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Full-Text Articles in Criminal Law

The World Moved On Without Me: Redefining Contraband In A Technology-Driven World For Youth Detained In Washington State, Stephanie A. Lowry Jan 2023

The World Moved On Without Me: Redefining Contraband In A Technology-Driven World For Youth Detained In Washington State, Stephanie A. Lowry

Seattle University Law Review

If you ask a teenager in the United States to show you one of their favorite memories, they will likely show you a picture or video on their cell phone. This is because Americans, especially teenagers, love cell phones. Ninety-seven percent of all Americans own a cell phone according to a continuously updated survey by the Pew Research Center. For teenagers aged thirteen to seventeen, the number is roughly 95%. For eighteen to twenty-nine-year-olds, the number grows to 100%. On average, eight to twelve-year-old’s use roughly five and a half hours of screen media per day, in comparison to thirteen …


Court’S Choice Of Law Ruling Undermines Washington Community Property Law: A Critique Of Shanghai Commercial Bank V. Chang, Brian D. Hulse Jan 2023

Court’S Choice Of Law Ruling Undermines Washington Community Property Law: A Critique Of Shanghai Commercial Bank V. Chang, Brian D. Hulse

Seattle University Law Review

This Article deals with the issues that arise when Washington courts face the following scenario. One spouse enters into a contract without the joinder (and perhaps without the knowledge) of the other spouse. Both spouses are domiciled in Washington. The contract has contacts with one or more jurisdictions other than Washington and is generally governed as to validity and interpretation by the law of another jurisdiction. The contracting spouse defaults and the other party to the contract obtains a judgment on the contract. The court confronts a question about the property to which the plaintiff will have recourse to collect …


Policing For Profit: A Constitutional Analysis Of Washington State’S Civil Forfeiture Laws, Julia Doherty Jan 2023

Policing For Profit: A Constitutional Analysis Of Washington State’S Civil Forfeiture Laws, Julia Doherty

Seattle University Law Review

The summer of 2020 reignited a conversation about the relationship between race and policing in the United States. While many have taken the opportunity to scrutinize the racially discriminate components of our criminal justice system, comparable aspects of civil law must be equally scrutinized. A particular area of concern pertains to racially biased policing and the concept of “policing for profits” with Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities (BIPOC), which is accomplished mainly through civil asset forfeiture at a state and federal level.


Police Or Pirates? Reforming Washington's Civil Asset Forfeiture System, Jasmin Chigbrow Oct 2021

Police Or Pirates? Reforming Washington's Civil Asset Forfeiture System, Jasmin Chigbrow

Washington Law Review

Civil asset forfeiture laws permit police officers to seize property they suspect is connected to criminal activity and sell or retain the property for the police department’s use. In many states, including Washington, civil forfeiture occurs independent of any criminal case—many property owners are never charged with the offense police allege occurred. Because the government is not required to file criminal charges, property owners facing civil forfeiture lack the constitutional safeguards normally guaranteed to defendants in the criminal justice system: the right to an attorney, the presumption of innocence, the government’s burden to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, …


Prostitution Decriminalization Campaigns In The United States: Libertarianism Or A "Decent Society", Jody Raphael Mar 2021

Prostitution Decriminalization Campaigns In The United States: Libertarianism Or A "Decent Society", Jody Raphael

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Recently, legislative campaigns to totally decriminalize the sex trade industry in a handful of U.S. states and the District of Columbia failed, but a look at campaign supporters and their arguments demonstrates that libertarian principles are mainly guiding their efforts. This article explores how libertarianism principles, when applied to the sex trade, could bring about severe and lasting harm to others, including sellers of sex, potential victims of sex trafficking to meet the new demand, and the general community. Philosophic principles of liberty have been incorporated by courts, which find that liberty is never absolute and requires a balancing test …


Disarming The Dangerous: Preventing Extraordinary And Ordinary Violence, M. Fan Jan 2015

