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Articles 31 - 57 of 57
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Virtues Of Thinking Small, Corinna Barrett Lain
The Virtues Of Thinking Small, Corinna Barrett Lain
Law Faculty Publications
Professor Lain argues that, in efforts to determine how close American states are to abolishing the death penalty, scholars should "think small," examining the ground level issues that affect its imposition. Among the issues she explores are exonerations of defendants, the legality and obtainability of lethal injection drugs, and the high costs of seeking and imposing capital punishment.
Watching The Watchers, Ronald J. Bacigal
Watching The Watchers, Ronald J. Bacigal
Law Faculty Publications
This article focuses on the threat that increasingly sophisticated technology can pose to individual privacy. However, the author would like to provide the “yin to the yang” and point out the obvious: technology itself is not the culprit, because it is a double-edged sword, a tool that can be used to protect as well as invade privacy. We need not endorse the single-minded approach of WikiLeaks to recognize the benefits that occur when technology discloses government cover-ups or simply provides accurate information where none previously existed.
A Brave New World Of Stop And Frisk, Ronald J. Bacigal
A Brave New World Of Stop And Frisk, Ronald J. Bacigal
Law Faculty Publications
In this article, the author Ron Bacigal discusses the editorials, The Shame of New York by Bob Herbert and Fighting Crime Where the Criminals Are by Heather MacDonald. These editorials were prompted by the New York City Police Department's release of figures regarding "stop and frisk" incidents within New York City.' MacDonald and Herbert reacted to the same statistical report by putting two very different spins on the raw data. While it's always helpful to compile empirical evidence, Bacigal suggests that we also need to look beyond the mere numbers. If you put aside anecdotal versions of encounters between minorities …
Lessons Learned From The Evolution Of Evolving Standards, Corinna Barrett Lain
Lessons Learned From The Evolution Of Evolving Standards, Corinna Barrett Lain
Law Faculty Publications
In the discussion that follows, I explore the evolution of the "evolving standards" doctrine to make a point about its legitimacy and Supreme Court decisionmaking under the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause more generally. In Part I, I trace the origins of the doctrine to its present state. In Part II, I turn to lessons learned from the evolution of "evolving standards," questioning the textual defense of the doctrine and the constraining power of law itself. I conclude that while the "evolving standards" doctrine is problematic, it is not the crux of the problem. Supreme Court decisionmaking in the death …
Did The Court Kill The Treason Charge?: Reassessing Cramer V. United States And Its Significance, Paul T. Crane
Did The Court Kill The Treason Charge?: Reassessing Cramer V. United States And Its Significance, Paul T. Crane
Law Faculty Publications
This Article has two main objectives. First, I will analyze the Court's decision in Cramer v. United States. Based on internal court documents, such as draft opinions and private memoranda, it is clear that the Justices had more on their minds than the specific legal question at hand. Second, I will reassess the relationship between Cramer and the lack of treason charges after 1954 and offer an explanation for the disappearance of treason prosecutions until the indictment of Gadahn in 2006. Specifically, I will highlight the significance of a traditionally underappreciated portion of the Cramer decision: the Court's statement that …
Can Prosecutors Bluff? Brady V. Maryland And Plea Bargaining, John G. Douglass
Can Prosecutors Bluff? Brady V. Maryland And Plea Bargaining, John G. Douglass
Law Faculty Publications
The author discusses the symbolic value of the Brady rule in the pretrial context in the U.S. criminal justice system. Brady's symbolic power remains stronger than its corrective power in post-trial motions. It serves as a constitutional reminder to prosecutors because they cannot serve as architects of unfairness. Most prosecutors disclose more Brady material in pretrial discovery than the constitutional rule actually demands. This indicates that prosecutors can bluff.
