Law Commons^™

A Model State Compensation Law For The Wrongfully Convicted, Jacqueline Kamel

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

“Take The Motherless Children Off The Street”: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome And The Criminal Justice System, Michael L. Perlin, Heather Ellis Cucolo

University of Miami Law Review

Remarkably, there has been minimal academic legal literature about the interplay between fetal alcohol syndrome dis- order (“FASD”) and critical aspects of many criminal trials, including issues related to the role of experts, quality of counsel, competency to stand trial, the insanity defense, and sentencing and the death penalty. In this Article, the co-authors will first define fetal alcohol syndrome and explain its significance to the criminal justice system. We will then look at the specific role of experts in cases involving defendants with FASD and consider adequacy of counsel. Next, we will discuss the impact of FASD on the …

Second Chances In Criminal And Immigration Law, Ingrid V. Eagly

Indiana Law Journal

This Essay publishes the remarks given by Professor Ingrid Eagly at the 2022 Fuchs Lecture at Indiana University Maurer School of Law. The Fuchs Lecture was established in honor of Ralph Follen Fuchs in 2001. Professor Fuchs, who served on the Indiana University law faculty from 1946 until his retirement in 1970, was awarded the title of university professor in recognition of his scholarship, teaching, and public service. In her Fuchs lecture, Professor Eagly explores the growing bipartisan consensus behind “second chance” reforms in the state and federal criminal legal systems. These incremental reforms acknowledge racial bias, correct for past …

Enticing The Supreme Court To Hold That Physical Contact Is Not Required To Violate The Child Enticement Statute, Cassidy Eckrote

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The sexual exploitation of children is a growing problem in the United States. Fifty years ago, parents feared their child getting kidnapped or approached by a predator in the park. Parents today fear their child being preyed upon through the internet. As technology continues to advance, child predators satisfy their depraved desires without ever stepping foot near their victim. In response to the danger of the sexual exploitation of children, the federal government enacted the child enticement statute, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b). The statute criminalizes the enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity. Because the federal …

The Ultimate Injustice: States' Failure To Take Steps To Prevent Wrongful Convictions And, When Wrongful Convictions Are Exposed, To Provide Adequate Assistance To Exonerees, Natalie Lahera

FIU Law Review

Among the many rights guaranteed by the Constitution are the rights to a presumption of innocence, equal protection, due process, a speedy trial, a trial by jury, and legal counsel, if indigent and charged with a serious crime. But those rights do not ensure that the justice system succeeds every time. The United States has exonerated over 3,000 individuals since 1989. The exonerees have collectedly lost over 26,700 years of their lives. Each exoneration has provided insight into the causes of wrongful convictions, the issues with current compensation laws, and even the changes that need to be implemented to avoid …

"Serving Time And It's No Longer A Crime: An Analysis Of The Proposed Cannabis Administration And Opportunity Act, Its Potential Effects At The Federal And State Level, And A Guide For Practical Application By Local Government", R. Allyce Bailey

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

There has been much recent discussion surrounding cannabis use with some researchers supporting the use of medical marijuana, some investors relishing in the recently booming cannabis and CBD industry, and some states decriminalizing marijuana and even harsh controlled substances. As it appears, at least some public opinion is changing regarding marijuana, but the law has not effectively caught up to that change. Bias in the criminal justice system has led to the over-policing of, higher conviction rates, and harsher sentences for minorities. Thus, the decriminalization of marijuana alone does not remedy the grave disproportionate negative effects on populations of color …

Reconceiving Coercion-Based Criminal Defenses, Stephen R. Galoob, Erin Sheley

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

Coercing someone is sometimes wrong and sometimes a crime. People subject to coercion are sometimes eligible for criminaldefenses, such as duress. How, exactly, does coercion operate in such contexts? Among legal scholars, the predominant understanding of coercion is the “wrongful pressure” model, which states that coercion exists when the coercer wrongfully threatens the target and, as a result of this threat, the target is pressured to act in accordance with the coercer’s threat. Some tokens of coercion do not fit neatly within existing legal categories or the wrongful pressure model of coercion. For example, coercive control is a psychological phenomenon …