Disarming The Dangerous: Preventing Extraordinary And Ordinary Violence, M. Fan

Indiana Law Journal

Mass shootings at Navy Yard, Newtown, Aurora, and elsewhere have jolted Congress and the states into considering gun violence prevention. More than 1500 gun-related bills have been introduced since 2013, after the slaughter in Newtown of twenty elementary-school children and six adults. Legislation and debates are shaped by the specter of a heavily armed, mentally ill individual hunting in public places such as schools, businesses, and workplaces. In the states, the most successful type of legislation involves firearms restrictions for the mentally ill. In Congress, the legislation that garnered the most debate was a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity …


Appellate Division, First Department, People V. Ramirez, Nicole Compas Nov 2014

Appellate Division, First Department, People V. Ramirez, Nicole Compas

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.


Supreme Court, Bronx County, People V. Paul, Adam D'Antonio Nov 2014

Supreme Court, Bronx County, People V. Paul, Adam D'Antonio

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.


Appellate Division, First Department, People V. Bradley, Kathleen Egan Nov 2014

Appellate Division, First Department, People V. Bradley, Kathleen Egan

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.


Assisted Suicide: A Tough Pill To Swallow, Mary Margaret Penrose Nov 2012

Assisted Suicide: A Tough Pill To Swallow, Mary Margaret Penrose

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


An Unappealing Decision For New York Dwi Defendants - People V. Pealer, Christopher Gavin Aug 2012

An Unappealing Decision For New York Dwi Defendants - People V. Pealer, Christopher Gavin

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.


O.P.P.: How "Occupy's" Race-Based Privilege May Improve Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence For All, Lenese C. Herbert Apr 2011

O.P.P.: How "Occupy's" Race-Based Privilege May Improve Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence For All, Lenese C. Herbert

Seattle University Law Review

This Article submits that Occupy’s race problem could, ironically, prove to be a solution if protesters grow more serious about exposing the injury of political subordination and systems of privilege that adhere to the criminal justice system. Privilege is a “systemic conferral of benefit and advantage [as a result of] affiliation, conscious or not and chosen or not, to the dominant side of a power system.” Accordingly, now that police mistreatment affects them personally, Occupy may finally help kill a fictitious Fourth Amendment jurisprudence that ignores oppression through improper policing based on racial stigma. Occupy may also help usher in …


Methodological Issues In Biased Policing Research With Applications To The Washington State Patrol, Clayton Mosher, J. Mitchell Pickerill Apr 2011

Methodological Issues In Biased Policing Research With Applications To The Washington State Patrol, Clayton Mosher, J. Mitchell Pickerill

Seattle University Law Review

Racial profiling violates the United States Constitution’s premise that all people are equal under the law, as well as the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee that people should be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Racial profiling has been found to result from individual officer racism or stereotyping, from institutionalized biases, and from the organizational culture of law enforcement agencies. We begin this Article by discussing the history of racial profiling before proceeding to consider various studies from a select number of American jurisdictions. We then examine important methodological and theoretical issues in conducting research on racial profiling and racially biased policing, …


Introduction, Hon. Steven C. Gonzàlez Apr 2011

Introduction, Hon. Steven C. Gonzàlez

Seattle University Law Review

At Seattle University School of Law’s Symposium on Racial Bias and the Criminal Justice System, students, faculty, judges, scholars, lawyers, and community members gathered to address racial disparity in the criminal justice system and to explore ways to keep the promise of our democracy that we all are equal before the law. Race, ethnicity, skin color, and national origin profoundly influence our legal structure and our liberty. The way that race influences perceptions and actions is critically important in the context of our criminal justice system—a system that changes lives, disrupts and protects communities, and represents a key part of …


Preliminary Report On Race And Washington's Criminal Justice System, Task Force On Race And The Criminal Justice System Apr 2011

Preliminary Report On Race And Washington's Criminal Justice System, Task Force On Race And The Criminal Justice System

