Law Commons^™

Neighborhood, Crime, And Incarceration In New York City, Jeffery Fagan, Valerie West, Jan Holland

Faculty Scholarship

Several new studies suggest that social and spatial incarceration of young males has become part of the developmental ecology of adolescence in the nation's poorest neighborhoods. This concentration began in the 1970s, and has grown steadily through the last quarter century.The story of young men such as Cesar in Random Family illustrates the pervasive effects of both direct and vicarious prison experiences for young men and women in poor neighborhoods. Studies of street life such as Random Family, Code of the Streets, and American Project show how these experiences are now internalized in the social and psychological fabric of neighborhood …

Punishment, Guilt, And Shame In Biblical Thought, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

The centrality of guilt in the criminal law provides puzzling perspective in the perennial debate on the nature and purpose of punishment. Why is it that all legal systems use this highly charged moral term to refer to an essential component of liability to punishment? This question is not easily answered. The reliance on the concept of guilt in the criminal law is suffused with paradox and mystery.

Summary Of Ebeling V. State, 120 Nev. Adv. Rep. 50, Scott Whittemore

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The defendant contended that the district court erred in sentencing him on redundant convictions.

Summary Of Johnson V. State, Christina H. Wang

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appeal from a judgment of conviction, pursuant to a guilty plea, of two counts of uttering a forged instrument and one count of principal to commit uttering a forged instrument.

Summary Of Kaczmarek V. State, 120 Nev. Adv. Rep. 37, James Davis

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appeal from a conviction and sentence of death by jury trial in the Eighth Judicial District Court, State of Nevada, finding the Petitioner “guilty of burglary, robbery, first-degree kidnapping, and first degree murder, all committed with the assistance of a child.”

Summary Of Lara V. State, 120 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 20, Hilary Barrett Muckleroy

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appeal from a district court order denying a post-conviction petition for a write of habeas corpus.

Summary Of Mcconnell V. State, 120 Nev. Adv. Rep. 105, Nevada Law Journal

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appellant Robert McConnell murdered Brian Pierce in August 2002. The State of Nevada charged McConnell with first-degree murder and sought capital sentencing. The State alleged two theories: deliberate, premeditated murder and felony murder during the perpetration of a burglary. McConnell represented himself, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, and presented a case in mitigation at his penalty hearing. The jury returned a sentence of death. Initially, McConnell moved to waive his appeal but eventually reconsidered and authorized counsel to fully brief all issues on appeal. Specifically, McConnell challenged the propriety of his penalty hearing and death sentence on various grounds. The …

Summary Of Pineda V. State, 120 Nev. Adv. Rep 24, James Davis

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appellant appealed his jury conviction of second-degree murder in the Second Judicial District Court. Appellant raised three issues on appeal. They were: (1) Whether the defendant waived his right to appeal the court’s ruling in limine that his prior felony conviction could be used for impeachment purposes when he introduced his convictions during direct examination. (2) Whether the proper “self-defense” jury instruction was provided to the jury, over the defendants proposed, but rejected, alternative jury instructions. (3) Whether expert testimony is admissible during the penalty phase, when the prospective expert has only generalized knowledge regarding the specifics of the case.

Summary Of Roberts V. State, Christina H. Wang

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appeal from a judgment of conviction, pursuant to a guilty plea, of one count of possession of a controlled substance

Summary Of State V. Catanio, 120 Nev. Adv. Rep. 103, Christopher Carson

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

This case was an appeal by the State from a district court order dismissing charges of lewdness with a minor for failure to meet an essential element of the test laid out in NRS 201.230. Catanio worked as a teacher’s aide and volunteer track coach at a middle school in Reno, Nevada. During the fall of 2002, Catanio befriended three young boys and began giving them gifts on a daily basis. The gifts escalated from candy to more elaborate, personal and inappropriate objects including video game systems, air pistols, pornographic material and condoms. In December 2002, Catanio escalated the relationship …