"True Threats" And The Issue Of Intent, Paul T. Crane
"True Threats" And The Issue Of Intent, Paul T. Crane
Law Faculty Publications
This Note will proceed in five Parts. Part I will serve as a short introduction to the category of true threats and its place within First Amendment jurisprudence. Part II will examine the history of true threats and intent leading up to Virginia v. Black, highlighting the foundational opinion of Watts v. United States and the various intent approaches that became available in its wake. Part III will discuss the potential interpretations of the language in Black, and Part IV will explain how lower courts have treated the Court's definition of true threats in Black. Finally, Part V will address …
Confronting Death: Sixth Amendment Rights At Capital Sentencing, John G. Douglass
Confronting Death: Sixth Amendment Rights At Capital Sentencing, John G. Douglass
Law Faculty Publications
The Court's fragmentary approach has taken pieces of the Sixth Amendment and applied them to pieces of the capital sentencing process. The author contends that the whole of the Sixth Amendment applies to the whole of a capital case, whether the issue is guilt, death eligibility, or the final selection of who lives and who dies. In capital cases, there is one Sixth Amendment world, not two. In this Article, he argues for a unified theory of Sixth Amendment rights to govern the whole of a capital case. Because both Williams and the Apprendi-Ring-Booker line of cases purport to rest …
Countermajoritarian Hero Or Zero - Rethinking The Warren Court's Role In The Criminal Procedure Revolution, Corinna Barrett Lain
Countermajoritarian Hero Or Zero - Rethinking The Warren Court's Role In The Criminal Procedure Revolution, Corinna Barrett Lain
Law Faculty Publications
With last fall marking the fiftieth anniversary of Earl Warren's appointment as Chief Justice, enough time has passed to place the criminal procedure revolution in proper historical perspective and rethink the Court's role there as countermajoritarian hero. In the discussion that follows, I aim to do that by examining five of the revolution's most celebrated decisions: Mapp v. Ohio, Gideon v. Wainwright, Miranda v. Arizona, Katz v. United States, and Terry v. Ohio. In none of these cases, I argue, did the Supreme Court act in a manner truly deserving of its countermajoritarian image. To be clear, I do not …
Virtual Cross-Examination: The Art Of Impeaching Hearsay, John G. Douglass
Virtual Cross-Examination: The Art Of Impeaching Hearsay, John G. Douglass
Law Faculty Publications
Trial lawyers and judges are quite accustomed to courtroom battles over the admissibility of hearsay. But relatively few have much experience at challenging the credibility of hearsay. Once hearsay is admitted in evidence, even the ablest advocates typically proceed as if the hearsay battle were over, at least until the appeal. Few lawyers take advantage of the opportunities available to impeach the hearsay declarant. Consider the perspective of one experienced trial judge: I sometimes wonder at what seems to me the passing up of golden opportunities by the able advocate. Foremost among these lost opportunities is the virtual total neglect …
Admissibility As Cause And Effect: Considering Affirmative Rights Under The Confrontation Clause, John G. Douglass
Admissibility As Cause And Effect: Considering Affirmative Rights Under The Confrontation Clause, John G. Douglass
Law Faculty Publications
In this essay, I first examine some of the strategic choices spawned by the Supreme Court's "microscopic" focus on reliability in confrontation-hearsay cases. Rather than promoting the value at the core of the Confrontation Clause-the adversarial testing of prosecution evidence-the Court's approach leads to choices that ignore that value. While the Court scrutinizes hearsay under the microscope of reliability, it leaves the parties free to ignore and even to avoid available opportunities for effective confrontation of the hearsay declarant. At the same time, the Court's constitutional definition of reliability-which it equates with "firmly rooted" hearsay exceptions -has encouraged prosecutors to …
Accuracy Where It Matters: Brady V. Maryland In The Plea Bargaining Context, Corinna Barrett Lain
Accuracy Where It Matters: Brady V. Maryland In The Plea Bargaining Context, Corinna Barrett Lain
Law Faculty Publications
Professor Lain argues that the role of Brady v. Maryland in protecting the innocent from wrongful conviction is just as essential in the plea bargaining context as it is at trial, and that therefore even defendants who plead guilty should be entitled to Brady's protections. However, she concludes that Brady's application in the plea bargaining context is destined to provide only a shadow of the protection Brady provides at trial because of the materiality standard currently used to judge post-plea Brady claims. In making both points, she employs a model of the plea bargaining defendant's decision-making process, using modern choice …
Fatal Attraction? The Uneasy Courtship Of Brady And Plea Bargaining, John G. Douglass
Fatal Attraction? The Uneasy Courtship Of Brady And Plea Bargaining, John G. Douglass
Law Faculty Publications
Part I of this Article discusses the natural attraction between Brady-a rule requiring disclosure of evidence favorable to a defendant-and plea bargaining-a practice where such information is at a premium for defendants. Part II describes how an increasing number of courts have adapted Brady to fit in the world of a plea bargain, in the process changing Brady's point of reference from the jury's verdict to the defendant's tactical decision to plead guilty. Part ill argues that this change in focus narrows Brady's substantive coverage and renders the rule practically unenforceable following most guilty pleas. Part IV then assesses the …
