Criminal Law Commons^™

The Myth Of Slavery Abolition, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Faculty Articles

In many countries today, slavery and the slave trade continue with impunity. International human rights law prohibits both abuses, but states are rarely held accountable and people who are enslaved or slave traded rarely receive redress. This Article offers a novel account of why international human rights law advocacy neglects slavery and the slave trade. Specifically, this Article demonstrates that the abolition of the Transatlantic and East African slave trades was achieved through a legal framework that marginalized the human rights of enslaved persons while consolidating empire. In the wake of World War II, prohibitions on slavery and the slave …

Redistributing Justice, Benjamin Levin, Kate Levine

Faculty Articles

This Essay surfaces an obstacle to decarceration hiding in plain sight: progressives’ continued support for the carceral system. Despite progressives’ increasingly prevalent critiques of criminal law, there is hardly a consensus on the left in opposition to the carceral state. Many left-leaning academics and activists who may critique the criminal system writ large remain enthusiastic about criminal law in certain areas— often areas in which defendants are imagined as powerful and victims as particularly vulnerable.

In this Essay, we offer a novel theory for what animates the seemingly conflicted attitude among progressives toward criminal punishment—the hope that the criminal system …

1l Final Review Sessions, Cardozo Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Cardozo Office Of Student Services & Advising

Flyers 2023-2024

Con Law - April 8, 2024

Property - April 10, 2024

Contracts - April 15, 2024

Criminal Law - April 17, 2024

Spring 2024 Symposium: Stop Cop City And The Criminalization Of Social Movements, Cardozo Journal Of Equal Rights And Social Justice

Flyers 2023-2024

No abstract provided.

Title Theft, Stewart E. Sterk

Faculty Articles

Real property owners across the country have been targeted by scammers who prepare deeds purporting to convey title to property the scammers do not own. Sometimes, the true owners are entirely unaware of these bogus transfers. In other instances, the scammers use misrepresentation to induce unsophisticated owners to sign documents they do not understand.

Property doctrine protects owners against forgery and fraud—the primary vehicles scammers use in their efforts to transfer title. Owners enjoy protection not only against the scammers themselves, but generally against unsuspecting purchasers to whom the scammers transfer purported title.

Recovery of title, however, involves costs and …

Sarah Chu, Director Of Policy And Reform At Pclj Joined Advocates Calling On Gov. Hochul To Sign The Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act, Sarah Chu

Cardozo News 2023

Sarah Chu, Director of Policy and Reform at Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law, joined advocates on Thursday, December 21, at Governor Kathy Hochul's NYC office, calling on the Governor to sign the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act.

Clemency: A Tool For Extreme And Discriminatory Sentences, Kathryn Miller, Jonathan H. Oberman, Cardozo Criminal Defense Clinic

Cardozo News 2023

This article appeared in the 2023 edition of Cardozo Life magazine.

For Joaquin Winfield, April 7, 2023, will forever be a day to remember. That is when he was granted clemency by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul after serving 26 years in prison for possession of 4.6 ounces of crack. The disparity in sentences given to people from different races for similar crimes has been widely written about in recent years. Winfield was sentenced under the now-repealed Rockefeller Drug Laws of the 1970s and 1980s. He was sentenced to 37.5 years to life, one of the longest prison sentences in …

Perlmutter Center For Legal Justice At Cardozo Law Asks Ny Governor Kathy Hochul To Sign Wrongful Convictions Act, Josh Dubin

Perlmutter Center Letters

The Law expands legal recourse for those wrongfully convicted including the right to counsel and the ability to challenge flawed scientific evidence.

The Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law has asked New York State Governor Kathy Hochul to sign the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act.

The law (S.7548) was passed by both houses of the New York State legislature. If signed, it will expand legal recourse for those wrongfully convicted in New York including the right to counsel, the ability to challenge flawed or outdated scientific evidence, gives innocent people who pleaded guilty the right to apply for post …

Public Defenders As Gatekeepers Of Freedom, Alma Magaña

Faculty Articles

Nearly half a million people are currently held in pretrial detention across the United States. Legal scholarship has explored many of the actors and factors contributing to the deprivation of freedom of those presumed innocent. And while the scholarship in these areas is rich, it has primarily focused on certain system actors—including judges, prosecutors, and profit-seeking sheriffs—structural concerns, such as the role race plays in who is being held in pretrial detention, or critiques of the failed promise of algorithms to deliver on bias-free bail determinations. But relatively little scholarship exists about the contributions of public defenders to this deprivation. …

A Conversation With Tom Dybdahl, Author Of “When Innocence Is Not Enough: Hidden Evidence And The Failed Promise Of The Brady Rule”, Cardozo Criminal Defense Clinic

Event Invitations 2023

The Supreme Court’s Brady rule of 1963 requires prosecutors to share favorable evidence with defendants. Dybdahl’s book reveals how a series of legal decisions have made it ineffective. Hear what’s at stake when prosecutors conceal evidence, and what can be done about it.