Summary Of State V. Dist. Ct. (Romano), Christina Wang

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Real party in interest Robert Romano is charged in an indictment with four counts of sexual assault of a minor under fourteen years of age and ten counts of lewdness with a child under fourteen years of age. Romano and his girlfriend are the natural parents of the child victim, born May 5, 1997. In November 2002, the child allegedly told her mother that Romano had engaged in inappropriate activities with her. The mother contacted Nevada Child Protective Services and, at that agency’s request, took the child to Sunrise Hospital for evaluation. A pediatric emergency physician at Sunrise testified before …

Summary Of Sullivan V. State, 120 Nev. Adv. Rep. 61, Z. Ryan Pahnke

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appeal from a district court order denying appellant’s post-conviction petition for a writ of habeas corpus to consider whether the district court’s entry of an amended judgment of conviction provided good cause to extend the one-year limitation set forth in NEV. REV. STAT. 34.726(1) for filing a timely post-conviction petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

Summary Of Vest V. State, 120 Nev. Ad. Op. 75, Amanda Yen

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

This case was an appeal from a judgment of conviction, entered pursuant to a jury verdict of one count of burglary, one count of obtaining and using personal identification information of another, one count of fraudulent use of a credit or debit card, and eight counts of possession of a credit card without the cardholder’s consent.

Summary Of Walker V. District Court, 120 Nev. Adv. Op. 88, Angela Morrison

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Petitioner Sam Walker filed a writ of mandamus with the Nevada Supreme Court to challenge a district court order which granted a motion by the State to unseal Walker’s criminal records. The State brought its motion pursuant to Nevada Revised Statute 179.295.

Summary Of Zabeti V. State, 120 Nev. Adv. Rep. 60, Z. Ryan Pahnke

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

After the Eighth Judicial District Court denied defendant’s motion to suppress evidence, he was convicted on a jury’s verdict of possession of a controlled substance. Defendant appealed.

The Burdens Of Representing The Accused In An Age Of Harsh Punishment, Abbe Smith

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The crimes are not any worse than they used to be. They run, as crimes do, from the banal to the barbarous. But punishment seems to have taken on a life of its own.

There are people serving more than twenty years for nonviolent drug offenses. There are people serving more than thirty years for car theft, burglary, and unarmed robbery--crimes for which a harsh sentence used to be ten years. One Oklahoma woman is serving a thirty-five year sentence for "till-tapping"--stealing money out of cash registers--when she was in the throes of a heroin addiction. It is impossible to …

Mercy Lawyers, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Summary Of Martinez V. State, Scott Whittemore

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Gina Martinez appealed a district court order denying her motion for return of money deposited as bail.

Summary Of Means V. State, 120 Nev. Adv. Op. 101, Justin L. Carley

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Clyde Means was charged with one count of open or gross lewdness and three counts of sexual assault upon his nineteen year old son. At trial, the jury was empaneled but the district court conducted a hearing to determine the admissibility of Means’ prior bad acts. Because the district court ruled that the acts were admissible, Means, through his attorneys, negotiated a plea bargain. Means would plead guilty to one count of sexual assault in exchange for dismissal of the other charges. Means was informed that he would face two to twenty years in prison, fines, and be required to …

Summary Of Rudin V. State, 120 Nev. Adv. Rep. 17, Mike Feliciano

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appellant Margaret Rudin (Rudin) married her husband, Ron, in September of 1987. In January of 1995, Ron’s remains were discovered at Lake Mohave, he apparently had been murdered. Shortly after the discovery of her husband’s body, Rudin boarded a plane to St. Louis, Missouri. On April 17, 1997, Rudin was indicted by the Clark County grand jury on three counts for (1) unauthorized surreptitious intrusion of privacy by listening device, (2) murder with the use of a deadly weapon and (3) accessory to murder. A warrant was then issued for her arrest. Rudin was subsequently apprehended in Massachusetts in November …

Summary Of State V. Williams, 120 Nev. Adv. Rep. 52, Scott Whittemore

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Following her conviction for six counts of driving with prohibited substance in blood or urine, one count of use of controlled substance, and one count of possession of controlled substance, petitioner sought writ of habeas corpus.