Criminal Procedure Commons^™

The Punishment Should Fit The Crime—Not The Prior Convictions Of The Person That Committed The Crime: An Argument For Less Impact Being Accorded To Previous Convictions, Mirko Bagaric

San Diego Law Review

The seriousness of the offense is the main consideration that should determine the severity of criminal punishment. This cardinal sentencing principle is undermined by the reality that often the criminal history of the offender is the most decisive sentencing consideration. Recidivists are frequently sent to imprisonment for long periods for crimes, which, when committed by first-time offenders, are dealt with by a bond, probation, or a fine. This makes sentencing more about an individual’s profile than the harm caused by the offender and has contributed to a large increase in prison numbers. Intuitively, it feels right to punish repeat offenders …

Facing The Unfaceable: Dealing With Prosecutorial Denial In Postconviction Cases Of Actual Innocence, Aviva Orenstein

San Diego Law Review

This Article develops a question that intrigued Fred: prosecutors’ duties postconviction to prisoners who might be innocent. Although Fred wrote about a panoply of questions that arise regarding the prosecutor’s duty to “do justice” after conviction, this Article will address one specific area of concern: how and why prosecutors resist allowing DNA testing and, more startlingly, deny the obvious implications of DNA evidence when that evidence exonerates the convicted.

Part II of this Article briefly summarizes two of Fred’s major articles on the subject of prosecutorial ethics. Part III documents the problem of postconviction DNA exonerations and prosecutors’ varied reactions. …

In Search Of Criminology. By Leon Radzinowicz, William B. Enright

San Diego Law Review

At the 1963 California State Bar Convention, Chief Justice Phil S. Gibson, in the course of an address to the profession, stated: "History will judge the quality of a civilization by the manner in which it enforces its criminal laws." This remark by the Chief Justice indicates the larger problem to which the author of the new book In Search of Criminology has addressed himself.

Felony-Murder - Surviving Co-Felons Are Punishable For First Degree Murder Under California Penal Code Section 189 For The Killing Of A Confederate By The Owner Of The Store Which They Were Robbing (People V. Hand, Cal. 1963), Robert C. Baxley

San Diego Law Review

In the process of executing a planned robbery of a store, one of four robbers was killed by the owner. The store had been previously robbed and the owner was waiting for such a recurrence. Held, on demurrer to the indictment, the surviving felons were punishable for first degree murder because the legislature intended this fact situation to be within the purview of section 189 and because of a strong public policy as a deterrent to violent felonies. People v. Hand, Crim. No. 5471, Super. Ct., San Diego (July 22, 1963).