Digital Commons Network^™

The “Innocence Penalty”: Is It More Pronounced For Juveniles?, Nilam A. Sanghvi, Elizabeth A. Delosa

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Despite the presumption of innocence, we know that individuals accused of crimes are punished for maintaining their innocence in ways both tangible and intangible as they make their way through our criminal justice system. For example, even if instructed not to, jurors may infer guilt from a defendant’s failure to testify; defendants who exercise their right to go to trial receive lengthier sentences if convicted than those who plead guilty; and, once convicted, defendants who maintain their innocence are often denied opportunities for parole or clemency. This article explores whether these “innocence penalties” are even greater for children who are …

Young, Black, And Wrongfully Charged: A Cumulative Disadvantage Framework, Emily Haney-Caron, Erika Fountain

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The term wrongful conviction typically refers to the conviction or adjudication of individuals who are factually innocent. Decades of research has rightfully focused on uncovering contributing factors of convictions of factually innocent people to inform policy and practice. However, in this paper we expand our conceptualization of wrongful conviction. Specifically, we propose a redefinition that includes other miscarriages of justice: A wrongful conviction is a conviction or adjudication for someone who never should have been involved in the juvenile or criminal legal system in the first place. Although there are various miscarriages of justice that might appropriately be categorized under …

Technological Tethereds: Potential Impact Of Untrustworthy Artificial Intelligence In Criminal Justice Risk Assessment Instruments, Sonia M. Gipson Rankin

Washington and Lee Law Review

Issues of racial inequality and violence are front and center today, as are issues surrounding artificial intelligence (“AI”). This Article, written by a law professor who is also a computer scientist, takes a deep dive into understanding how and why hacked and rogue AI creates unlawful and unfair outcomes, particularly for persons of color.

Black Americans are disproportionally featured in criminal justice, and their stories are obfuscated. The seemingly endless back-to-back murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and heartbreakingly countless others have finally shaken the United States from its slumbering journey towards intentional criminal justice reform. Myths about …

The Absence Or Misuse Of Statistics In Forensic Science As A Contributor To Wrongful Convictions: From Pattern Matching To Medical Opinions About Child Abuse, Keith A. Findley

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The new scrutiny that has been applied to the forensic sciences since the emergence of DNA profiling as the gold standard three decades ago has identified numerous concerns about the absence of a solid scientific footing for most disciplines. This article examines one of the lesser-considered problems that afflicts virtually all of the pattern-matching (or “individualization”) disciplines (largely apart from DNA), and even undermines the validity of other forensic disciplines like forensic pathology and medical determinations about child abuse, particularly Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abusive Head Trauma (SBS/AHT). That problem is the absence or misuse of statistics. This article begins by applying …

Pretrial Custody And Miranda, Kit Kinports

Washington and Lee Law Review

In two recent opinions, Maryland v. Shatzer and Howes v. Fields, the Supreme Court concluded that inmates serving prison sentences were not in custody for purposes of Miranda—in Shatzer’s case while he was living among the general prison population and in Fields’s case while he was undergoing police interrogation. The question addressed in this Article is one that has divided the lower courts in the wake of those two decisions: the impact of the Court’s rulings on the hundreds of thousands of pretrial detainees in this country, many of whom are poor, Black, and Brown. This Article maintains that …

Prostitutes And Policing - Analysis Of Tactics Used To Reduce The Demand For Sex, Morgan Helfman

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note critically examines the tactics used to reduce demand for commercial sex, focusing on the Nordic Model and its implementation in the U.S. It argues that while these tactics aim to deter buyers through shaming and criminalization, they raise ethical, legal, and practical concerns, particularly regarding police misconduct and the impact on marginalized communities. The analysis advocates for a shift toward education and rehabilitation over punitive measures to address the root causes of prostitution.

