Law Commons^™

The Crime Of Conspiracy Thrives In Decisions Of The United States Supreme Court, Paul Marcus

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Dispatches From Two Fronts Of The Battle For Sentencing Reform: Parole And Federal Sentencing Legislation, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

This Issue of FSR reports on two fronts in the ongoing national battle for sentencing reform. The first half of the Issue is devoted to evolving views and new initiatives on parole. The second half of the Issue is a report on the content and prospects for success of a number of bills pending in Congress that would reform federal criminal sentencing, corrections, and back-end release practices.

Good Enough To Be Getting On With? The State Of Federal Sentencing Legislation, December 2015, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

This article traces the evolution of the sentencing reform debate in Congress in 2015. It summarizes and compares the six major pieces of sentencing legislation introduced in 2015. It describes the progression from con­ceptually simple, broadly applicable reforms of mandatory minimum sentences to the regime of complex and highly restrictive rules relaxing mandatory minimum sentences for a modest subset of federal defendants found in the bills that passed the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. The article summarizes some of the concerns voiced about he sentencing provisions of the various bills. Finally, it discusses the three pending bills relating to back-end …

Combatendo A Corrupção Nos Estados Unidos, Paul Marcus

Faculty Publications

The article discusses the problematic of the fight against the corruption by the criminal justice system of the United States, mainly the white-collar crimes. It is emphasized, first, that in most of the cases does not result in trial, but in plea bargains, and, second, in many cases the encouragement from an undercover agent has served as an effective defense instrument. Finally, it is discussed the problematic of the use of information obtained from the technological devices and its probable violation to the right privacy.

This article is in Portuguese.

Dangerous Diagnoses, Risky Assumptions, And The Failed Experiment Of "Sexually Violent Predator" Commitment, Deirdre M. Smith

Faculty Publications

In its 1997 opinion, Kansas v. Hendricks, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law that reflected a new model of civil commitment. The targets of this new commitment law were dubbed “Sexually Violent Predators” (SVPs), and the Court upheld indefinite detention of these individuals on the assumption that there is a psychiatrically distinct class of individuals who, unlike typical recidivists, have a mental condition that impairs their ability to refrain from violent sexual behavior. And, more specifically, the Court assumed that the justice system could reliably identify the true “predators,” those for whom this unusual and extraordinary deprivation of liberty …

"Stand Your Ground" And Self Defense, Cynthia Ward

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Military's Sexual Assault Blind Spot, Eric R. Carpenter

Faculty Publications

The American military is in a well-publicized struggle to address its sexual assault problem. Critics say that those in the military who run the military justice system have a bias against the victims in these cases, where that bias is likely related to some form of sexism.

This article explores that problem and offers a social psychology explanation that supports the critics' position. This article explains the cognitive process that people use to solve these legal problems and then highlights a serious flaw in that process – the use of inaccurate rape schemas. This article focuses on two potential groups …

Alternate Judges As Sine Qua Nons For International Criminal Trials, Megan A. Fairlie

Faculty Publications

When one of the three judges hearing the case against Vojislav Šešelj at the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was disqualified during the deliberations phase of the prosecution, many observers assumed that the multi-year trial would have to be re-heard. Instead, the ICTY opted to begin deliberations anew once a judge — who has not spent a single day participating in the proceedings — has familiarized himself with the trial record. This article demonstrates why the plan to proceed with a new judge is both procedurally illegitimate and markedly at odds with the ICTY’s statutory guarantee of a …

Notice(Ing) Ex-Offenders: A Case Study Of The Manifest Injustice Of Passively Violating A "Felon-In-Possession" Statute, S. David Mitchell

Faculty Publications

Changing a law and criminalizing formerly legal conduct without providing notice of the change and without providing a reasonable period of time for the offending individual to comply with the change not only violates due process but is also manifestly unjust, especially given the scope and breadth of the collateral consequences that attach upon a felony conviction, such as the loss of the right to vote, to serve on a jury, or to receive certain benefits. With the far-reaching impact of a felony conviction on all areas of an individual's life, the maxim that "ignorance of the law excuses no …

The War Against Crime: Ferguson, Police Militarization And The Third Amendment, Elizabeth Price Foley

Faculty Publications

The shooting death of eighteen-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson has sparked a renewed national conversation about the militarization of police. While Officer Wilson’s deadly encounter with Brown did not involve militarized force, subsequent protests, looting, and riots have triggered the display and use of armored vehicles, M4 assault rifles, Humvees, Kevlar vests, grenades, camouflage, and other military-style equipment by state and local police. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder criticized the police response, asserting, “At a time when we must seek to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the local community, I am deeply concerned that …

The Law And Politics Of The Charles Taylor Case, Charles Chernor Jalloh

Faculty Publications

This article discusses a rare successful prosecution of a head of state by a modern international criminal court. The case involved former Liberian president Charles Taylor. Taylor, who was charged and tried by the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (“SCSL”), was convicted in April 2013 for planning and aiding and abetting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious international humanitarian law violations. He was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment. The SCSL Appeals Chamber upheld the historic conviction and sentence in September 2013. Taylor is currently serving his sentence in Great Britain. This article, from an insider who …

On The Argument That Execution Protocol Reform Is Biomedical Research, Paul J. Litton

Faculty Publications

Regardless of whether the Supreme Court rightly upheld Oklahoma’s execution protocol in Glossip, Oklahoma officials had inadequate reason to choose midazolam as the anesthetizing agent in its procedure. Their decision is one example illustrating Seema Shah’s point that death penalty states are engaged in “poorly designed experimentation that is not based on evidence.” Shah argues that “an important factor” causing the high rate of botched executions is that lethal injection reform is a type of human subjects research that is going unregulated. Shah argues that research requirements, such as informed consent and IRB review, are necessary to render the research …