When Innocence Is Not Enough: A Conversation With Tom Dybdahl, Author Of “When Innocence Is Not Enough: Hidden Evidence And The Failed Promise Of The Brady Rule”, Cardozo Criminal Defense Clinic

Flyers 2023-2024

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Exonerees As Amici Curiae In Support Of Appellant, Derrick Hamilton

Perlmutter Center Amicus Briefs

Amici includes a group of wrongfully convicted individuals who spent years ( for most, decades) in prison for crimes they did not commit. They submit this brief in support of Damien Echols' appeal to the Supreme Court of Arkansas out of concern that, left uncorrected, the decision below would undermine the fundamental right to prove one's innocence and as such suffer the consequences left. Additionally, exonerees suffer beyond anyone's imagination and this Court should not ignore the voices of those who have been similarly situated to that of Damien Echols.

Amici understands all too well the importance of such safeguards. …

Inventing Deportation Arrests, Lindsay Nash

Faculty Articles

At the dawn of the federal deportation system, the nation’s top immigration official proclaimed the power to authorize deportation arrests “an extraordinary one” to vest in administrative officers. He reassured the nation that this immense power—then wielded by a cabinet secretary, the only executive officer empowered to authorize these arrests—was exercised with “great care and deliberation.” A century later, this extraordinary power is legally trivial and systemically exercised by low-level enforcement officers alone. Consequently, thousands of these officers—the police and jailors of the immigration system— now have the power to solely determine whether deportation arrests are justified and, therefore, whether …

Professor Sterk & Cardozo Trust & Estates Law Society Invite You To: Surrogates And Sushi, Cardozo Trusts And Estates Law Society, Cardozo Family Law Society, Cardozo Criminal Law Society

Flyers 2022-2023

No abstract provided.

Dual Sovereignty In The U.S. Territories, Emmanuel Hiram Arnaud

Faculty Articles

This Essay examines the emergence and application of the “ultimate source” test and sheds light on the dual sovereign doctrine’s patently colonial framework, particularly highlighting the paternalistic relationship it has produced between federal and territorial prosecutorial authorities.

Why Criminal Defendants Cooperate: The Defense Attorney's Perspective, Jessica A. Roth, Anna D. Vaynman, Steven D. Penrod

Faculty Articles

Cooperation is at the heart of most complex federal criminal cases, with profound ramifications for who can be brought to justice and for the fate of those who decide to cooperate. But despite the significance of cooperation, scholars have yet to explore exactly how individuals confronted with the decision whether to pursue cooperation with prosecutors make that choice. This Article—the first empirical study of the defense experience of cooperation—begins to address that gap. The Article reports the results of a survey completed by 146 criminal defense attorneys in three federal districts: the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District …

Asymmetric Review Of Qualified Immunity Appeals, Alexander A. Reinert

Faculty Articles

This article presents results from the most comprehensive study to date of the resolution of qualified immunity in the federal courts of appeals and the US Supreme Court. By analyzing more than 4000 appellate decisions issued between 2004 and 2015, this study provides novel insights into how courts of appeals resolve arguments for qualified immunity. Moreover, by conducting an unprecedented analysis of certiorari practice, this study reveals how the US Supreme Court has exercised its discretionary jurisdiction in the area of qualified immunity. The data presented here have significant implications for civil rights enforcement and the uniformity of federal law. …

No Sense Of Decency, Kathryn E. Miller

Faculty Articles

For nearly seventy years, the Court has assessed Eighth Amendment claims by evaluating “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” In this Article, I examine the evolving standards of decency test, which has long been a punching bag for critics on both the right and the left. Criticism of the doctrine has been fierce, but largely academic until recent years. Some fault the test for being too majoritarian, while others argue that it provides few constraints on the Justices’ discretion, permitting their personal predilections to rule the day. For many, the test is seen …

Title Theft, Stewart E. Sterk

Faculty Articles

Real property owners across the country have been targeted by scammers who prepare deeds purporting to convey title to property the scammers do not own. Sometimes, the true owners are entirely unaware of these bogus transfers. In other instances, the scammers use misrepresentation to induce unsophisticated owners to sign documents they do not understand.

Property doctrine protects owners against forgery and fraud—the primary vehicles scammers use in their efforts to transfer title. Owners enjoy protection not only against the scammers themselves, but generally against unsuspecting purchasers to whom the scammers transfer purported title.

