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Full-Text Articles in Law
Certainty In A World Of Uncertainty: Proposing Statutory Guidance In Sentencing Juveniles To Life Without Parole, Sonia A. Mardarewich
Certainty In A World Of Uncertainty: Proposing Statutory Guidance In Sentencing Juveniles To Life Without Parole, Sonia A. Mardarewich
Sonia A Mardarewich
CERTAINTY IN A WORLD OF UNCERTAINTY: PROPOSING
STATUTORY GUIDANCE IN SENTENCING JUVENILES TO LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE
Sonia Mardarewich[1]
Florida Coastal School of Law
March 2013
Abstract: Before the Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. Alabama, the states were divided between mandatory and discretionary life without the possibility of parole sentencing approaches. The Supreme Court decision of Miller eliminated mandatory life without parole for juvenile defendants under the age of eighteen at the time of the crime. The Supreme Court now mandates that every juvenile must be granted an individualized sentencing hearing to ensure youth and attendant mitigating circumstances …
Funding Gideon's Promise By Viewing Excessive Caseloads As Conflicts Of Interests, Heidi R. Anderson
Funding Gideon's Promise By Viewing Excessive Caseloads As Conflicts Of Interests, Heidi R. Anderson
Heidi R Anderson
Some states recently have attempted to legislate around a defendant’s constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel via a novel two-step method. Step one is to allocate insufficient funds for public defense, which results in excessive caseloads for public defenders. Sadly, that step is nothing new. Step two—the one that has slipped by without sufficient notice or criticism—is to bar a public defender from withdrawing from representation based on his excessive caseload. Ultimately, this statutory two-step further entrenches the systematic deprivation of defendants’ Sixth Amendment rights to effective assistance.
In this article, I urge courts to “constitutionalize” the excessive caseload …