Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Contemporary Soviet Criminal Law: An Analysis Of The General Principles And Major Institutions Of Post-1958 Soviet Criminal Law, Chris Osakwe

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Applications Of Forensic Evidence In Criminal Cases, Emily Wheeler

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

In 2003, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney proposed a plan for an infallible death penalty that required irrefutable scientific evidence, effectively removing any doubt regarding potential innocence in death penalty cases. Forensic science encompasses many scientific disciplines including natural sciences and pattern analysis, but not all such areas experience equal amounts of general acceptance or influence in criminal cases. While DNA analysis and fingerprint identification using the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) are both widely accepted forensic applications, recent events expose concerns regarding the authenticity of other disciplines such as hair and bite mark comparison. Before policymakers address the issue …

The Eighth Amendment’S Lost Jurors: Death Qualification And Evolving Standards Of Decency, Aliza Plener Cover

Indiana Law Journal

The Supreme Court’s inquiry into the constitutionality of the death penalty has over-looked a critical “objective indicator” of society’s “evolving standards of decency”: the rate at which citizens are excluded from capital jury service under Witherspoon v. Illinois due to their conscientious objections to the death penalty. While the Supreme Court considers the prevalence of death verdicts as a gauge of the nation’s moral climate, it has ignored how the process of death qualification shapes those verdicts. This blind spot biases the Court’s estimation of community norms and dis-torts its Eighth Amendment analysis.

This Article presents a quantitative study of …