Criminal Procedure Commons^™

If An Interpreter Mistranslates In A Courtroom And There Is No Recording, Does Anyone Care?: The Case For Protecting Lep Defendants’ Constitutional Rights, Lisa Santaniello

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Holistic Defense On Criminal Justice Outcomes, James Anderson, Maya Buenaventura, Paul Heaton

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Tennessee's Death Penalty Lottery, Bradley A. Maclean, H. E. Miller Jr.

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

Over the past 40 years, Tennessee has imposed sustained death sentences on 86 of the more than 2,500 defendants found guilty of first degree murder; and the State has executed only six of those defendants. How are those few selected? Is Tennessee consistently and reliably sentencing to death only the “worst of the bad”? To answer these questions, we surveyed all of Tennessee’s first degree murder cases since 1977, when Tennessee enacted its current capital punishment system. Tennessee’s scheme was designed in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Furman v. Georgia, which held ...

Immigrant Defense Funds For Utopians, César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Expedited Removal And Due Process: “A Testing Crucible Of Basic Principle” In The Time Of Trump, Daniel Kanstroom

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Adults' Perceptions Of Children's Referentially Ambiguous Responses, Breanne E. Wylie, Thomas D. Lyon, Alison M. O'Connor, Christina Lapytskaia, Angela Evans

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

The present study examined adults’ (N = 295) interpretations of child witnesses’ referentially ambiguous “yes” and “no” responses to “Do You Know/Remember (DYK/R) if/whether” questions (e.g., “Do you know if it was blue?”). Participants were presented with transcripts from child sexual abuse cases modified based on question format (DYK/R vs. Direct) and child response type (Yes, No, I don’t know) in a between subjects design. We assessed whether adults recognized that children’s ambiguous responses were unclear, and if not, how they were interpreting children’s responses compared to the control (Direct) conditions. More specifically ...

Criminal Doctrines Of Faith, David Jaros

Boston College Law Review

Decisions like Miranda v. Arizona helped popularize a conception of the courts as a protector of criminal defendants and a bulwark against overly aggressive law enforcement. But from arrest through trial, the U.S. Supreme Court has fashioned criminal constitutional procedure with a deep and abiding faith in the motivations of the criminal justice system’s actors. Even decisions that vindicate individual constitutional rights at the expense of police and prosecutorial power are shaped by the Court’s fundamental trust in those same actors. They establish, in essence, “Criminal Doctrines of Faith.” Criminal Doctrines of Faith pervade each stage of ...

Effects Of The Putative Confession Instruction On Perceptions Of Children's True And False Statements, Jennifer Gongola, Nicholas Scurich, Thomas D. Lyon

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

The putative confession instruction (“[suspect] told me everything that happened and wants you to tell the truth”) during forensic interviews with children has been shown to increase the accuracy of children’s statements, but it is unclear whether adult’s perceptions are sensitive to this salutary effect. The present study examined how adults perceive children’s true and false responses to the putative confession (PC) instruction. Participants (n = 299) watched videotaped interviews of children and rated the child’s credibility and the truthfulness of his/her statements. When viewing children’s responses to the PC instruction, true and false statements ...

Special Problems For Prosecutors In Public Corruption Prosecutions, Mimi Rocah, Carrie Cohen, Steve Cohen, Daniel Cort, Bennett L. Gershman

Pace Law Review

The focus of this panel is not so much on the academic part of McDonnell, the case law. Of course, you’ll hear the name McDonnell and we’ll talk about that.

But we’re trying to talk a little more broadly about public corruption prosecutions in general. Some of these are unique issues. You heard a little bit about them from the former people who have done them, what special unique problems are involved in them and challenges the prosecutors face and what effect, if any.

How Has Mcdonnell Affected Prosecutors’ Ability To Police Public Corruption? What Are Politicians And Lobbyists Allowed To Do, And What Are Prosecutors Able To Prosecute?, Vincent L. Briccetti, Amie Ely, Alexandra Shapiro, Dan Stein

Pace Law Review

The question posed to the panelists on the first panel is: How has McDonnell affected prosecutors’ ability to police public corruption? What can politicians and lobbyists do and what can prosecutors prosecute?

Unlocking The Fifth Amendment: Passwords And Encrypted Devices, Laurent Sacharoff

Fordham Law Review

Each year, law enforcement seizes thousands of electronic devices—smartphones, laptops, and notebooks—that it cannot open without the suspect’s password. Without this password, the information on the device sits completely scrambled behind a wall of encryption. Sometimes agents will be able to obtain the information by hacking, discovering copies of data on the cloud, or obtaining the password voluntarily from the suspects themselves. But when they cannot, may the government compel suspects to disclose or enter their password? This Article considers the Fifth Amendment protection against compelled disclosures of passwords—a question that has split and confused courts ...