Seattle University Law Review

For this Report, the Research Working Group reviewed evidence on disproportionality in Washington’s criminal justice system and considered whether crime commission rates accounted for this disproportionality. We found that crime commission rates by race and ethnicity are largely unknown and perhaps unknowable, but that some researchers simply take arrest rates as good proxies for underlying commission rates for all crimes.We found that use of arrest rates likely overstates black crime commission rates for several reasons.68 But even if arrest rates are used as a proxy for underlying crime commission rates, the extent of racial disproportionality is not explained by commission …


Analyzing Stops, Citations, And Searches In Washington And Beyond, Mario L. Barnes, Robert S. Chang Apr 2011

Analyzing Stops, Citations, And Searches In Washington And Beyond, Mario L. Barnes, Robert S. Chang

Seattle University Law Review

Racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system is a fact. But the fact of racial disproportionality is the beginning and not the end of the conversation. The fact that blacks are overrepresented in stop, arrest, charge, pretrial detention, conviction, and incarceration statistics demonstrates only correlation and not causation. A number of commentators caution that disproportionality and the overrepresentation of blacks, Native-Americans, and Hispanics in Washington State’s prisons do not prove racial discrimination. Further, the fact of disproportionality at each stage of criminal justice processing does not prove that racial discrimination occurs at each particular stage. For example, the observed disproportionality …


Actual Versus Perceived Performance Of Judges, Theodore Eisenberg, Talia Fisher, Issi Rosen-Zvi Apr 2011

Actual Versus Perceived Performance Of Judges, Theodore Eisenberg, Talia Fisher, Issi Rosen-Zvi

Seattle University Law Review

Perceptions of judges ought to be based on their performance. Yet, few studies of the relation between perceived and actual judicial performance exist. Those claiming judicial bias should be especially sensitive to the relation between perception and performance. Judges perceived by the public or by the legal community as disfavoring a group may be regarded as biased, but that perception is unfair if the judges’ votes in cases do not disfavor the group. For example, it may be unfair to accuse an appellate judge of pro-state bias in criminal cases if the judge votes for defendants at a higher rate …


The Impact Of Implicit Racial Bias On The Exercise Of Prosecutorial Discretion, Robert J. Smith, Justin D. Levinson Apr 2011

The Impact Of Implicit Racial Bias On The Exercise Of Prosecutorial Discretion, Robert J. Smith, Justin D. Levinson

Seattle University Law Review

The Article is organized as follows: Part II provides an introduction to implicit bias research, orienting readers to the important aspects of implicit bias most relevant to prosecutorial discretion. Part III begins the examination of implicit bias in the daily decisions of prosecutors. The Part presents key prosecutorial discretion points and specifically connects each of them to implicit bias. Part IV recognizes that, despite compelling proof of implicit bias in a range of domains, there is no direct empirical proof of implicit bias in prosecutorial decision-making. It thus calls for an implicit bias research agenda designed to further examine how …


“If Justice Is Not Equal For All, It Is Not Justice”: Racial Bias, Prosecutorial Misconduct, And The Right To A Fair Trial In State V. Monday, Michael Callahan Apr 2011

“If Justice Is Not Equal For All, It Is Not Justice”: Racial Bias, Prosecutorial Misconduct, And The Right To A Fair Trial In State V. Monday, Michael Callahan

Seattle University Law Review

This Note argues that of the three opinions from Monday, Washington state courts should follow Chief Justice Madsen’s concurring opinion. The Monday decision also raises three questions that none of the opinions adequately answer: who does Monday apply to, what conduct does Monday forbid, and what is the legal source of the rules from Monday? The court will have to answer these questions in the future to determine the scope of its new rules. Part II of this Note discusses how Washington courts previously addressed the issue of prosecutorial misconduct and appeals to racial bias in trials. Part …


“Like Wolves In Sheep’S Clothing”: Combating Racial Bias In Washington State’S Criminal Justice System, Krista L. Nelson, Jacob J. Stender Apr 2011

