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The Difference Of One Vote Or One Day: Reviewing The Demographics Of Florida’S Death Row After Hurst V. Florida, Melanie Kalmanson

University of Miami Law Review

As the federal appeals court with jurisdiction over Florida and Alabama—two leaders in capital punishment in the United States—the Eleventh Circuit reviews several claims each year related to capital punishment. Florida is home to one of the largest death row populations in the country. Thus, understanding Florida’s capital sentencing scheme is important for understanding capital punishment nationwide.

This Article analyzes the empirical demographics of Florida’s death row population and reviews how defendants are sentenced to death and ultimately executed in Florida. The analysis reveals that although age is not a factor upon which murder/manslaughter defendants are discriminated against in the …

Improving Community Safety Means Addressing Police Violence As A Public Health Problem, Kami Chavis, Josh Horwitz

Popular Media

JURIST Guest Columnists from the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence Kami Chavis, a law professor at Wake Forest University, and Josh Horwitz, the Fund's executive director, discuss ways to address systemic police violence against people of color.

Putting The Fetus First — Legal Regulation, Motherhood, And Pregnancy, Emma Milne

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

The fetus-first mentality advocates that pregnant women and women who could become pregnant should put the needs and well-being of their fetuses before their own. As this Article will illustrate, this popular public perception has pervaded criminal law, impacting responses to women deemed to be the “irresponsible” pregnant woman and so the “bad” mother. The Article considers cases from Alabama and Indiana in the United States and from England in the United Kingdom, providing clear evidence that concerns about the behavior of pregnant women now hang heavily over criminal justice responses to women who experience a negative pregnancy outcome or …

The Balance Of Safety And Religious Freedom: Allowing Sikhs The Right To Practice Their Religion And Access Courthouses, Karamvir Dhaliwal

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Narrative, Culture, And Individuation: A Criminal Defense Lawyer’S Race-Conscious Approach To Reduce Implicit Bias For Latinxs, Walter I. Goncalves Jr.

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Application Of Neuroscience Evidence On Court Sentencing Decisions: Suggesting A Guideline For Neuro-Evidence, Yu Du

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Thirteenth Amendment And Human Trafficking: Lessons & Limitations, Kathleen Kim

Georgia State University Law Review

Part I of this Article contextualizes human trafficking within the doctrinal development of the Thirteenth Amendment and Section Two legislation enacted to address subsequent forms of unfree labor. This part describes the origins of a race-conscious Thirteenth Amendment framework and explains its relevance in guiding antitrafficking policy. The overwhelming focus of antitrafficking efforts on sexual exploitation strains the normative foundation of the Thirteenth Amendment. Part II examines the TVPA and the California Trafficking Victims Protection Act and identifies their most significant contributions to Thirteenth Amendment doctrine. Yet, this part finds that the absence of a Thirteenth Amendment framework to guide …

Atoning For Dred Scott And Plessy While Substantially Abolishing The Death Penalty, Scott W. Howe

Washington Law Review

Has the Supreme Court adequately atoned for Dred Scott and Plessy? A Court majority has never confessed and apologized for the horrors associated with those decisions. And the horrors are so great that Dred Scott and Plessy have become the anti-canon of constitutional law. Given the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the Court’s historical complicity in the brutal campaign against African Americans, this Article contends that the Court could appropriately do more to atone.

The Article asserts that the Court could profitably pursue atonement while abolishing capital punishment for aggravated murder. The Article shows why substantial abolition of the capital sanction would …

Beat The Heat: Texas’S Need To Reduce Summer Temperatures In Offender Housing, Mary E. Adair

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s lack of air conditioning in offender housing areas is a violation of the Eighth Amendment and deprives offenders of humane living conditions. Unlike most Texans, offenders housed in the TDCJ are unable to adequately protect themselves from the higher, prolonged summer temperatures. Most Texas prisons do not provide air conditioning or other types of cooling systems in offender housing areas, so offenders are at the mercy of the elements with little protection against heat-related illnesses. Several jurisdictions, other than Texas, have recognized extreme temperatures in housing areas can lead to constitutional violations because the …

Civil Rights Ecosystems, Joanna C. Schwartz

Michigan Law Review

The Philadelphia and Houston Police Departments are similarly sized, but over a recent two-year period, ten times more civil rights suits were filed against Philadelphia and its officers than were filed against Houston and its officers. Plaintiffs in cases brought against Philadelphia and its officers were awarded one hundred times more in settlements and judgments. What accounts for these differences? Although the frequency and severity of misconduct and injury may play some role, I contend that the volume and outcome of civil rights litigation against any given jurisdiction should be understood as a product of what I call its civil …

Federal Sentencing: A Judge’S Personal Sentencing Journey Told Through The Voices Of Offenders He Sentenced, Mark W. Bennett

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Federal sentencing is a tragic mess. Thirty years of conflicting legislative experiments began with high hopes but resulted in mass incarceration. Federal sentences, especially in drug cases, are all too often bone-crushingly severe.