Freedom To Morph? An Analysis Of Morphed Imagery, Child Pornography, And The First Amendment, Katie H. Jung

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

This article examines the current law related to child pornography and how it leaves a gap for morphed imagery to flourish. The jurisprudence in this area is insufficient to keep up with the changing technology which allows children to be portrayed in morphed imagery and argues that this should not fall within First Amendment protection. The Supreme Court has made it clear that protecting children is an exceedingly important interest and that traditional child pornography falls outside of what was traditionally considered to be protected First Amendment speech. This article argues that the Circuit Split, should the Supreme Court take …

Post-Conviction Release And Defacto Double Jeopardy: Making The Case For Felons As A Quasi-Suspect Class Due To The Collateral Consequences Of A Felony Conviction

Florida A & M University Law Review

Felons are a prime example of a sub-class of individuals that, once convicted in a court of law, are classified, punished, stigmatized, stripped of their rights as American citizens, and discriminated against. Could this be a form of De Facto double jeopardy? While felons are not literally subjected to a second trial within the judicial system for the same offense, felons face a pseudo trial with society, as its jury, upon re-entry into society, based on the continual discrimination for crimes they have already served time for. The enactment of discriminatory laws against felons dehumanizes the individual by discarding their …

Confrontation’S Multi-Analyst Problem, Paul F. Rothstein, Ronald J. Coleman

Texas A&M Law Review

The Confrontation Clause in the Sixth Amendment affords the “accused” in “criminal prosecutions” the right “to be confronted with the witnesses against” them. A particular challenge for courts over at least the last decade-plus has been the degree to which the Confrontation Clause applies to forensic reports, such as those presenting the results of a DNA, toxicology, or other CSI-type analysis. Should use of forensic reports entitle criminal defendants to confront purportedly “objective” analysts from the lab producing the report? If so, which analyst or analysts? For forensic processes that require multiple analysts, should the prosecution be required to produce …

Mengkaji Penerapan Sanksi Pidana Dalam Pencegahan Penyebaran Covid-19 Di Indonesia, Aliyth Prakarsa, Dadang Herli, Rena Yulia

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The police in handling policies that are applied in an emergency period use criminal sanctions, meanwhile, the police also need to provide education and legal protection for the community when there are repressive efforts from the police in enforcing government policies through the Chief of Polices Declaration. The specific target to be achieved is to examine the application of the Chief of Polices Declaration in the application of the contents of the edict that contains criminal sanctions and examine its effectiveness in its application. The method used in this study is a normative and empirical legal research method. Normative research …

The Continuing And Unlawful Exclusion Of Qualified Ex-Offenders From Jury Service In Ohio, Jordan Berman

Akron Law Review

Whether an Ohioan with a felony conviction can be considered for jury service may well depend on where he or she lives in the state or the judge presiding at trial, rather than the dictates of Ohio law. By statute, Ohio permits those with felony convictions to serve on juries upon the completion of any parole or community control sanctions that may have been imposed. This article is not concerned with this settled law but rather the dramatic unevenness of its implementation, as Ohio courts of common pleas, and even individual judges, vary widely in whether they abide by or …

Necrophilia: A New Social-Harm Taxonomy Of U.S. Laws, Kim D. Ricardo

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

Despite five decades marked by progressive rape law reform...there has been little significant change in the rate of rape crimes. In fact, 2018 marked the sixth successive year in which the rate of rapes rose. In rape trials, prosecutors and defense attorneys struggle with the notion of consent. What does consent look like? That is, how do we know when sex happens with the participants’ mutual willingness, free from undue coercion?

It is against this backdrop that I began my research on necrophilia. Following Catharine MacKinnon’s criticism of the now-prevailing consent model of rape law, I began to wonder what …

Plea Bargains: Justice For The Wealthy And Fear For The Innocent, Emily Stauffer

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

The Supreme Court has consistently recognized the hardships of the poor in the criminal justice system and has set a precedent that if a person cannot afford access to any level of the criminal justice system, the state must remove that financial barrier. Prosecutorial tactics in the plea-bargaining process coerce the poor into waiving their right to trial. The unequal access to trial between the poor and non-poor violates the Fourteenth Amendment, which requires that states remove any barrier that restricts the poor from the criminal justice system. The Court has left the states to decide which solutions will work …

