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Putting Forfeiture To Work, Sarah M. Buel
Putting Forfeiture To Work, Sarah M. Buel
SARAH M BUEL
Intimate partner violence (“IPV”) victims are increasingly turning to the courts for help, too often with poor results. Successful witness tampering by offenders sabotages the court system by silencing victims through an array of unlawful conduct, including coercion and violence. The doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing should afford a viable solution, but several obstacles constrain its efficacy. Much confusion exists regarding witness tampering and forfeiture law as a result of the recent trilogy of the Crawford, Davis, and Giles Supreme Court decisions. Their cumulative effect is decreased doctrinal uniformity within a perplexing scheme that is difficult to implement. The resulting …
Effective Assistance Of Counsel For Battered Women Defendants, Sarah M. Buel
Effective Assistance Of Counsel For Battered Women Defendants, Sarah M. Buel
SARAH M BUEL
That so many battered women defendants receive ineffective legal assistance ought to compel introspection and remedial action within the legal profession. A review of cases in which courts found the conduct of counsel unacceptable reveals an astonishing degree of incompetence, with catastrophic consequences for battered defendants. The problem is characterized by attorneys' failure to present defense theories linked to the abuse endured by battered women defendants and is further compounded by judges who refuse to apply the law. A battered woman defendant's case outcome is not so much predicated on the specific facts of her situation as on whom she …