In this Article, the Honorable Mark Bennett, a retired federal judge, shares about his journey with federal sentencing and his strong disagreement with the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines by telling the stories of some of the 400 men and women he sentenced during his twenty-five years as a federal judge.

Reforming Federal Sentencing: A Call For Equality-Infused Menschlichkeit, Nora V. Demleitner

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

This piece, which serves as an Introduction to the Symposium Issue of the Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, addresses both questions of pedagogy and federal sentencing. It starts by highlighting the value of a symposium on federal sentencing as a teaching, research, and advocacy tool before it turns to sentencing reform specifically.

Federal sentencing remains a highly contested area because it raises stark questions of equality and equitable treatment. Sentencing has long been unfair to minority defendants, African-Americans in particular, though the guidelines have in part mitigated racial disparities. Still the injustices perpetuated through …

Sentencing Disparities And The Dangerous Perpetuation Of Racial Bias, Jelani Jefferson Exum

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

This Article addresses the role that racial disparities—specifically sentencing disparities—play in perpetuating the racial bias that increases the daily danger of living as a Black American in the United States. As documented in the news and by sometimes humorous internet memes, White people have called the police many times to report Black people who were simply living as any other American. This trend highlights the manner in which the U.S. criminal justice system’s racial inequities feed into biased beliefs about Black criminality. This Article argues that instead of tackling implicit bias as a means to fight sentencing and other criminal …

Technology’S Influence On Federal Sentencing: Past, Present, And Future, Matthew G. Rowland

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The comprehensive reforms that govern today’s federal sentencing processes were fashioned nearly forty years ago. Those reforms were designed to address concerns regarding the effectiveness, transparency, and fairness of the preexisting indeterminant sentencing system. Today, criticisms are mounting against the very reforms that were once held out to save the sentencing process. The more determinant system is being accused of being biased against minorities, overly harsh, and costly.

This Article explores how the criminal justice system might look to technology and build on the practical experience from the indeterminant and determinant systems. Tools such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help …

“Opening The Door” To Presidential Press Conferences: A Framework For The Right Of Press Access, Alexandria R. Taylor

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Since President Donald Trump took office in 2017, there has been tension between the White House and the press. While this tension has been present in prior presidencies, its current manifestation raises important First Amendment issues. This Note discusses the limitations of the President to restrict the press’s right of First Amendment access to presidential press conferences. After delving into the Supreme Court’s development and recognition of the press’s right of access and how the lower courts have interpreted this right, this Note proposes a framework to analyze the press’s right of access and addresses the question of when and …

Article Iii Adultification Of Kids: History, Mystery, And Troubling Implications Of Federal Youth Transfers, Mae C. Quinn, Grace R. Mclaughlin

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

There is no federal juvenile court system in the United States. Rather, teens can face charges in Article III courts and can be transferred to be tried and sentenced as adults in these venues. This Article is the first of two articles in the Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice seeking to shed light on the largely invisible processes and populations involved in federal youth prosecution. This Article focuses on the federal transfer and prosecution of American youth as adults. It considers constitutional and statutory law relating to these federal transfers and then considers why current …

Covid-19 And The Conundrum Of Mask Requirements, Robert Gatter, Seema Mohapatra

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

As states begin to loosen their COVID-19 restrictions, public debate is underway about what public health measures are appropriate. Many states have some form of mask-wearing orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection. Public health guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization has conflicted. From a public health point of view, it is not clear what the right answer is. In the absence of directives, individuals are also making their own choices about mask use. At a time when public health measures, like shelter-in-place orders and social distancing, are being used to …

Youth Suffrage: In Support Of The Second Wave, Mae C. Quinn, Caridad Dominguez, Chelsey Omega, Abrafi Osei-Kofi, Carlye Owens

Akron Law Review

The 19th Amendment is talked about as central to our nation’s suffrage story, with many situating women's suffrage work within feminist theory "wave" discourse. However, with this telling, scholars and others too frequently overlook young voters and efforts relating to their election law rights. This article seeks to remedy this oversight and complicate the voting rights canon, in addition to supporting efforts of today’s youth voting rights advocates. It does so by turning our attention to youth suffrage movements, which we argue also can be examined by way of a framework of "waves." The first to offer such an historical …

Felony Disenfranchisement And The Nineteenth Amendment, Michael Gentithes

Akron Law Review

The Nineteenth Amendment and the history of the women’s suffrage movement can offer a compelling argument against felony disenfranchisement laws. These laws leave approximately six million citizens unable to vote, often for crimes wholly unrelated to the political process. They also increasingly threaten gains in female enfranchisement.

