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Full-Text Articles in Criminal Law
Through A Scanner Darkly: The Use Of Fmri As Evidence Of Mens Rea, Teneille Brown, Emily R. Murphy
Through A Scanner Darkly: The Use Of Fmri As Evidence Of Mens Rea, Teneille Brown, Emily R. Murphy
Journal of Law and Health
Tonight we are pleased to host an event exploring fMRI and its legal significance. Although [neuroimaging] is still an emerging technology, it has proven to be very consequential in at least one situation. In September 2008, the New York Times reported that a court in India allowed the use of brain scan images in a criminal case, which ultimately led to the conviction of an Indian woman accused of poisoning her fiance. To this day, the Indian woman maintains her innocence. Hank Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford Law School and a colleague of our speakers, commented on the verdict, [characterizing …
Proportional Mens Rea, Stephen F. Smith
Proportional Mens Rea, Stephen F. Smith
Journal Articles
This Essay makes the case for "proportional mens rea," a proportionality-based approach to mens rea selection. Proportional mens rea would provide proportionality safeguards that are otherwise entirely lacking in substantive criminal law and,as a practical matter, unavailable in constitutional law. Creating implied mens rea requirements, where necessary to ensure proportional punishment, is not a judicial usurpation of a legislative function. Rather, it is to take seriously the role that courts play, under both constitutional and substantive criminal law, to ensure that punishment "fits" the crime. Moreover, proportional mens rea would represent a needed counterweight to prosecutorial behavior whereas current doctrine …