“Like Wolves In Sheep’S Clothing”: Combating Racial Bias In Washington State’S Criminal Justice System, Krista L. Nelson, Jacob J. Stender

Seattle University Law Review

Despite their differences, both the majority and concurring opinions in Monday present new ways to address prosecutorial misconduct, deter the injection of racial bias into courtroom proceedings, and create substantively similar outcomes. Part II of this Note discusses the traditional prosecutorial misconduct test in Washington State, as well as the rules articulated by the Monday majority and concurrence. Part III discusses the implications of both the majority and concurring opinions, the primary differences in their approaches to deterrence, the degree of racial bias they require to warrant reversal of a conviction, and the discretion they afford the judiciary. Part III …


Dead Wrong: Why Washington’S Deadly Weapon Criminal Sentencing Enhancement Needs “Enhancement”, James Harlan Corning Apr 2011

Dead Wrong: Why Washington’S Deadly Weapon Criminal Sentencing Enhancement Needs “Enhancement”, James Harlan Corning

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment confronts the difficult question of how to reformulate the deadly weapon sentencing enhancement to better align it with the policy goals of deterring and punishing armed crime. Part II explores the constitutional and practical defects in each of the three formulations of the sentencing enhancement’s armed requirement by delving into the enhancement’s legislative history and the judicial struggle to interpret it. Part III analyzes the need for a more nuanced approach to the weapon enhancement by exploring key criticisms about the enhancement’s scope and application. Part IV argues that the Washington legislature must provide courts with more rigid …


The $62 Million Question: Is Virginia's New Center To House Sexually Violent Prisoners Money Well Spent?, Molly T. Geissenhainer May 2008

The $62 Million Question: Is Virginia's New Center To House Sexually Violent Prisoners Money Well Spent?, Molly T. Geissenhainer

University of Richmond Law Review

This comment examines Virginia's current civil commitment statute for sexual predators and attempts to identify areas where Virginia should concentrate its limited resources in order to address more adequately the ever-increasing problem of what to do with sex offenders. Part II briefly describes why sex offenders present law enforcement with unique problems in prevention and deterrence. Part III details the history of civil commitment legislation. Part IV examines Supreme Court of the United States jurisprudence regarding the constitutionality of sex offender civil commitment statutes. Part V examines the Virginia Sexually Violent Predator Act. Part VI briefly considers current violent sexual …


Sexual Violence, Sanity, And Safety: Constitutional Parameters For Involuntary Civil Commitment Of Sex Offenders, Beth Keiko Fujimoto Jan 1992

Sexual Violence, Sanity, And Safety: Constitutional Parameters For Involuntary Civil Commitment Of Sex Offenders, Beth Keiko Fujimoto

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment will address two questions: (1) whether the Washington law is substantially similar to or fundamentally different from the Illinois statute; and (2) whether the Washington statute should be upheld as a constitutional exercise of the state's civil commitment authority under Allen v. Illinois. This Comment argues that the Washington scheme is fundamentally different from the Illinois statute under Allen because it is essentially a lifetime preventive detention scheme and therefore fails to meet the constitutional requirements set forth in Allen. To that end, Part II of this Comment generally explores the involuntary commitment of sex offenders, …


Falling Through The Cracks After Duro V. Reina: A Close Look At A Jurisdictional Failure, Eric B. White Jan 1991

Falling Through The Cracks After Duro V. Reina: A Close Look At A Jurisdictional Failure, Eric B. White

Seattle University Law Review

The decision in Duro v. Reina needlessly creates a jurisdictional gap over nonmember Indians committing minor crimes against other Indians on reservation land and leaves open the very real possibility that neither the federal nor the state governments will move in to fill that gap. A nonmember offender at the Washington festival would simply walk away. To understand how this jurisdictional gap over nonmember Indians needlessly came about and why neither the federal government nor the state governments will step in to exercise jurisdiction, this Note (1) looks at the complex web of law on criminal jurisdiction over Indians; (2) …


