Law Commons^™

Full Disclosure: Cognitive Science, Informants, And Search Warrant Scrutiny, Mary Bowman

Mary N. Bowman

Full Disclosure: Cognitive Science, Informants, and Search Warrant Scrutiny

By Mary Nicol Bowman

This article posits that cognitive biases play a significant role in the gap between the rhetoric regarding Fourth Amendment protection and actual practices regarding search warrant scrutiny, particularly for search warrants based on informants’ tips. Specifically, this article examines the ways in which implicit bias, tunnel vision, priming, and hindsight bias can affect search warrants. These biases can affect each stage of the search warrant process, including targeting decisions, the drafting process, the magistrate’s decision whether to grant the warrant, and post-search review by trial and appellate …

Teaching The Power Of Empathy In Domestic And Transnational Experiential Public Defender Courses, Cary Bricker

cary a bricker

Abstract: This article begins with the premise that empathy benefits lawyers, irrespective of age, sex, years of experience or nationality. Building on a body of literature that analyzes why empathic relationships are so integral to client satisfaction, and drawing lessons from medical literature addressing the analogous role of empathy in physician-patient relationships, the article argues that real connection with clients also results in lawyer satisfaction, improving quality of professional life and client representation, reducing burn-out and fostering a personal commitment to advancing social justice. The article also argues that lawyers share a common goal to acquire tools necessary to engage …

Where Did My Privilege Go? Congress And Its Discretion To Ignore The Attorney-Client Privilege, Don Berthiaume, Jeffrey Ansley

Don R Berthiaume

“The right to counsel is too important to be passed over for prosecutorial convenience or executive branch whimsy. It has been engrained in American jurisprudence since the 18th century when the Bill of Rights was adopted... However, the right to counsel is largely ineffective unless the confidential communications made by a client to his or her lawyer are protected by law.”[1] So said Senator Arlen Specter on February 13, 2009, just seven months before Congress chose to ignore the very privilege he lauded. Why then, if the right to counsel is as important as Senator Specter articulated, does Congress maintain …

Prosecuting Government Fraud Despite The Csi Effect: Getting The Jury To Follow The Money, James B. Johnston

James B Johnston

Prosecutors have complained that jurors who think they are educated in crime scene investigations by watching T.V. have made it difficult to prove cases even when the charge is white collar in nature because they expect the forensics the see on the show "CSI". In regard to government fraud cases, the prosecutor simply must get the jury to follow the fraud linked money. This article notes that those in law enforcement must give the jury what they want to get them to follow the money especially when the case concerns government fraud and corruption.

Drugs, Dogs And The Fourth Amendment: An Analysis Of Justice Stevens' Opinion In Illinois V. Caballes, James Johnston

James B Johnston

When a drug dealer delivers illegal narcotics to the American maret place, he frequently uses out nation's roads. In an opinion authored by Justice John Paul Stevens, the U.S. Supreme Court that is captioned Illinois v. Caballes, the Court ruloed that drug dealers do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy when delivering illegal drugs in their cars. This article agrees with the Court's ruling and argues that we as a society have a right and an obligatio n to protect ourselves from drug abuse and drug traffickers. Justice Stevens' opinionj provides a brilliant examination of judicial precedent coupled with …