Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

The Robot-Transporter: Sex Trafficking, Autonomous Vehicles, And Criminal Liability For Manufacturers, Olivia Phillips

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Despite global condemnation, sex trafficking continues to plague our world. Even in developed countries, the problem persists. Technological advancements, like the Internet, have spurred the development of organized sex trafficking networks and have made “transactions” easier. Although law enforcement agencies have tried to adapt their investigative techniques to combat the problem, developments in technology move at a much quicker rate.

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will present a new set of challenges for law enforcement agencies in the fight against sex trafficking. In the not-too-distant future, AVs, or “self-driving cars,” will dominate the roadways. An AV will be completely aware of the …

Visibly (Un)Just: The Optics Of Grand Jury Secrecy And Police Violence, Nicole Smith Futrell

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Police violence has become more visible to the public through racial justice activism and social justice advocates’ use of technology. Yet, the heightened visibility of policing has had limited impact on transparency and accountability in the legal process, particularly when a grand jury is empaneled to determine whether to issue an indictment in a case of police violence. When a grand jury decides not to indict, the requirement of grand jury secrecy prevents public disclosure of the testimony, witnesses, and evidence presented to the grand jury. Grand jury secrecy leaves those who have seen and experienced the act of police …

Acknowledgments, Howard S. Carrier

International Journal on Responsibility

Serious work to bring the International Journal on Responsibility to life commenced during the summer of 2015. In the intervening period between conceptualization and publication, many organizations and individuals within James Madison University and the wider community have contributed enormously to bringing the journal to fruition.

Who Is Responsible For Ethical Legal Education, For What And To Whom? Case Of Kosovo, Sabiha Shala, Gjylbehare Muharti

International Journal on Responsibility

Legal education continues to be one of the most demanded areas of study from the younger generation in Kosovo. As result, the number of law graduates is quite high. On the other hand, the rule of law sector is quite fragile, judges and lawyers are perceived by parts of the society to be ethically dysfunctional. The trust in judicial institutions is quite low. The debate which is going on now is whose main responsibility for such a situation that is. Is the duty of the higher education institutions providing legal education, or is it a responsibility of educational institutions at …

Resolving The Paradox Of Holding People Responsible, Hal Pepinsky

International Journal on Responsibility

Regardless of justification, it is commonplace throughout the U.S. criminal justice system as in everyday life to teach our offenders and children alike that wrong actions “have consequences,” namely, those authority figures promise to impose upon them. We do so in the name of holding people responsible for their actions, or in legal parlance in civil law, holding them accountable or liable. I noticed that in Norwegian, responsibility, accountability and liability translate into one word, ansvar, which I have translated from Germanic to Latin roots as “responsiveness.” In practice, the state of being responsive to others with whom one conflicts …

Political Flip-Flopping, Political Responsibility, Current Governance, And The Disenfranchised, T.Y. Okosun

International Journal on Responsibility

No abstract provided.

What Does Responsibility Mean To Me?, Arun Gandhi

International Journal on Responsibility

No abstract provided.

Who Is Responsible To Do What For Whom? A Letter From The Editor-In-Chief, Terry Beitzel

International Journal on Responsibility

No abstract provided.

Pro Se Appellants: Opportunities For Law Libraries, Liz Reppe

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This article is part of the 2018 Dickinson Law Review Symposium entitled “Access to Justice: Innovations and Challenges in Providing Assistance to Pro Se Litigants.” The author is the state law librarian for Minnesota who reports to the Minnesota Supreme Court. This article surveys various resources that Minnesota provides to unrepresented clients, including the website resources found here: https://perma.cc/R2DP-K9YB. The bulk of the article, however, focuses on Minnesota’s innovative in-person “Appeals Self-Help Clinics.” See https://perma.cc/Y2VN-H2L3.

The article’s discussion of Minnesota’s Appeals Self-Help Clinics begins by highlighting some of the factors that provided the impetus for the development …

It’S Not The Thought That Counts: Pennsylvania Quietly Made Rape And Idsi Strict Liability Crimes, Jordan E. Yatsko

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In 1982, the Pennsylvania Superior Court decided Commonwealth v. Williams, wherein the court held that a defendant charged with rape or involuntary deviate sexual intercourse (IDSI) cannot use a mistake of fact defense as to the victim’s consent. The court relied on the reasoning that a defendant’s mens rea is not an element of either rape or IDSI. Section 302 of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code, however, requires that where the legislature has failed to expressly require a finding of mens rea in the text of the statute, at least recklessness must be imputed to each material element.