Confronting The Reluctant Accomplice, John G. Douglass
Confronting The Reluctant Accomplice, John G. Douglass
Law Faculty Publications
The Supreme Court treats the Confrontation Clause as a rule of evidence that excludes unreliable hearsay. But where the hearsay declarant is an accomplice who refuses to testify at defendant's trial, the Court's approach leads prosecutors and defendants to ignore real opportunities for confrontation, while they debate the reliability of hearsay. And even where the Court's doctrine excludes hearsay, it leads prosecutors to purchase the accomplice's testimony through a process that raises equally serious questions of reliability. Thus, the Court's approach promotes neither reliability nor confrontation. This Article advocates an approach that applies the Confrontation Clause to hearsay declarants in …
Balancing Hearsay And Criminal Discovery, John G. Douglass
Balancing Hearsay And Criminal Discovery, John G. Douglass
Law Faculty Publications
and prosecutors. Part I of this Article argues that the conventional theory of hearsaydiscovery balance does not reflect the reality of modem federal practice. An imbalance has arisen because, in the last quarter century, developments in the law of evidence and confrontation are at odds with developments-or one might say nondevelopments-in the law of criminal discovery. Since enactment of the Federal Rules of Evidence in 1975, both the law of evidence and modem Confrontation Clause doctrine have evolved toward broader admission of hearsay in criminal cases. Contrary to conventional theory, that evolution has at least matched-and probably has outpaced-the trend …
Beyond Admissibility: Real Confrontation, Virtual Cross-Examination And The Right To Confront Hearsay, John G. Douglass
Beyond Admissibility: Real Confrontation, Virtual Cross-Examination And The Right To Confront Hearsay, John G. Douglass
Law Faculty Publications
Part I of this Article describes how the Court turned the Confrontation Clause into a rule excluding unreliable hearsay, culminating in the 1980 decision in Ohio v. Roberts, in which the Court set out the "general approach" that dominates confrontation-hearsay analysis today. Part II assesses the application of the Court's exclusionary rule in the two decades since Roberts, a period during which the Confrontation Clause largely has merged with, and disappeared into, the law of evidence, in the process losing its significance as an independent protection for the accused in an adversarial system. Part III argues that the Court's choice …
The Breard Case And The Virtues Of Forbearance, John G. Douglass
The Breard Case And The Virtues Of Forbearance, John G. Douglass
Law Faculty Publications
At a time when the scheduled execution of Angel Francisco Breard made Virginia the focus of a groundbreaking controversy over the reach of internationallaw into the domestic criminal process of the United States, law students and faculty at the University of Richmond had the unique opportunity to consider the case along with Philippe Sands, then a Visiting Allen Chair Professor at the University.
How Much Should Mind Matter? Mens Rea In Theft And Fraud Sentencing, James Gibson
How Much Should Mind Matter? Mens Rea In Theft And Fraud Sentencing, James Gibson
Law Faculty Publications
This article discusses the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s vote to potentially revise the definition of loss. Anyone who has followed the Commission's deliberations on loss will see that the proposed definition attempts to address many of the contentious issues that have arisen in the case law and commentary. The issues that the proposed definition concentrates on, however, such as credits, interest, causation, and gain, tend to inform the inquiry into "actual loss" rather than "intended loss," even though the latter concept is integral to both definitions. Although neither the current nor the proposed definition provides much guidance for working with intended …
The Right Of The People To Be Secure, Ronald J. Bacigal
The Right Of The People To Be Secure, Ronald J. Bacigal
Law Faculty Publications
Part I of this Article defines searches and seizures of property and person, discussing the Supreme Court's initially broad interpretation of the Fourth Amendment and its subsequent narrowing in later decisions. Part II discusses several police "chase cases" leading up to the elimination of accidental and attempted seizures from Fourth Amendment protection in Brower v. County of Inyo and California v. Hodari D. Part Ill analyzes the Brower decision and its effect on accidental seizures, concluding that the analysis set forth therein should be abolished and advocating an alternate test. Part IV confronts the Court's elimination of attempted seizures from …
When Racists And Radicals Meet, Ronald J. Bacigal, Margaret Ivey Bacigal
When Racists And Radicals Meet, Ronald J. Bacigal, Margaret Ivey Bacigal
Law Faculty Publications
In order to stimulate scholarly discussion, this Essay presents an empirical account of the Greensboro incident from the perspective of those who participated in the episode and in the resulting civil rights trial. The Essay traces the circumstances leading to the violence and reviews the resultant litigation with special attention given to the role of the trial judge in politically volatile cases. The candid reflections offered by the trial judge and other participants allow the reader to examine both the event and the litigation, not merely in the abstract, but as implemented by flesh-andblood lawyers, litigants, and judges. .
