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Full-Text Articles in Law

Cell Phones Are Orwell's Telescreen: The Need For Fourth Amendment Protection In Real-Time Cell Phone Location Information, Matthew Devoy Jones May 2019

Cell Phones Are Orwell's Telescreen: The Need For Fourth Amendment Protection In Real-Time Cell Phone Location Information, Matthew Devoy Jones

Cleveland State Law Review

Courts are divided as to whether law enforcement can collect cell phone location information in real-time without a warrant under the Fourth Amendment. This Article argues that Carpenter v. United States requires a warrant under the Fourth Amendment prior to law enforcement’s collection of real-time cell phone location information. Courts that have required a warrant prior to the government’s collection of real-time cell phone location information have considered the length of surveillance. This should not be a factor. The growing prevalence and usage of cell phones and cell phone technology, the original intent of the Fourth Amendment, and United States …


Shame: A Different Criminal Law Proposal For Bullies, Xiyin Tang Jan 2013

Shame: A Different Criminal Law Proposal For Bullies, Xiyin Tang

Cleveland State Law Review

Public concern over bullying has reached an all-time high. The absence of a sensible criminal charging and sentencing regime for the problem recently reared its head in the highly publicized prosecution of Dharun Ravi, who was convicted of fifteen counts and faced the possibility of ten years in prison. This Essay argues that existing criminal statutes used to address the problem, like bias intimidation and invasion of privacy, do not fit neatly with the specific wrongs of bullying. However, recently-enacted “cyber bullying” laws, which give complete discretion to school administrators, are weak and ineffective. I propose another solution: first, to …


Making The Fair Sentencing Act Retroactive: Just Think Of The Savings . . . Clause, Jeff Lazarus Jan 2013

Making The Fair Sentencing Act Retroactive: Just Think Of The Savings . . . Clause, Jeff Lazarus

Cleveland State Law Review

This article advocates for the retroactive application of the Fair Sentencing Act. Part II of this Article will detail the history of the federal crack cocaine sentencing laws, from 1986 through the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act. Part III will detail the recent cases dealing with attempts at retroactivity in the lower courts. Part IV outlines the Supreme Court’s holding in United States v. Dorsey, which was a ground-breaking step towards the FSA’s retroactive effect. Part V offers arguments in support of retroactivity. Part VI offers legal challenges in which inmates can seek relief in the courts. In Part …


The Right To Kill In Cold Blood: Does The Death Penalty Violate Human Rights, Alan Ryan Jan 2001

The Right To Kill In Cold Blood: Does The Death Penalty Violate Human Rights, Alan Ryan

Cleveland State Law Review

The essence of the argument is this: all punishment must be inflicted in cold blood; whatever damage we do to others not in cold blood is not punishment but self-defense or revenge; what we have a right to inflict in cold blood is a question of the rules of just social cooperation and especially the justice of the sanctions required to sustain those rules; it is here argued that the fundamental principle is that we may inflict whatever punishment is necessary to deter wrongdoing and not disproportionate to the offence; I do not dismiss 'pure' retribution as a goal of …


It's Time To Put The Military's Death Penalty To Sleep , Michael I. Spak Jan 2001

It's Time To Put The Military's Death Penalty To Sleep , Michael I. Spak

Cleveland State Law Review

Part I will focus on the death penalty in the civilian sector of the United States. It begins with a brief history of and an introduction to death penalty laws in the United States. A critical examination of the primary arguments used to justify the death penalty follows. Part I next offers a brief overview of other independent reasons for the abolition of the death penalty. After having concluded that the application of the death penalty is unfair in the civilian sector and should thus be abolished, the article will then shift its focus to the death penalty in the …


The Problem With Innocence, Margaret Raymond Jan 2001

The Problem With Innocence, Margaret Raymond

Cleveland State Law Review

Pursuing justice for the wrongfully convicted is a profoundly meaningful goal. Yet the innocence movement may have unintended consequences for the criminal justice system. This paper explores some of these, and argues that the focus on factual innocence may create certain distortions in the way that actors in the criminal justice system---the "ones left behind"--perceive their obligations and allegiances. It may convince the public, including policymakers, that the system works effectively to reveal and redress wrongful convictions. It may convince prospective jurors that it is-or should be-the defendant's burden to prove innocence. It may convince potential criminal defense clients that …


