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The Effects, Thirty Years In Hindsight, Of Eliminating The Concept Of Fourth Amendment “Standing”, Robert H. Whorf

robert h whorf

Abstract – The Effects, Thirty Years in Hindsight, of Eliminating the Concept of Fourth Amendment Standing Copyright 2009 Robert H. Whorf This article presents a novel look at Fourth Amendment “standing” doctrine. It considers a case that has perplexed courts for three decades – Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128 (1978). The article chronicles an amazing variety of responses from lower courts in the years following issuance of the decision. Those responses indicate that courts were considerably confused about whether Rakas actually eliminated the concept of 4th Amendment standing by collapsing it into the threshold merits inquiry, or whether Rakas …

Reforming Eyewitness Identification Law And Practices To Protect The Innocent, Margery Koosed

Margery Koosed

This article discusses varying eyewitness identification reform proposals that may help to finally achieve a greater level of reliability in this critical phase of the criminal justice process. The author concludes a comprehensive reform that includes tightening exclusionary rules, along with (minimally) corroboration requirements for death-sentencing, and more appropriately, for convictions in capital and non-capital cases, with a concomitant loosening of standards for relief on appeal, hold the most promise.

The article addresses adopting best practices; assuring compliance by means of exclusion; admitting expert testimony and educating juries; instructing on the vagaries of eyewitness identification; requiring corroboration with independent and …

Second Amendment Plumbing After Heller: Of Incorporation, Standards Of Scrutiny, Well-Regulated Militias And Criminal Street Gangs, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

The decision of the United States Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller ended one debate about the Second Amendment while beginning another.

Prior to Heller, the principal point on which courts and scholars had joined issue was whether the Second Amendment secures an individual right to bear arms or a right to participate in an organized militia. In Heller, the Court came down on the individual-rights side while resolving little else about the extent to which the Second Amendment will constrain the power to regulate firearms. Among the many questions left for future litigation, the two most important …

Oklahoma Trial Practice, Laurie Jones, Emma Rolls, Jean Giles

Laurie W. Jones

No abstract provided.

How Prosecutor Elections Fail Us, Ronald F. Wright

Ronald F. Wright

There are several methods for holding prosecutors accountable in this country. Judges enforce a few legal boundaries on the work of prosecutors. Prosecutors with positions lower in the office or department hierarchy must answer to those at the top. But none of these controls binds a prosecutor too tightly. At the end of the day, the public guards against abusive prosecutors through direct democratic control.

Does the electoral check on prosecutors work? There are reasons to believe that elections could lead prosecutors to apply the criminal law according to public priorities and values. Voters choose their prosecutors at the local …