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Full-Text Articles in Juvenile Law
Jones V. Mississippi And The Court’S Quiet Burial Of The Miller Trilogy, Cara H. Drinan
Jones V. Mississippi And The Court’S Quiet Burial Of The Miller Trilogy, Cara H. Drinan
Scholarly Articles
In addition to its status as the world's largest jailer, the United States is an extreme outlier in its juvenile justice and sentencing practices. As recently as 2005, the United States permitted juvenile execution, and today the United States is the only nation that allows children to be sentenced to life without parole. In the last fifteen years, in a series of cases known as the Miller trilogy, the Supreme Court had been slowly chipping away at the nation's use of the most extreme juvenile sentences-the death penalty and life without parole. That process came to an abrupt end this …
The Miller Trilogy And The Persistence Of Extreme Juvenile Sentences, Cara H. Drinan
The Miller Trilogy And The Persistence Of Extreme Juvenile Sentences, Cara H. Drinan
Scholarly Articles
In a series of Eighth Amendment cases referred to as the Miller trilogy, the Supreme Court significantly limited the extent to which minors may be exposed to extreme sentences. Specifically, in this line of cases the Court abolished capital punishment for minors and narrowed the instances when minors may be sentenced to life without parole. Only minors convicted of homicide who are found to be “in-corrigible” may now be subject to a death-in-custody sentence. In limiting extreme sentences for youth in these ways, the Supreme Court relied upon the social and medical science that demonstrates youth are simultaneously less culpable …
Conversations On The Warren Court's Impact On Criminal Justice: In Re Gault At 50, Cara H. Drinan
Conversations On The Warren Court's Impact On Criminal Justice: In Re Gault At 50, Cara H. Drinan
Scholarly Articles
This Article examines the Supreme Court’s landmark In re Gault decision of 1967, in which the Supreme Court ushered in the “due process era” of juvenile justice in America by determining that juveniles were entitled to the right to counsel and other procedural safeguards during delinquency proceedings. But this Article continues with a critical focus on the impact of the decision today, examining a dichotomy between what was declared a “revolution in children’s rights,” and how youth in the criminal justice system still have not seen the extent of constitutional protections declared necessary by Gault. Arguing that Gault …
A Vision Of Criminal Violence, Punishment And Relational Justice (Reviewing Sam Pillsbury, Imagining A Greater Justice – Criminal Violence, Punishment, And Relational Justice), Mary Graw Leary
Scholarly Articles
Since the inception of a state-run criminal justice system, many have debated and critiqued its features and goals. Often this dialogue takes place largely among academics and theorists with limited impact on policy and an even more marginal influence on the day to day reality of those most affected by the system. In every generation or so, however, a consequential movement emerges, for better or worse. These include movements regarding the evolution of the prison system, the creation of a rehabilitative juvenile court system, the implementation of “tough on crime” provisions of the 1980s, as well as others. With these …
The Miller Revolution, Cara H. Drinan
The Miller Revolution, Cara H. Drinan
Scholarly Articles
In a series of cases culminating in Miller v. Alabama, the United States Supreme Court has limited the extent to which juveniles may be exposed to the harshest criminal sentences. Scholars have addressed discrete components of these recent Court decisions, from their Eighth Amendment methodology to their effect upon state legislation. In this Article, I draw upon that scholarship to make a broader claim: the Miller trilogy has revolutionized juvenile justice. While we have begun to see only the most inchoate signs of this revolution in practice, this Article endeavors to describe what this revolution may look like both in …
Juvenile Sentencing Post-Miller: Preventive And Corrective Measures, Cara H. Drinan
Juvenile Sentencing Post-Miller: Preventive And Corrective Measures, Cara H. Drinan
Scholarly Articles
At the end of the twentieth century, the United States was an international outlier in the severity of its juvenile sentencing practices despite having invented the juvenile court model one century earlier. Today, juvenile sentencing reform is underway, particularly in the wake of recent Supreme Court decisions that have cabined the states’ capacity to impose extreme sentences on juveniles. In this Article, I propose two additional reform measures that would help to rationalize the sentences imposed on children in the American criminal justice system—one on the front end of the system and one on the back end. In particular, on …
Hostages In The ‘Hood, Robert A. Destro
Hostages In The ‘Hood, Robert A. Destro
Scholarly Articles
The goal of this essay is to sketch out an approach which attempts to highlight the multiplicity of interests necessarily included in, but not always identified in, debates over gang control policy. The intent is not so much to suggest a way in which to resolve these often competing interests (which would be impossible in any event), or even to attempt an exhaustive discussion of the most important ones. It is, rather, to suggest that a feel for context and a sense of proportion is or ought to be critical in all discussions of gang control policy.