Today’s arguments in support of felony disenfranchisement laws bear striking similarities to the arguments of anti-suffragists more than a century earlier. Both suggest that a traditionally subordinated class of citizens is inherently incapable of bearing the responsibility that the right to vote entails, and that their votes are somehow less worthy than others. …

Suffragist Prisoners And The Importance Of Protecting Prisoner Protests, Nicole B. Godfrey

Akron Law Review

This paper examines the role that public exposure to the conditions experienced by suffragist prisoners played in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Using the experience of the suffragists as an example of how prisoner protest impacted democratic debate, the paper argues that robust protection of prisoners’ First Amendment rights is fundamental to the nation’s democratic values and political discourse and debate.

The paper begins with an historical overview of the arrests, convictions, and incarceration of the Silent Sentinels, women who began picketing outside the White House in 1917. Over the course of several months, local officials in the District …

Out With The New, In With The Old: Re-Implementing Traditional Forms Of Justice In Indian Country, Nicholas R. Sanchez

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Conversations From Invisible Neighbors: Fighting The Stigma Of Homelessness In Chicago, Depaul Panel

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Cedaw Disapproves: The United States’ Treatment Of Transgender Women In Prisons, Victoria Harrison

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Restraints In Massachusetts Public Schools, Elyce Hall

Master’s Theses and Projects

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the moral and legal issues around physically restraining students in Massachusetts public schools. As Massachusetts law is written, the use of restraints on a student should be the last possible resort. However, this thesis used data on restraint use from the Massachusetts Department of Education and a survey of school administrators to gain a better understanding of the 38,994 student restraints that were used in 2016-2017 school year. Findings of this study include that Hispanic and African-American students were more likely to attend schools that used restraints than those that did …

Reimagining Reentry: A Vision For Transformative Justice Beyond The Carceral State, Kemiya Nutter

Ethnic Studies Senior Capstone Papers

Throughout the past decade, mass incarceration has emerged as a buzzword within academic scholarship and public policy discourse that seeks to examine the unparalleled expansion of the contemporary carceral state. With 2.2 million Americans imprisoned and over 7 million under various forms of penal control, the United States maintains the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The unprecedented inflation in the nation’s incarceration rate is a direct manifestation of the 1970’s War on Drugs, which enabled the legislative transformations that permeate modern sentencing policy and procedure. Institutions of policing, surveillance, and incarceration are constitutive features of the carceral system’s …

Balancing Religious Liberties And Antidiscrimination Interests In The Public Employment Context: The Impact Of Masterpiece Cakeshop And American Legion, Brenda Bauges

University of Richmond Law Review

Finally, this Article concludes by analyzing different potential methods for trying to balance religious liberty claims with antidiscrimination concerns, and thus Establishment Clause concerns, in public employment. This Article argues for a combination of relevant tests that balances the magnitude and likelihood of third party harm, substantiality of burden to religious liberty, and availability or prevalence of secular accommodations. This test provides room for factual inquiry and context-specific value judgments, while still allowing a workable framework, the results of which are sufficiently predictable that employers and employees are not left to wonder about the boundaries by which their relationship should …

Looking Beyond Batson: A Different Method Of Combating Bias Against Queer Jurors, Anna L. Tayman

William & Mary Law Review

On November 27, 1978, Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California’s history, was murdered. He was shot five times, twice in the head. His murderer, Dan White, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and served only five years in prison.

The Dan White trial is the most famous example of queer juror exclusion in American history. While White’s defense attorney, Douglas Schmidt, could not directly ask the jurors about their sexual orientation, he had another strategy: find the gays and allies and keep them out, and find the Catholics and keep them in. Schmidt struck a woman who …

Access To Justice And Dispute Resolution Across Cultures, Sukhsimranjit Singh

Fordham Law Review

There is a saying in the United States: the justice one receives is the justice one can afford. All too often, this saying proves true for both lower- and middle-class individuals. For the greatly impoverished, the access to justice crisis is twofold: part of the problem is knowing when to seek legal help and another is ensuring adequate delivery of legal assistance on request. Middle- class individuals face a different challenge, as they surpass the income threshold for free civil public legal aid but cannot afford the rising costs of conventional litigation. The problem persists across different cultures. This Article …

To “Otherwise Make Unavailable”: Tenant Screening Companies’ Liability Under The Fair Housing Act’S Disparate Impact Theory, Shivangi Bhatia

Fordham Law Review

Tenant screening companies present information to housing providers on prospective tenants’ criminal and eviction histories in the form of background screening reports. These screening reports disproportionately impact racial and gender minorities. Two opposing views exist on whether courts should interpret the Fair Housing Act to cover the discriminatory practices and policies of tenant screening companies. Some believe that background screening reports are a vital part of the housing industry, while others criticize them for their inaccurate, misleading, and discriminatory nature. This Note proposes that, moving forward, courts should interpret § 3604(a) and § 3604(b) of the Fair Housing Act to …

Equality's Understudies, Aziz Z. Huq

Michigan Law Review

Review of Robert L. Tsai's Practical Equality: Forging Justice in a Divided Nation.