Rationalization Of Punishment In Contemporary Criminal Policy, ٍSafaa Otani

UAEU Law Journal

The aim of this study is to highlight the problem of divergence between the principles established in the legal conscience related to minimizing state intervention in enforcing punishment, and the current expansion of the Criminal Law. This problem caused contemporary jurisprudence to sound the alarm that the consequences will be serious, and there is an urgent need to draw new boundaries for the criminal policy under which the Criminal Law operates. Rationalization of punishment is one of the guiding principles which advocate non-excessive use of punitive means to achieve social control, and the pursuit of alternative ways of fighting crimes …

Problematic Of Implicit Cancellation Of Criminal Legal Texts (In Light Of The Principles Of Legality And Validity Of The Penal Provisions In Terms Of Time), Omar Abdul Majid Mosbih

UAEU Law Journal

This study deals with the problem of implicit cancellation of the criminal texts (in light of the principles of legality and effectiveness of the criminal rule in terms time); the study is divided to two sections: first, the general principles of rules pertaining to the implicit cancellation of the criminal texts and in section II: the impact of implicit cancellation rule on legislative and judicial policy. We show that legislative basis should distance itself from the lack of precision, which is the product of the current understanding of the idea of cancellation as the more apparent idea and determines the …

When Is Police Interrogation Really Police Interrogation? A Look At The Application Of The Miranda Mandate, Paul Marcus

Catholic University Law Review

Decades after the Supreme Court’s decision in Miranda v. Arizona, questions abound as to what constitutes interrogation when a suspect is in custody. What appeared a concise, uniform rule has, in practice, left the Fifth Amendment waters muddied. This article addresses a potential disconnect between law enforcement and the courts by analyzing examples of issues arising from Miranda’s application in an array of case law. Ultimately, it attempts to clarify an ambiguity by offering a standard for what conduct classifies as an interrogation.

The Toxic Crusaders: Exploring The History Of The Criminal Enforcement Of The Toxic Substances Control Act, Joshua Ozymy, Melissa L. Jarrell

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

The criminal prosecution of defendants who violated federal laws governing chemical substances has been ongoing for roughly four decades. Yet we continue to have a poor understanding of how federal prosecutors use the U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to charge and prosecute environmental criminals. Through content analysis of all the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) criminal prosecution case summaries from 1983 to 2019, we analyze all TSCA-focused prosecutions for two purposes. First, to gain a better historical understanding of how federal prosecutors have used TSCA as a prosecutorial tool. Second, to understand outcomes of those prosecutions. Results show that 38% …

United States V. Herman, Tyler Wilkerson

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The “Critical Stage” Of Plea-Bargaining And Disclosure Of Exculpatory Evidence, Gabriella Castellano

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

No, The Firing Squad Is Not Better Than Lethal Injection: A Response To Stephanie Moran’S A Modest Proposal, Michael Conklin

Seattle University Law Review

In the article A Modest Proposal: The Federal Government Should Use Firing Squads to Execute Federal Death Row Inmates, Stephanie Moran argues that the firing squad is the only execution method that meets the requirements of the Eighth Amendment. In order to make her case, Moran unjustifiably overstates the negative aspects of lethal injection while understating the negative aspects of firing squads. The entire piece is predicated upon assumptions that are not only unsupported by the evidence but often directly refuted by the evidence. This Essay critically analyzes Moran’s claims regarding the alleged advantages of the firing squad over …

Duress In Immigration Law, Elizabeth A. Keyes

Seattle University Law Review

The doctrine of duress is common to other bodies of law, but the application of the duress doctrine is both unclear and highly unstable in immigration law. Outside of immigration law, a person who commits a criminal act out of well-placed fear of terrible consequences is different than a person who willingly commits a crime, but American immigration law does not recognize this difference. The lack of clarity leads to certain absurd results and demands reimagining, redefinition, and an unequivocal statement of the significance of duress in ascertaining culpability. While there are inevitably some difficult lines to be drawn in …

Criminal Trespass And Computer Crime, Laurent Sacharoff

William & Mary Law Review

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) criminalizes the simple act of trespass upon a computer—intentional access without authorization. The law sweeps too broadly, but the courts and scholars seeking to fix it look in the wrong place. They uniformly focus on the term “without authorization” when instead they should focus on the statute’s mens rea. On a conceptual level, courts and scholars understand that the CFAA is a criminal law, of course, but fail to interpret it comprehensively as one.