Criminal Procedure, Ronald J. Bacigal
Criminal Procedure, Ronald J. Bacigal
Law Faculty Publications
This article summarizes significant legislative changes, decisions of the United States and Virginia Supreme Courts, and decisions of the Virginia Court of Appeals. A more extensive consideration of this material as well as recent decisions of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and federal district courts is contained in R. Bacigal, Virginia Criminal Procedure (Supp. 1987).
Annual Survey Of Virginia Law - Civil Procedure And Practice, William Hamilton Bryson
Annual Survey Of Virginia Law - Civil Procedure And Practice, William Hamilton Bryson
Law Faculty Publications
This article considers recent developments in the field of Virginia civil procedure and practice, including statutes, rules of court, and opinions of the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Court of Appeals of Virginia that have appeared between May 1986 and May 1987. This article also comments on cases in volumes five through eight of Virginia Circuit Court Opinions, many of which were decided before 1986. It is appropriate to mention them here since they were only recently made generally available through publication. In order to facilitate the discussion of numerous Virginia Code sections, they will be referred to in …
Criminal Procedure, Ronald J. Bacigal
Criminal Procedure, Ronald J. Bacigal
Law Faculty Publications
This survey addresses only significant Virginia cases and statutes affecting Virginia criminal procedure. For discussion of the impact of federal court decisions, see R. Bacigal, Virginia Criminal Procedure (Supp. 1985).
Post-Whalen Double Jeopardy In Virginia, Ronald J. Bacigal
Post-Whalen Double Jeopardy In Virginia, Ronald J. Bacigal
Law Faculty Publications
The constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy serves three distinct purposes: (1) prohibition of a second prosecution after acquittal; (2) prohibition of a second prosecution after conviction; and (3) prohibition of multiple punishments for the same offense. This article addresses the problem of defining "the same offense," and specifically focuses on the application of the Blockburger test in light of Whalen v. United States.
A Case For Jury Determination Of Search And Seizure Law, Ronald J. Bacigal
A Case For Jury Determination Of Search And Seizure Law, Ronald J. Bacigal
Law Faculty Publications
In a criminal case the option to return a general verdict of acquittal invests the jury with the raw power to nullify many legal determinations, including the trial judge's ruling that a search is constitutional. While courts grudingly acknowledge the existence of an extra-legal jury nullification power, courts do not recognize any jury prerogative to determine the lawfulness of a search. The United States Supreme Court's discussion of the jury's role in interpreting and applying the fourth amendment consists of one terse statement that the legality of a search "is a question of fact and law for the court and …
Notice In Juvenile Delinquency Proceedings, Adrienne Volenik
Notice In Juvenile Delinquency Proceedings, Adrienne Volenik
Law Faculty Publications
Despite these suggestions, the problem of what constitutes adequate notice continues to plague juvenile courts. Furthermore, by suggesting two criminal and two civil cases as examples, the Court added the issue of whether a civil or a criminal standard for notice should be applied. Courts that have addressed this issue have reached different conclusions.
Criminal Law And Procedure Eleventh Survey Of Florida Law - Part Four, David Frisch
Criminal Law And Procedure Eleventh Survey Of Florida Law - Part Four, David Frisch
Law Faculty Publications
This survey is a continuation of previous articles on the topic of Florida criminal law and procedure.