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An Ounce Of Pretrial Prevention Is Worth More Than A Pound Of Post-Conviction Cure: Untethering Federal Pretrial Criminal Procedure From Due Process Standards Of Review, Jordan Gross

Faculty Law Review Articles

Some Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure cover purely technical matters. Some Rules, however, cover procedures with constitutional dimensions. When a federal court is interpreting a Rule that has a companion constitutional doctrine, an issue arises as to whether the Rule’s requirements are co-extensive with the constitutional protections defined by federal case law, or whether the Rule provides federal defendants a higher level of pretrial procedural protection than a post-conviction due process standard. Federal courts have been inconsistent in identifying and resolving this question of constitutional equivalency. In interpreting some pretrial Criminal Rules, federal courts make a clear distinction between the …