Survey Of Washington Search And Seizure Law, Justice Robert F. Utter Jan 1985

Survey Of Washington Search And Seizure Law, Justice Robert F. Utter

Seattle University Law Review

This Survey is designed to assist lawyers and judges who must argue and resolve search and seizure issues in Washington State. The Survey summarizes the controlling state and federal cases on search and seizure law and uses as an additional reference W. LAFAVE, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment (1978). Washington courts are likely to analyze future search and seizure issues under both the fourth amendment and Washington Constitution article I, section 7. The difference in wording between the two provisions is substantial, suggesting different degrees or types of privacy protection. This Survey summarizes the predominant treatment …


Seizing Opportunity, Searching For Theory: Article I, Section 7, George R. Nock Jan 1985

Seizing Opportunity, Searching For Theory: Article I, Section 7, George R. Nock

Seattle University Law Review

Washington case law dealing with searches and seizures has now reached a developmental stage from which it can proceed either haphazardly or along any of several well-defined lines. The purpose of this Article is not to provide a compendium of Washington search-and-seizure cases. Rather, the Article analyzes the more recent (and some of the earlier) cases in which the Washington Supreme Court has interpreted article I, section 7, and suggests several alternative theoretical bases for the further development of Washington constitutional search-and-seizure jurisprudence.


A Constitutional Right To An Appeal: Guarding Against Unacceptable Risks Of Erroneous Conviction, James E. Lobsenz Jan 1985

A Constitutional Right To An Appeal: Guarding Against Unacceptable Risks Of Erroneous Conviction, James E. Lobsenz

Seattle University Law Review

The many consequences of "constitutionalizing" the right to appeal become evident only when one answers certain underlying questions about the nature of an appeal. What are the essential elements of an appeal? Why should we view the criminal defendant's right to appeal as an element of due process of law? Part II of this Article seeks to develop a theoretical due process framework for use in deciding when the right to appeal under article I, section 22 of the Washington Constitution has been unconstitutionally abridged or denied. Part III contains an analysis of oral argument as an essential element of …


Search, Seizure, And Section 7: Standing From Salvucci To Simpson, Mark H. Adams, George R. Nock Jan 1982

Search, Seizure, And Section 7: Standing From Salvucci To Simpson, Mark H. Adams, George R. Nock

Seattle University Law Review

This article traces the evolution of automatic standing from Jones v. United States to United States v. Salvucci and discusses the approach that has replaced the Jones rule in the Supreme Court. It then discusses the Washington Supreme Court’s continued adherence to the automatic standing rule, despite the Salvucci decision, under the Washington Constitution rather than the fourth amendment. After focusing on the failure of the United States Supreme Court to fashion a standing rule consistent with the Court’s stated purpose for the exclusionary rule, this article urges the Washington court to interpret the state’s constitution in a more consistent, …


Criminal Law And Procedure-Larceny-Hunger And Want As Defense May 1934

Criminal Law And Procedure-Larceny-Hunger And Want As Defense

Michigan Law Review

A large group of unemployed marched on a Red Cross commissary to request a larger ration of flour. After locating the chairman and being answered with a firm and final refusal, a large part of the group went into a private store and carried off groceries without paying for them. At the trial the appellants offered to prove conditions of poverty and want among the unemployed of that county on and prior to the date of the raid, for the purpose of showing a purpose and justification for the raid. Held, such evidence was correctly excluded. State v. Moe …


Crimes-Reasonable Doubt-Necessity Of Defining-Definition Dec 1930

Crimes-Reasonable Doubt-Necessity Of Defining-Definition

Michigan Law Review

In a criminal case, the defendant requested an instruction defining the term "reasonable doubt." The court refused the request and the defendant excepted. Held, the instruction should have been given. State v. Vukich (Wash. 1930) 290 Pac. 992.