This Comment …

It’S All Your Fault!: Examining The Defendant’S Use Of Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel As A Means Of Getting A “Second Bite At The Apple.”, Prentice L. White

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The United States Constitution provides individuals convicted of a crime with “a second bite at the apple.” The Sixth Amendment provides an avenue to appeal one’s conviction based on the claim of “ineffective assistance of counsel.” What were the Framers’ true intentions in using the phrase “effective assistance of counsel”? How does the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) of 1996 affect habeas corpus appeals? This article answers these questions through the eyes of Thomas—a fictional character who is appealing his murder conviction.

This article first looks at the history surrounding effective assistance of counsel and discusses the difficulties …

Perspectives On Title Ix From A General Counsel's Office, Laurence Pendleton, Jeff Farrar

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2018 Symposium by Laurence Pendleton who serves as University Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Trustees at Tennessee State University and Jeff Farrar who serves as the Associate University Counsel for Middle Tennessee State University discussing the role of the Department of Education in providing recommendations and advice to universities and the role of an attorney in the general counsel's office in interacting with Title IX.

Prosecuting And Defending Campus Assaults: Practitioners' Perspectives, Victor (Torry) S. Johnson, Richard Mcgee

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2018 Symposium by Victor S. (Torry) Johnson former District Attorney General for Davidson County and current Visiting Professor of Law at Belmont University College of Law and Richard McGee a criminal defense lawyer in Nashville, Tennessee in the Public Defender’s Office giving a practitioner's perspective on prosecuting and defending campus assaults.

It's Amazing What You Can Find In Those Books: Top Ten Underutilized Rules For The Criminal Law Practitioner, Wade Davies

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2017 Symposium by Wade Davies a partner at Ritchie Dillard Davies & Johnson in Knoxville, Tennessee. You should never assume that you know how to do something no matter how long you have been practicing law. One of the best things you can do if you’re trying cases, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, is to take out the rule book and re-read the Rules of Evidence and the Rules of Criminal Procedure. When you read the rules in a different context when you’re working on different cases, reconsidering the rules …

Getting It Right: Title Ix's Role In Adjudicating Sexual Assault Claims, Mary Margaret "Meg" Penrose

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Sexual assault is a crime. We have a serious issue in the United States with sexual assault and sexual harassment. We are seeing this play out right now, and I think the “Me Too” campaign has brought important attention to this issue. An issue that impacts not only our college residence halls, but, as we have seen, the halls of Congress. Serious people are not debating whether sexual assault and sexual harassment pose a societal problem. Rather, serious people are debating how to adequately address these issues without compromising fairness to all involved.

Public Defense In Tennessee: Public Pretense?, Dawn Deaner

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2017 Symposium by Dawn Deaner the Metropolitan Public Defender for Nashville-Davidson County. Today I will talk about the problems I see in Tennessee, and some solutions that could help. I am a public defender, and I am going to talk about public defense in Tennessee from a public defender’s perspective. I will touch upon ideals of equality, justice, fairness, and ethics. I will also touch on our legal duty, as well as our moral duty as people who care, hopefully, about equal justice in this country.

Anything You Spit Can Be Use Against You, Juliana Lamar

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Rap lyrics have a high probative value when the lyrics tend to show a defendant’s destructive behavior and confrontational mindset, but the use of this evidence can be highly prejudicial to criminal defendants. Studies have shown graphic evidence leads jurors to experience negative emotional states, and to analyze evidence in accordance with those feelings. This suggests that if a defendant’s profane and violent lyrics are presented before the jury, there is a strong likelihood the jury will react more to the words in the lyrics in characterizing the defendant, rather than the defendant’s case as a whole. To avoid the …

State Of Tennessee V. Kevin E. Trent, Ben Raybin, Juliana Lamar

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Student comments on the Tennessee Supreme Court decision “State of Tennessee v. Kevin E. Trent”. The central holding vacating the sentence in this case did not establish a new doctrine of law but merely reiterated the holding in Travis that the essential elements of the offense alone cannot justify denial of probation in a probation-eligible offense. The Trent decision should be viewed by trial judges and practitioners primarily as a reminder of that principal. On the other hand, the court broke some new ground in appellate review. Prior decisions established that appellate courts can only uphold a sentence if the …