This Article begins the first sustained treatment of the CFAA as a criminal law, with a full elaboration of …

Authority And The Globalisation Of Inclusion And Exclusion: Author Meets Readers, Hand Lindahl, Christine Bell Prof, Friedrich Kratochwil, Hans-W. Micklitz, Carlos Thiebaut, Bert Van Roermund

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Authority is written against the background of intense resistance to globalization processes by a range of political movements and grassroots organizations. These processes are complex and have a variety of dimensions. One of these is the emergence of global legal orders, which I define, in a rough and ready manner, as relatively autonomous legal orders that claim or aspire to claim global validity for themselves. They too-most obviously the World Trade Organization (WTO)-are the butt of resistance. Whatever its forms and aspirations, resistance to globalization is fueled by their peculiar dynamic. Indeed, emergent global legal orders spawn massive exclusion when …

Out With The New, In With The Old: Re-Implementing Traditional Forms Of Justice In Indian Country, Nicholas R. Sanchez

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

First Amendment “Harms”, Stephanie H. Barclay

Indiana Law Journal

What role should harm to third parties play in the government’s ability to protect religious rights? The intuitively appealing “harm” principle has animated new theories advanced by scholars who argue that religious exemptions are indefensible whenever they result in cognizable harm to third parties. This third-party harm theory is gaining traction in some circles, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s pending cases in Little Sisters of the Poor and Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. While focusing on harm appears at first to provide an appealing, simple, and neutral principle for avoiding other difficult moral questions, the definition of harm …

Digital Evidence In Criminal Cases Before The U.S. Courts Of Appeal: Trends And Issues For Consideration, Martin Novak

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Though the use of computer forensics in criminal investigations has expanded in recent years, there is little empirical evidence about the prevalence of the use of digital evidence in the court system and its impact on prosecution outcomes. This paper was an examination of criminal cases before the United States Courts of Appeal in which legal issues were related to digital evidence. The purpose of this research was to determine the most common legal basis for appeals relating to the introduction or exclusion of digital evidence, the frequency with which cases involving an appeal regarding digital evidence affirmed or reversed …

Conventions And Convictions: A Valuative Theory Of Punishment, Daniel Maggen

Utah Law Review

The one thing that most scholars of criminal law agree upon is that we are in desperate need of a comprehensive theory of punishment. The theory that comes closest to meeting this demand is the expressive account of punishment, yet it is often criticized for its inability to explain how the expression of communal values justifies punishment and why the condemnation of wrongdoing necessarily requires punishment. The Article answers these criticisms by arguing against the need to necessarily connect punishment to wrongdoing and by developing expressivism into a novel theory of punishment, grounded in the valuative function punishment serves.

Offering …

Lie To Me: Examining Specific Intent Under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001, 1035

Florida A & M University Law Review

One court notes that the Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) has previously not found specific intent to be required under similar language within Section 1001.9 While there are many similarities between Sections 1001 and 1035, there are salient differences. Notwithstanding the differences, this Article argues that Sections 1001 and 1035 should be interpreted without “intent to deceive” and rather be interpreted as a strict liability offense. This argument began with Part I, which provided a brief introduction regarding specific intent under Sections 1001 and 1035. Part II examines the purpose of criminalizing false statements, which identifies why the …

Stare Decisis On Death Row: How The Florida Supreme Court Has Abandoned Stare Decisis Since 2020

Florida A & M University Law Review

This comment will analyze how the Florida Supreme Court has disregarded the doctrine of Stare Decisis throughout 2020 and the consequences of the four significant changes to Florida’s death penalty law. Part II discusses how the doctrine of stare decisis is defined and its origins. Part III addresses the need for certainty and reliability of the law for its survival as an institution. Part IV discusses how the court’s new composition has led the court to overturn precedent in death penalty law. Part V delves into the four major changes that the Florida Supreme Court has made relating to the …