Preventive Justice: How Algorithms Parole Boards, And Limiting Retributivism Could End Mass Incarceration, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

A number of states use statistically derived algorithms to provide estimates of the risk of reoffending. In theory, these risk assessment instruments could bring significant benefits. Fewer people of all ethnicities would be put in jail prior to trial and in prison after conviction, the duration of sentences would be reduced for low-risk offenders, and treatment resources would be more efficiently allocated. As a result, the capital outlays for prisons and jails would be substantially reduced. The public would continue to be protected from the most dangerous individuals, while lower-risk individuals would be less subject to the criminogenic effects of …

Changing The Way We See Modern Policing: Abolition Or Reform, Kathryn Miller, Marbré Stahly-Butts, Mecole Jordan-Mcbride, Kate Levine, Benjamin Tucker, Kumar Rao

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The symposium examines the historical and systemic roots of mass incarceration in the United States, tracing its origins to the 13th Amendment, Black Codes, convict leasing, and the war on drugs. It critiques the prison industrial complex as a system of oppression rooted in racism, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy, and advocates for transformative reforms to dismantle policing and incarceration. The analysis emphasizes the need to move beyond superficial reforms and instead adopt abolitionist approaches that address the root causes of systemic violence and inequality.

Rwu Law News: The Newsletter Of Roger Williams University School Of Law 04-2021, Michael M. Bowden, Barry Bridges, Political Roundtable

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Protecting The Children Of Indian Country: A Call To Expand Tribal Court Jurisdiction And Devote More Funding To Indian Child Safety, Adam Crepelle

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that the legal framework governing Indian country, particularly the Supreme Court's decision in *Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe*, has failed to protect Indian women and children from violence, perpetuating a crisis of sexual assault, child abuse, and murder. It contends that affirming tribal sovereignty and expanding tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians are essential to addressing these issues and ensuring the safety and well-being of Indian children.

Racial Disparities Inherent In America's Fragmented Parole System, Olinda Moyd

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This global health crisis has proven to be an equal opportunity discloser, in that it has spotlighted the layers of inequities and racial disparities so engrained in America’s structural systems. Nowhere else is this more evident than in our criminal legal system, where justice is often austere for African Americans. The ghastly statistics of the number of people confined in jails and prisons do not fully capture the scope and extensive reach of those swept up in our legal system. It is estimated that about 4-5 million people are on community supervision, to include probation and parole, which far outnumber …

"Pistol Shots Ring Out In The Barroom Night": Bob Dylan's "Hurricane" As An Exam (Or Course) In Criminal Procedure, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

Bob Dylan wrote the song Hurricane to draw the public’s attention to the conviction of the boxer, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, for a crime (multiple murders) which Carter did not commit. Dylan’s song – and its performance as a part of Dylan’s fabled Rolling Thunder Tour – brought significant public attention to this case (and the miscarriage of justice it reflected), and eventually led to the granting of federal habeas corpus (a decision affirmed by the Third Circuit) and the freeing of Carter from state prison in New Jersey. The song takes the listener from the facts of the crime, through …

Obstruction Of Justice: Redesigning The Shortcut, Ellen S. Podgor

BYU Law Review

When one looks to accomplish consistency and predictability in the criminal justice system — important goals tied to achieving deterrence — the architecture of obstruction of justice remains important. It is insufficient to suggest that we have consistency in sentencing by using federal sentencing guidelines, when the charging process is undermined by its failure to provide uniformity. Achieving a consistent charging framework for federal obstruction of justice needs to be individualized, remain true to the contextual setting, and provide consideration for the specific processes of a trial, sentencing, or impeachment. But it also needs to have a structure that is …

Reformulasi Delik Makar Dalam Rancangan Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Pidana Nasional Tahun 2019 (Sebuah Telaah Leksikal Terhadap Terminologi Aanslag), Yaris Adhial Fajrin

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The use of the term Makar as a translation of the word Aanslag in Indonesias CRIMINAL code currently triggers a variety of polemic because it has a lot of meaning, resulting in an ambiguity that causes no legal certainty to be guaranteed. Indonesias CRIMINAL code is currently in its case that it does not provide define and the limitations of Macar deeds so that the multitasking is still prone to occur. Addressing such a thing, it is necessary to reformulation the draft proceeding in the Penal Code in order to ensure the future legal certainty. The limitation of the performance …

Pencabutan Kewarganegaraan Tentara Isis Yang Akan Kembali Ke Indonesia, Reza Adhitya Akbar

"Dharmasisya” Jurnal Program Magister Hukum FHUI

ISIS's troops are not only citizens of Iraq or Syria, but come from various citizens and also Islam recruited by ISIS, not excluding Indonesian citizens. Based on the above description, two formulas are defined, namely: (1) What is the legal status of a citizen who is a soldier of ISIS; And (2) Is the Indonesian government obliged to protect its citizens who consciously become ISIS troops. The type of research used is normative legal research. The result of this research is the status of Indonesian Citizen who becomes ISIS soldier can not be revoked his citizenship because it does not …

