guilty is a rational choice for defendants as long as prosecutors offer plea discounts so substantial that trial is not a rational strategy regardless of guilt or innocence. The long-recognized solution to this problem is to enforce limits on the size of the plea/trial sentencing differential. As a practical matter, however, discount limits are unenforceable if prosecutors retain ultimate discretion over charge selection and declination. Because the doctrine of prosecutorial charging discretion is immune to …

Gender Injustice: System-Level Juvenile Justice Reforms For Girls, Francine Sherman, Annie Balck

Francine T. Sherman

Despite decades of attention, the proportion of girls in the juvenile justice system has increased and their challenges have remained remarkably consistent, resulting in deeply rooted systemic gender injustice. The literature is clear that girls in the justice system have experienced abuse, violence, adversity, and deprivation across many of the domains of their lives—family, peers, intimate partners, and community. There is also increasing understanding of the sorts of programs helpful to these girls. What is missing is a focus on how systems—and particularly juvenile justice systems—can be redesigned to protect public safety and support the healing and healthy development of …

Testimony On Oklahoma Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform, Stephen E. Henderson

Stephen E Henderson

Cost-Effective Juvenile Justice Reform: Lessons From The Just Beginning “Baby Elmo” Teen Parenting Program, Shani M. King, Rachel Barr, Jennifer Woolard

Shani M. King

This Article reviews the literature describing the rise of mass incarceration and its effects on individuals, families, and communities. The Article then describes the Just Beginning “Baby Elmo” Program, a cost-effective, sustainable parental instruction and child visitation intervention created for use with incarcerated teen parents. This intervention is designed to increase the quality of interaction between parent and child, increasing the likelihood that the teen father and child will form a positive relationship and maintain that relationship after release from detention—thereby increasing the child’s resilience and reducing the risk of recidivism for the teen father. The “Baby Elmo” Program is …

Actions And Remedies Against Government Units And Public Officers For Nonfeasance, 11 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 101 (1979), Paul T. Wangerin

Paul Wangerin

No abstract provided.

Free, But Still Behind Bars: Reading The Illinois Post-Conviction Hearing Act To Allow Any Person Convicted Of A Crime To Raise A Claim Of Actual Innocence, Hugh M. Mundy

Hugh Mundy

As the number of wrongfully convicted prisoners who are subsequently exonerated continues to rise, the importance of access to post-conviction relief also increases. Under the Illinois Post-Conviction Hearing Act, this access is restricted to petitioners who are currently imprisoned or otherwise facing a restraint on their liberty. Persons convicted of a crime who have completed their sentence are barred from pursuing post-conviction relief under the Act, regardless of the existence of exculpatory evidence that supports their innocence. Removing this procedural roadblock and interpreting the Act broadly to allow any person convicted of a crime to raise a claim of actual …

What's Guilt (Or Deterrence) Got To Do With It?: The Death Penalty, Ritual, And Mimetic Violence, 38 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 487 (1997), Donald L. Beschle

Donald L. Beschle

No abstract provided.

Why Do People Support Capital Punishment? The Death Penalty As Community Ritual, 33 Conn. L. Rev. 765 (2001), Donald L. Beschle

Donald L. Beschle

No abstract provided.

Reflections On When "We, The People" Kill, 34 J. Marshall L. Rev. 713 (2001), Michael P. Seng

Michael P. Seng

No abstract provided.

Municipal Liability For Police Misconduct, 51 Miss. L.J. 1 (1980), Michael P. Seng

Michael P. Seng

No abstract provided.

Vagrants In Volvos: Ending Pretextual Traffic Stops And Consent Searches Of Vehicles In Illinois, 40 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 745 (2009), Timothy P. O'Neill

Timothy P. O'Neill

No abstract provided.

The Law Of Asset Forfeiture, Jimmy Gurule

Jimmy Gurule

The Law of Asset Forfeiture distinguishes the materials applicable to civil and criminal forfeiture. Attention is also paid to the most important affirmative defenses, many of a constitutional nature, as well as the non-judicial forms of relief available to property owners. There is an update feature on the LexisNexis site.

Confronting Cops In Immigration Court, Mary Holper

Mary Holper

Civil Rights Plaintiffs And John Doe Defendants: A Study In § 1983 Procedure, Howard M. Wasserman

Howard M Wasserman

No abstract provided.

Futility Of Exhaustion: Why Brady Claims Should Trump Federal Exhaustion Requirements, Tiffany R. Murphy

Tiffany R Murphy

A defendant’s Fourteenth Amendment due process rights are violated when a state agency fails to disclose crucial exculpatory or impeachment evidence — so-called Brady violations. When this happens, the defendant should be provided the means not only to locate this evidence, but also to fully develop it in state post-conviction processes. When the state system prohibits both the means and legal mechanism to develop Brady claims, the defendant should be immune to any procedural penalties in either state or federal court. In other words, the defendant should not be required to return to state court to exhaust such a claim. …

Constitutional Debates: Policing And Prison, Sarah J. Greenman

Sarah Greenman

No abstract provided.

Police Use Of Force, Sarah J. Greenman

Sarah Greenman

No abstract provided.

Crime And Punishment, A Global Concern: Who Does It Best And Does Isolation Really Work?, Melanie M. Reid

Melanie M. Reid

The Expansion Of “Particularly Serious Crimes” In Refugee Law: Mirroring The Severity Revolution, Mary Holper

Mary Holper

Refugees are not protected from deportation if they have been convicted of a “particularly serious crime” (“PSC”) which renders them a danger to the community. This raises questions about the meaning of “particularly serious” and “danger to the community.” The Board of Immigration Appeals, Attorney General, and Congress have interpreted PSC quite broadly, leaving many refugees vulnerable to deportation without any consideration of the risk of persecution in their cases. This trend is disturbing as a matter of refugee law, but it is even more disturbing because it demonstrates how certain criminal law trends have played out in immigration law. …