Here Today, Gone Tomorrow - Three Common Mistakes Courts Make When Police Lose Or Destroy Evidence With Apparent Exculpatory, Elizabeth A. Bawden Jan 2000

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow - Three Common Mistakes Courts Make When Police Lose Or Destroy Evidence With Apparent Exculpatory, Elizabeth A. Bawden

Cleveland State Law Review

Part I of this Article examines the first question, what does it mean for evidence to have "apparent exculpatory value?" Part II of this Article answers the second question, when does Youngblood's bad faith requirement apply in failure to preserve evidence cases? Part III then seeks to determine the substance of Youngblood's bad faith requirement and identify the best approach to defining it. Ultimately, this Article argues that there are three common mistakes that courts make when applying Trombetta and Youngblood.


The Grand Jury And Exculpatory Evidence: Should The Prosecutor Be Required To Disclose Exculpatory Evidence To The Grand Jury, Ali Lombardo Jan 2000

The Grand Jury And Exculpatory Evidence: Should The Prosecutor Be Required To Disclose Exculpatory Evidence To The Grand Jury, Ali Lombardo

Cleveland State Law Review

In 1992, the United States Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Williams that the federal courts do not have the supervisory power to require prosecutors to present exculpatory evidence to the grand jury. This Note argues that the Williams decision is flawed because it diminishes crucial rights of defendants and because it prevents the grand jury from fulfilling its protective function. In Section II, this Note examines the historical background and purpose of the grand jury in England and America. Section III discusses the Williams decision and the rationale behind both the majority and dissenting opinions. It also discusses …


Life, Death And The Law - And Why Capital Punishment Is Legally Insupportable , Peter Fitzpatrick Jan 1999

Life, Death And The Law - And Why Capital Punishment Is Legally Insupportable , Peter Fitzpatrick

Cleveland State Law Review

Given that law has an integral commitment to life, in this lecture I want to show how the law should manifest something of a fundamental dissonance, even a terminal incoherence, when law is called upon to deal death. That is what happens in the judicial discourse on the death penalty in the United States. I will approach this demonstration in a way that may at first seem paradoxical, in a way that will bring out the deep affinity between law and death. That affinity is one in which death is, in a sense, the limit of law; a limit that …


State V. Lovejoy: Hung Juries And Retrial Vs. Double Jeopardy And Collateral Estoppel, Nicole M. Ellis Jan 1998

State V. Lovejoy: Hung Juries And Retrial Vs. Double Jeopardy And Collateral Estoppel, Nicole M. Ellis

Cleveland State Law Review

This article argues that the Supreme Court of Ohio's decision in Lovejoy helps to preserve the purpose of our criminal laws, which is to protect society. The article starts by recapping the events leading up to trial, then it breaks down the court decisions on appeal. The analysis of these decisions arrives at the conclusion that allowing a defendant to be retried on charges in which the accused was not previously acquitted, but rather the jury was hung or there was a mistrial, does not frustrate justice but instead greatly increases the opportunities for justice. In addition, the accused is …


Where We Have Been, And Where We Might Be Going: Some Cautionary Reflections On Rape Law Reform, The Sixty-Eighth Cleveland-Marshall Fund Lecture , Joshua Dressler Jan 1998

Where We Have Been, And Where We Might Be Going: Some Cautionary Reflections On Rape Law Reform, The Sixty-Eighth Cleveland-Marshall Fund Lecture , Joshua Dressler

Cleveland State Law Review

We should always be looking to see where we are, how we got there, and where we appear to be going. My purpose in this article has been to ask those questions in the context of rape law. In evaluating rape reform, I have tried to be fair-minded and balanced in my observations. I have suggested areas in which the law should go further to protect against sexual misconduct, but I have also expressed my belief that rape law reform threatens to move in undesirable directions. In particular, I have argued that there is a risk that courts will follow …


Why Substantive Criminal Law - A Dialogue, Sanford H. Kadish Jan 1980

Why Substantive Criminal Law - A Dialogue, Sanford H. Kadish

Cleveland State Law Review

In this dialogue, I have tried to address criticisms of the substantive criminal law, as a course and as a subject matter, made by a number of my students over several decades of teaching the subject. In away it is rather personal since it consists of the criticisms of my students and my apologia for what I have tried to do. That, however, would hardly be worth doing unless it is the case, as I believe it is, that these criticisms are widespread and that my responses speak to what is generally done in criminal law courses in this country.