Peran Perbankan Dalam Pencegahan Dan Pemberantasan Tindak Pidana Narkotika, Muhammad Zulamanah Isnaem

"Dharmasisya” Jurnal Program Magister Hukum FHUI

Narcotics crimes have become a tremendous problem for now. Narcotics crime continues to grow in every country, including Indonesia. With the globalization of banking, through the banking system, funds from the proceeds of narcotics crime, moving or moving beyond the state jurisdiction using bank secrecy issued by the banks. The role of Banks in the Prevention and Eradication of Narcotics Crimes must carry out the principle of customer due diligence. This is very useful to find out the latest position for users of banking services. There fore the role of the implementation of CDD is very broad, both in terms …

Criminal Justice In Juvenile Delinquency, Rana Aloutor

UAEU Law Journal

Childhood is a very important period in human life; therefore certain principles exist to control its rights. Because of its status and importance, the Jordanian legislator, like the French one, treated it with special attention and care.

The existence of specific sustem regime in juvenile delinquency has three dimensions: The content, the procedural and the institutional. First, in the content, it doesn't seem adequate to apply at juvenile delinquency the same penalties as adults, measures of protection and education seem more adequate.

Then, in the procedural, the specifity of juvenile delinquency demands special courts, specialized in the issues related to …

Discretion And Disparity In Federal Detention, Stephanie Holmes Didwania

Northwestern University Law Review

The uniquely American phenomenon of mass incarceration plagues the pretrial space. People awaiting trial make up roughly 20% of those held in criminal custody in the United States. Largely overlooked by bail-reform advocates, pretrial detention in the federal criminal system presents a puzzle. The federal system detains defendants at a much higher rate than the states—more than 60% of U.S. citizen-defendants were detained pending trial by federal courts last year. But federal defendants virtually never fail to appear in court, and they are rarely arrested for new crimes while on pretrial release. And unlike state court systems, cash bail is …

Relieved Of All Punishment By Human Hands: The Status Of International Criminal Convictions, Dorothy M. Canevari

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Understanding Disrespectful Behavior Through A Gendered Lens: Race And Power In A Women’S Prison, Timbre Wulf, Rebecca Trammell

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Seventy-four incarcerated women in a Midwestern prison were interviewed to explore their experience with disrespect between inmates and staff in a prison setting. Nonwhite women experienced disrespect and conflict differently than their white peers. While the women generally described disrespect as staff members expressing their power inappropriately, non-white women were quick to describe disrespect as tied to racist behaviors. Further, African-American women in our study were more likely to believe that few people, inmates or employees, show respect to others on a regular basis in prison. White women tend to be more positive in their evaluations of interactions with staff …

The Politics Of Being An "Expert": A Critical Realist Auto-Ethnography Of Drug Policy Advisory Panels In The Uk, Alex Stevens

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"The work of ‘experts’ with policy advisory panels plays an important part in the making of illicit drug and other policies. This article explores what is involved in this work. It uses critical realist auto-ethnography of the author’s experience over five years of working with the UK’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee. It analyses: how some people become recognised as a ‘suitable’ expert through relational networks of esteem, while others are excluded; how bureaucratic processes and scientific modes of discourse select some types of information rather than others …

The Post-Conviction Claim That Unites Death Row, Emily Levy

Arkansas Law Review

“. . . [D]eath-penalty cases are different from other criminal cases, due to the obvious finality of the punishment.” Thirty-one executions have taken place in Arkansas since 1990. In February of 2017, Arkansas, uniquely, sought to execute eight inmates in eleven days—the so-called “Arkansas Eight.” All of those death row inmates shared a common postconviction claim: Strickland. Prior to Strickland v. Washington, no Supreme Court jurisprudence made clear what constituted objectively sufficient defense representation pursuant to the Sixth Amendment. But that changed in 1984 when Strickland made clear that the Sixth Amendment included the right of effective assistance of counsel.

