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Full-Text Articles in Law
“Incorrigibility Is Inconsistent With Youth”: The Supreme Court’S Missed Opportunity To Cure The Contradiction Implicit In Discretionary Jlwop Sentencing, Ana Ionescu
University of Miami Law Review
The juvenile life without parole (“JLWOP”) caselaw is based in part on the science underlying adolescent brain development. Numerous research studies have examined the behaviors and brain processes of adolescents. Courts have relied on these findings in reaching some of its most important decisions affecting juveniles implicated in the criminal justice system. The latest of those decisions came in 2021 with the Jones v. Mississippi case before the United States Supreme Court. The Court held that a sentencing court is not required to make a specific finding of permanent incorrigibility before sentencing the juvenile defendant to life without parole. This …
Crime And Punishment: An Empirical Study Of The Effects Of Racial Bias On Capital Sentencing Decisions, Matthew A. Gasperetti
Crime And Punishment: An Empirical Study Of The Effects Of Racial Bias On Capital Sentencing Decisions, Matthew A. Gasperetti
University of Miami Law Review
Racism has left an indelible stain on American history and remains a powerful social force that continues to shape crime and punishment in the contemporary United States. In this article, I discuss the socio-legal construction of race, explore how racism infected American culture, and trace the racist history of capital punishment from the Colonial Era to the present. After framing the death penalty in cultural and historical context, I report original empirical results from one of the largest studies (n = 3,284) of mock juror capital sentencing decisions published to date. My results show that mock jurors who self reported …
The Defender General, Daniel Epps, William Ortman
The Defender General, Daniel Epps, William Ortman
Law Faculty Research Publications
No abstract provided.
Judicial Elections, Public Opinion, And Their Impact On State Criminal Justice Policy, Travis N. Taylor
Judicial Elections, Public Opinion, And Their Impact On State Criminal Justice Policy, Travis N. Taylor
Theses and Dissertations--Political Science
This dissertation explores whether and how the re-election prospects faced by trial court judges in many American states influence criminal justice policy, specifically, state levels of incarceration, as well as the disparity in rates of incarceration for Whites and Blacks. Do states where trial court judges must worry about facing reelection tend to encourage judicial behavior that results in higher incarceration rates? And are levels of incarceration and racial disparities in the states influenced by the proportion of the state publics who want more punitive policies? These are clearly important questions because they speak directly to several normative and empirical …
Washington’S Young Offenders: O’Dell Demands A Change To Sentencing Guidelines, Erika Vranizan
Washington’S Young Offenders: O’Dell Demands A Change To Sentencing Guidelines, Erika Vranizan
Seattle University Law Review
This Note argues that the O’Dell decision was a watershed moment for criminal justice reform. It argues that the reasoning in O’Dell should be seized upon by the legislature to take action to remediate instances in which defendants are legal adults but do not possess the cognitive characteristics of an adult sufficient to justify adult punishment. Given both the scientific impossibility of identifying a precise age at which characteristics of youthfulness end and adulthood begins and the Court’s repeated recognition that these very factors impact culpability, the current approach to sentencing young offenders aged eighteen to twenty-five as adults simply …
Law And Society: The Criminalization Of Latinx In The United States, Gabriela Groenke
Law And Society: The Criminalization Of Latinx In The United States, Gabriela Groenke
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The United States leads the world in incarceration with just over 2.2 million people in state or federal prisons or local jails in 2014 (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2016). Although the number of incarcerated individuals has declined by about .5 percent since its peak in 2008 (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2016), the fact remains that mass incarceration is an epidemic in the United States. Over the last decade much has been written about the effects of mass incarceration on people of color, with many analysts pointing to the fear of crime as contributing to the formulation of current policies, which …
Beyond The Money: Expected (And Unexpected) Consequences Of America's War On Drugs, Cynthia Brown
Beyond The Money: Expected (And Unexpected) Consequences Of America's War On Drugs, Cynthia Brown
Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive
The purpose of this paper is to provide a high-level survey of our nation’s prohibition policies within the context of the costs of the law enforcement efforts upholding those policies. The discussion will offer a cursory review of the economic expense of the war on drugs with tangential coverage of the constitutional, institutional and intangible expenses that are inseparable from an assessment of the costs of America’s drug control efforts. Part I provides a historical review of illicit drug use in the United States, while Part II supplies the evolution of the country’s efforts to codify its drug control policies. …