Prosecutorial Ethics And Wrongful Convictions, Victor (Torry) S. Johnson

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2017 Symposium by Victor S. (Torry) Johnson former District Attorney General for Davidson County and current visiting Professor of Law at Belmont University College of Law. Today, we are going to talk about lessons from wrongful convictions. We are going to look at the historical contexts of wrongful convictions. We will examine some of the main factors that seem to exist in some of the important cases that illustrate those wrongful convictions. We will also talk about the possible causes and look at the role that lawyers play, regardless of which side of …

Title Ix From A Coordinator's Perspective, Kathy Hargis, Stephanie Roth

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2018 Symposium by Title IX Coordinators Kathy Hargis and Stephanie Roth giving a sense of what exactly Title IX provides for and what the scope of Title IX is.

State Of Tennessee V. Antoine Perrier, Nickolas Bolduc, Dakota Dexter

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Student comments on the Tennessee Supreme Court decision “State of Tennessee v. Antoine Perrier”. The law now holds that the Tennessee legislature intended that the phrase “not engaged in unlawful activity” contained in the self-defense statute constitutes a condition on an individual’s privilege to not retreat prior to exercising self-defense. Next, the trial court now possesses the duty of determining whether a defendant was engaged in unlawful activity at the time of the alleged self-defense as to negate the applicable instruction. Those holdings are the newest additions to Tennessee law.

Belmont Criminal Law Journal Symposium 2017: Judicial Panel, Jeffery S. Bivins, Joseph A. Woodruff, Timothy L. Easter, Angelita B. Dalton

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of the Judicial Panel given during the 2017 Symposium featuring Chief Justice Jeffrey S. Bivins, Judge Joseph A. Woodruff, Judge Timothy L. Easter, and Judge Angelita B. Dalton.

Criminal Law In Practice Series: Jury Selection, Rob Mcguire

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the Criminal Law in Practice Series by Rob McGuire who currently serves as Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee and an adjunct professor at Belmont University College of Law speaking on Jury Selection.

Pursing The Guilty And Protecting The Innocent Through Smart Prosecution, Amy Weirich

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2017 Symposium by General Amy Weirich, who serves as the District Attorney General for the 30^th Judicial District in Memphis, Tennessee. She speaks about what district attorneys do and also, the big question posed: “If I could change one thing about the criminal justice system, what would that be?”. She starts by providing background on how the office in Shelby County, Tennessee, works and how most DA’s offices work around the nation and moves on to Shelby County's pilot of vertical prosecution including community policing, community prosecution and hopeful implementation of community …

The Gap Between Martinez And Davila: Serving The Next Generation Of Federal Habeas Corpus Cases, Lexie Ward

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

During the summer of 2017, the United States Supreme Court announced a decision in Davis v. Davila, which bars substantial claims of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel that have been procedurally defaulted. However, despite the merits of limiting the number of cases which were not diligently pursued by an inmate, the Court states its conclusion too broadly and now effectively bars a prisoner from bringing claims of significant trial error in front of any court. A prisoner’s claim that was not available until a trial-level appeal, and was then avoided due to ineffective post-conviction counsel, may now be dodged by …

State Of Tennessee V. Sedrick Clayton, Amanda Gentry, Kendahl Shoemaker

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Student comments on the Tennessee Supreme Court decision “State of Tennessee v. Sedrick Clayton”. All defendants charged with crimes deserve a competent and rigorous defense because of the higher stakes in a criminal matter, the loss of liberty, and none more so than in a capital punishment case where the stakes for the defendant are at the highest—the loss of life. This case and the Court’s subsequent analysis illustrates the incredible importance of compliance with all procedural requirements when mounting a defense on behalf of a defendant, as the failure to comply with certain procedural rules ultimately resulted in the …

Criminal Law In Practice Series: Appellate Procedure Panel, Leslie Price, Jeff Devasher

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the Criminal Law in Practice Series by Leslie Price with the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office and Jeff DeVasher with the Nashville Public Defenders Office discussing some appellate law issues.

Title Ix Policy Changes From An Administrative Law Perspective, Amy Moore

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2018 Symposium by Amy Moore looking at administrative law for a better handle on how to treat all of the documents that come along with Title IX, that interpret the pieces. There are a lot of pieces of Title IX, and a lot of different types of documents, but this presentation focuses on the sexual harassment guidance documents.