Abolition As The Solution: Redress For Victims Of Excessive Police Force, Alexis Hoag

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Opioid Doctors: Is Losing Your License A Sufficient Penalty For Dealing Drugs?, Adam M. Gershowitz

Faculty Publications

Imagine that a medical board revokes a doctor's license both because he has been peddling thousands of pills of opioids and also because he was caught with a few grams of cocaine. The doctor is a family physician, not a pain management specialist. Yet, during a one-year period he wrote more than 4,000 prescriptions for opioids--roughly eighteen scripts per day. Patients came from multiple states and from hundreds of miles away to get oxycodone prescriptions. And the doctor prescribed large quantities of opioids--up to 240 pills per month--to patients with no record of previously needing narcotic painkillers. Both federal and …

Violent Videos: Criminal Defense In A Digital Age, Amy Kimpel

Georgia State University Law Review

Digital video evidence has exploded into criminal practice with far-reaching consequences for criminal defendants, their attorneys, and the criminal legal system as a whole. Defense attorneys now receive police body-worn camera footage, surveillance video footage, and cell phone video footage in discovery in even the most routine criminal cases. This Article explores the impact on defense attorneys of reviewing this avalanche of digital evidence. The author posits that the outsized role of digital evidence in criminal cases is taking a toll on defense attorneys in general—and public defenders in particular—resulting in increased burnout and secondary trauma.

This Article includes results …

My Cash Is My Bond: Recognizing Rights To Cash Bail Forfeiture Exoneration In Washington, Olivia Hagel

Washington Law Review

When criminal defendants fail to appear for a court date after they are released on a bail bond or cash bail, Washington courts will likely forfeit their bail. And when the defendant reappears—whether a day, a month, or a year later—that same court might return, or “exonerate,” the bail bond or cash bail.

But Washington does not treat cash bail and bail bonds similarly in the context of forfeiture exoneration. Commercial bail bond agents enjoy robust statutory and judicial avenues for the return of their forfeited bail bonds. A little over one-hundred years ago, the Supreme Court of Washington treated …

Prostitution Decriminalization Campaigns In The United States: Libertarianism Or A "Decent Society", Jody Raphael

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Recently, legislative campaigns to totally decriminalize the sex trade industry in a handful of U.S. states and the District of Columbia failed, but a look at campaign supporters and their arguments demonstrates that libertarian principles are mainly guiding their efforts. This article explores how libertarianism principles, when applied to the sex trade, could bring about severe and lasting harm to others, including sellers of sex, potential victims of sex trafficking to meet the new demand, and the general community. Philosophic principles of liberty have been incorporated by courts, which find that liberty is never absolute and requires a balancing test …

The Beginning Of The End: Abolishing Capital Punishment In Virginia, Alexandra L. Klein

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

When thinking about the history of capital punishment in the United States, I suspect that the average person is likely to identify Texas as the state that has played the most significant role in the death penalty. The state of Texas has killed more than five hundred people in executions since the Supreme Court approved of states’ modified capital punishment schemes in 1976. By contrast, Virginia has executed 113 people since 1976.

But Virginia has played a significant role in the history of capital punishment. After all, the first recorded execution in Colonial America took place in 1608 at Jamestown, …

Formation And Development Of The Prosecutor's Supervision Over The Compliance Of Laws In Investigation Of Crimes In The Sphere Of Information Technologies, Atobek Ravshanovich Davronov, Atobek Davronov

ProAcademy

The rapid growth of information technologies naturally determines the interest of researchers in them from various fields of science. Law, including criminal law, is no exception. Currently: a separate branch of law is being formed - information law. Despite this, until now in science unified approaches to the analysis of information and legal phenomena have not been developed. The article analyzes the formation and development of prosecutorial supervision over the execution of laws in the investigation of crimes in the field of information technology, and also studied the process of the emergence of information technology as a type of crime …

System Of Electronic Surveillance In The French And Comparative Law French And Comparative Law, Dr Ramy Metwally El-Kady

UAEU Law Journal

The Topic of Electronic Surveillance is one of the modern topics in the field of criminal justice, accounting to the using of modern technologies in the field of implementation of criminal penalties by replacing short-term imprisonment penalties with home detention or restricting the freedom of the person at his home through the use of techniques of electronic surveillance.

This system has proved a success in many developed countries during the treatment of the problem of the negatives arising from the implementation of sanctions of deprivation of liberty in prisons, that some people see it as the corrupt environment that does …