Recovery of title, however, involves costs and …

Lawyers On The Edge: What Happened To Rudy Giuliani?, Jacob Burns Center For Ethics In The Practice Of Law

Flyers 2022-2023

Click here to view the event invitation.

Lawyers On The Edge: What Happened To Rudy Giuliani?, Jacob Burns Center For Ethics In The Practice Of Law

Event Invitations 2022

Please join The Jacob Burns Center for Ethics in the Practice of Law for the second in their series of book talks, Lawyers on the Edge, with Andrew Kirtzman, author of Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America's Mayor.

Andrew Kirtzman, journalist and author, has been following the career of Rudy Giuliani since the 1990s. His new biography traces Giuliani from the beginning of his rise to his role as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.

Professor Jessica Roth, Co-Director of the Jacob Burns Center for Ethics in the Practice of Law, will lead a discussion with Kirtzman about his …

Ftx And The Future Of Crypto, Heyman Center On Corporate Governance

Event Invitations 2022

Join cryptocurrency and blockchain expert Aaron Wright, bankruptcy attorney Allen Kadish, securities regulation and fintech expert Professor Yuliya Guseva, and white collar crime expert Professor Andrew Jennings for a lively online conversation moderated by Cardozo Professor Matthew Wansley. We'll dive into cryptocurrency exchanges, the issues faced by FTX, why it collapsed, how bankruptcy will play out, and whether its executives face any legal liability.

Innocence Project Clinic Information Session, Innocence Project, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Flyers 2022-2023

No abstract provided.

Intersectionality In International Criminal Law, Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

Flyers 2022-2023

The Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review is pleased to host a virtual symposium on intersectionality and how international criminal law can account for structural drivers of violence. Through critically questioning discriminatory systems and applications of law, this symposium will analyze how the Rome Statute governs international criminal law, as exemplified by the International Criminal Court's rulings on enslavement.

Cardozo Launches The Perlmutter Center For Legal Justice, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Event Invitations 2022

The Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law will be comprised of two components:

The Perlmutter Forensic Science Educational Program, an ambitious legal education program in scientific evidence for practicing attorneys.

The Perlmutter Freedom Clinic, seeking justice for the unjustly incarcerated, will fight wrongful convictions based on the misuse of scientific evidence and work to obtain clemency for individuals that have been unjustly incarcerated.

The Center will be led by prominent civil rights attorney and criminal justice reform advocate Josh Dubin, who will serve as Executive Director. The Deputy Director will be Derrick Hamilton, a formerly incarcerated individual who …

Resurrecting Arbitrariness, Kathryn E. Miller

Faculty Articles

What allows judges to sentence a child to die in prison? For years, they did so without constitutional restriction. That all changed in 2012’s Miller v. Alabama, which banned mandatory sentences of life without parole for children convicted of homicide crimes. Miller held that this extreme sentence was constitutional only for the worst offenders—the “permanently incorrigible.” By embracing individualized sentencing, Miller and its progeny portended a sea change in the way juveniles would be sentenced for serious crimes. But if Miller opened the door to sentencing reform, the Court’s recent decision in Jones v. Mississippi appeared to slam it …

Disaggregating Slavery And The Slave Trade, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Faculty Articles

International law prohibits slavery and the slave trade as peremptory norms, customary international law prohibitions and crimes, humanitarian law prohibitions, and non-derogable human rights. Human rights bodies, however, focus on human trafficking, even when slavery and the slave trade—and not human trafficking—are enumerated within their mandates. International human rights law has conflated human trafficking with slavery and the slave trade. Consequently, human trafficking has subsumed the slave trade and, at times, slavery prohibitions, increasing perpetrator impunity for slavery and the slave trade abuses and denying full expressive justice to survivors.

This Article disaggregates slavery from the slave trade and slavery …

Portraits Of Bankruptcy Filers, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne

Faculty Articles

One in ten adult Americans has turned to the consumer bankruptcy system for help. For almost forty years, the only systematic data collection about the people who file bankruptcy has come from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP), for which we serve as co-principal investigators. In this Article, we use CBP data from 2013 to 2019 to describe who is using the bankruptcy system, providing the first comprehensive overview of bankruptcy filers in thirty years. We use principal component analysis to leverage these data to identify distinct groups of people who file bankruptcy. This technique allows us to situate the distinctions …

The Progressive Love Affair With The Carceral State, Kate Levine

Faculty Articles

A Review of The Feminist War on Crime: The Unexpected Role of Women’s Liberation in Mass Incarceration. By Aya Gruber.

Week Against Mass Incarceration: Mass Incarceration And The Housing Crisis, Cardozo National Lawyers Guild

Flyers 2021-2022

No abstract provided.