Open The Jail Cell Doors, Hal: A Guarded Embrace Of Pretrial Risk Assessment Instruments, Glen J. Dalakian Ii

Fordham Law Review

In recent years, criminal justice reformers have focused their attention on pretrial detention as a uniquely solvable contributor to the horrors of modern mass incarceration. While reform of bail practices can take many forms, one of the most pioneering and controversial techniques is the adoption of actuarial models to inform pretrial decision-making. These models are designed to supplement or replace the unpredictable and discriminatory status quo of judicial discretion at arraignment. This Note argues that policymakers should experiment with risk assessment instruments as a component of their bail reform efforts, but only if appropriate safeguards are in place. Concerns for ...

Reconciling Brady And Pitchess: Association For Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs V. Superior Court, And The Future Of Brady Lists, Ryan T. Cannon

San Diego Law Review

In 2014, the Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department (LASD) joined a growing number of law enforcement agencies utilizing “Brady lists”; a system by which prosecutorial agencies are notified of potential Brady/Giglio material in a police officer’s personnel file. These lists enable prosecutors to comply with their constitutional Brady disclosure obligations—to turn over all evidence material to guilt or punishment, including impeachment material. However, in 1978 California made the contents of police officer personnel files confidential with the passage of the Pitchess statutes. Since that time, California courts have wrestled with the extent of allowable disclosure under ...

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

Dickinson Law Review

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 ...

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

Dickinson Law Review

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 ...

2018 Changes To The Evidence Act And Criminal Procedure Code - The Criminal Justice Reform Bill And Evidence (Amendment) Bill, Siyuan Chen, Eunice Chua

Research Collection School Of Law

Various portions of the EvidenceAct and Criminal Procedure Code were amended in 2018 vide the Criminal JusticeReform Bill and Evidence (Amendment) Bill; this was a continuation of a seriesof gradual but important changes to the criminal justice system that had begunin 2010 when the old Criminal Procedure Code was replaced. This legislationcomment outlines and briefly analyses some of the most substantive changesbrought about by the 2018 amendments: the video-recording of interviews incriminal proceedings; the introduction of a psychiatrist panel to regulate thereception of evidence from expert psychiatric witnesses in criminal proceedings;and the use of deferred prosecution agreements for certain ...

Overstating America's Wrongful Conviction Rate? Reassessing The Conventional Wisdom About The Prevalence Of Wrongful Convictions, Paul Cassell

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

A growing body of academic literature discusses the problem of wrongful convictions — i.e., convictions of factually innocent defendants for crimes they did not commit. But how often do such miscarriages of justice actually occur? Justice Scalia cited a figure of 0.027% as a possible error rate. But the conventional view in the literature is that, for violent crimes, the error rate is much higher — at least 1%, and perhaps as high as 4% or even more.

This Article disputes that conventional wisdom. Based on a careful review of the available empirical literature, it is possible to assemble the ...

Cabining Judicial Discretion Over Forensic Evidence With A New Special Relevance Rule, Emma F.E. Shoucair

Michigan Law Review

Modern forensic evidence suffers from a number of flaws, including insufficient scientific grounding, exaggerated testimony, lack of uniform best practices, and an inefficacious standard for admission that regularly allows judges to admit scientifically unsound evidence. This Note discusses these problems, lays out the current landscape of forensic science reform, and suggests the addition of a new special relevance rule to the Federal Rules of Evidence (and similar rules in state evidence codes). This proposed rule would cabin judicial discretion to admit non-DNA forensic evidence by barring prosecutorial introduction of such evidence in criminal trials absent a competing defense expert or ...

Still Living After Fifty Years: A Census Of Judicial Review Under The Pennsylvania Constitution Of 1968, Seth F. Kreimer

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

The year 2018 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1968. The time seems ripe, therefore, to explore the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s exercise of judicial review under the 1968 Pennsylvania Constitution. This Article constitutes the first such comprehensive exploration.

The Article begins with an historical overview of the evolution of the Pennsylvania Constitution, culminating in the Constitution of 1968. It then presents a census of the 372 cases in which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has vindicated distinctive Pennsylvania Constitutional rights under the Constitution of 1968.

Analysis of these cases leads to three conclusions:

1. Exercise of independent ...

Legal Optimism: Restoring Trust In The Criminal Justice System Through Procedural Justice, Positive Psychology And Just Culture Event Reviews, John Hollway

Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Capstone Projects

Like any complex, dynamic system, the American criminal justice system makes mistakes. Unfortunately, criminal justice organizations lack a systematic process enabling them to learn from cases of error. Ignoring or minimizing errors erodes organizational legitimacy and contributes to a downward spiral of legal cynicism that increases violent crime. This paper describes the application of positive psychology and procedural justice to restore legal optimism – confidence and trust that the criminal justice system will respond in a just fashion to criminal activity – through Just Culture Event Reviews (JCERs), non-blaming multi-stakeholder reviews of cases where the system has erred. JCERs identify contributing factors ...