Why Substantive Criminal Law - A Dialogue, Sanford H. Kadish Jan 1980

Why Substantive Criminal Law - A Dialogue, Sanford H. Kadish

Cleveland State Law Review

In this dialogue, I have tried to address criticisms of the substantive criminal law, as a course and as a subject matter, made by a number of my students over several decades of teaching the subject. In away it is rather personal since it consists of the criticisms of my students and my apologia for what I have tried to do. That, however, would hardly be worth doing unless it is the case, as I believe it is, that these criticisms are widespread and that my responses speak to what is generally done in criminal law courses in this country.


The Quiet Revolution In The Criminal Law - A Foreword, Jack G. Day Jan 1974

The Quiet Revolution In The Criminal Law - A Foreword, Jack G. Day

Cleveland State Law Review

Given the fundamental importance of procedural due process in criminal law, and conceding the impact of case law developments of the past decade and one-half, the movements manifest in decisional law, while spectacular, have necessarily been piecemeal and have tended to obscure the broad substantive and procedural reforms which have been initiated by that general address possible only through legislation and the rule making processes. Nonetheless, quietly, and almost unnoticed outside a relatively small circle within the legal profession and related disciplines, a seismic reform has been going on. The present symposium is devoted to the description and analysis of …


Surviving Justice: Prisoners' Rights To Be Free From Physical Assault, Robert Plotkin Jan 1974

Surviving Justice: Prisoners' Rights To Be Free From Physical Assault, Robert Plotkin

Cleveland State Law Review

A sentence to prision invovles much more than simple incarceration and its attendant withdrawal of freedom of movement. Indeed, as recent developments indicate, a sentence to confinement in most penal institutions involves a life and death struggle to avoid at tacks, rapes, and brutality from fellow inmates as well as from correctional authorities. ... The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals recognized the problem in recommending a comprehensive model standard which would require correctional officials, the only state authority "in a position to protect inmates, to take protective measures on the inmates' behalf, and to compensate those …


A Modest Proposal For A Partial Reform Of Our System Of Criminal Law And Its Enforcement, J. Patrick Browne Jan 1972

A Modest Proposal For A Partial Reform Of Our System Of Criminal Law And Its Enforcement, J. Patrick Browne

Cleveland State Law Review

No fair observer could deny that there are glaring flaws in our system of criminal justice. The mention of only a few will suffice to illustrate the point: The police are insensitive to civil rights, and brutal to the poor and to minorities; prosecutors victimize the defenseless who are unable to obtain adequate counsel to protect their rights. And all this is done in the name of law and order. Only the brutalized members of minorities-both racial, ethnic, and financial-are more aware of these injustices than are today's law students. These students rightly burn with a combination of indignation at …


Threats As Criminal Assault, Ranelle A. Gamble Jan 1971

Threats As Criminal Assault, Ranelle A. Gamble

Cleveland State Law Review

Early in its history, the common law found it imperative to acknowledge and define an individual's interest in his personal integrity, physical safety and mental tranquility. The law formulated the legal rules of assault to protect this particular interest when it is wrongfully interfered with by another.' In this latter half of a nerve-wracking twentieth century, it is becoming necessary to revive the early concepts of common law assault, and under certain circumstances, to redress abusive and insulting language. Any principle of common law, particularly one concerned with the control of human behavior, has social implications, and such principle, whether …


The University And The Bail System: In Loco Altricis, Harry W. Pettigrew Jan 1971

The University And The Bail System: In Loco Altricis, Harry W. Pettigrew

Cleveland State Law Review

The central argument of this article is that where a transient college student is arrested financial bail is seldom necessary to assure the defendant's presence in court. However, in such a case financial bail is almost always required by the court, since in the area of bail, as with other criminal law problems, the pragmatic exigencies of the traditional American criminal law system place a heavy burden on any transient to realize the same protections, privileges, and rights provided the indigenous population.' The principal objective of this article is to describe an alternative to the financial bail system for the …