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Criminal Court System Failures During Covid-19: An Empirical Study, Cynthia Alkon
Criminal Court System Failures During Covid-19: An Empirical Study, Cynthia Alkon
Faculty Scholarship
How did the criminal legal system respond to the early months of pandemic in 2020? This article reports the results of a unique national survey of judges, defense lawyers, and prosecutors that gives a snapshot of how the criminal legal system responded to the COVID-19 in the first five chaotic months. Criminal courts in the United States rely on in-person proceedings and formal and informal in-person communications to manage caseloads. The survey results detail, in ways not previously fully understood, how crucial these in-person communications are and how ill-prepared the criminal courts and legal professionals were to deal with the …
How To Be A Better Plea Bargainer, Cynthia Alkon, Andrea Kupfer Schneider
How To Be A Better Plea Bargainer, Cynthia Alkon, Andrea Kupfer Schneider
Faculty Scholarship
Preparation matters in negotiation. While plea bargaining is a criminal lawyer’s primary activity, the value of this skill is discounted by law schools and training programs. A systemic model can be used to improve plea bargaining skills. This Article offers a prep sheet for both prosecutors and defense attorneys and explains how each element of the sheet specifically applies to the plea bargaining context. The prep sheet is designed as a learning tool so that the negotiator can learn from the sheet and then make their own. The sheet highlights important considerations such as understanding the interests and goals of …
Hélène Cixous's The Perjured City: Nonprosecution Alternatives To Collective Violence, Susan Ayres
Hélène Cixous's The Perjured City: Nonprosecution Alternatives To Collective Violence, Susan Ayres
Faculty Scholarship
In instances of collective violence — apartheid in South Africa, mass killings in Rwanda, and other crimes against humanity such as slavery — what response provides justice? How can justice be achieved under such a system? Legal justice through prosecution would be unjust. This opens the possibility of nonprosecution alternatives involving forgiveness. Hélène Cixous’s play about forgiveness as an alternative to criminal prosecution, The Perjured City: Or, the Awakening of the Furies, was written in response to an actual case of failed justice in France, known as the Bad Blood Scandal. The play provides a model of forgiveness and a …