Digital Commons Network^™

Proving The Future In Criminal Cases, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Expert opinion about dangerousness—the risk of reoffending—is commonly introduced at sentencing, criminal commitment proceedings, and some types of pretrial detention hearings. This Essay argues that the rules governing the admissibility of scientific evidence should apply to this testimony and that, on that assumption, such evidence must be (1) “material” (logically relevant, empirically generalizable, and epistemologically germane), (2) “probative” (a measure of accuracy, which is more stringent when the evidence is from an expert), (3) helpful to the factfinder (through promoting “incremental validity”), and (4) presented in a non-prejudicial manner (i.e., in a way that minimizes the possibility it will be …

Reporting Sexual Violence: The Victim's Right To Protection And Justice, Nada Shehata

Theses and Dissertations

Incidents of sexual violence are still under-reported to legal institutions in Egypt despite the recent legal amendments. The reasons for under-reporting SV incidents to police stations appear to be the same that justifies victim’s non-reporting or resorting to various social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram as “Daftr Hekayat” and “AssaultPolice” which provided a safe space for them to reveal the assault incidents and warn potential victims from the shamed assailants. As successful as these accounts are, they have their drawbacks. It is not accessible to economically and educationally disadvantaged victims, and lately, the perpetrators started to file defamation lawsuits …

Two Decades Later, Steven L. Chanenson, Douglas A. Berman

Faculty Publications

A generation after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in United States v. Booker changed federal sentencing laws and practices, it is remarkable how much and how little has changed. This brief introduction provides an overview to this issue of the Federal Sentencing Reporter, with an array of authors providing perspectives on Booker after two eventful decades.

Quantifying Educational Impacts Under The Nypd's Stop-And-Frisk Era, Matthew T. Stanton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examines the educational and economic impacts of the New York Police Department's "Stop, Question, and Frisk" (SQF) program, implemented predominantly under "Operation Impact" from 2003 to 2022. Using data from the NYPD and the American Community Survey, the study explores correlations between high rates of stop-and-frisk encounters and reduced educational attainment among targeted demographics, primarily Black and Hispanic young men. It contextualizes the socioeconomic consequences of SQF policies, including their effect on lifetime earnings and community trust. The project highlights the limitations of data correlation, advocates for further longitudinal and qualitative studies, and suggests frameworks for mitigating inequities …

The Nyc Office Of Administrative Trials And Hearings: Forty-Five Years Of Delivering Impartial Adjudications And Providing Access To Justice, Asim Rehman

Cardozo Law Review

It was an honor to deliver the 2024 Uri and Caroline Bauer Memorial Lecture at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and to follow in the footsteps of the many legal luminaries who have delivered this lecture before. Given their chosen professions, it may be fair to assume that Uri Bauer was a believer in the rule of law and Caroline Bauer was a believer in government. Accordingly, I would like to talk about those two topics as they relate to the work of the New York City Office of Administrative Trials & Hearings (OATH). First, after a general …

My Wings Are Not Broken: Black Males, Carcerality, And Education, Crystal M. Welch-Scott

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Historically, educational spaces have been sites of racialized inequality for Black youth, creating disparate educational outcomes. The disproportionate divide between young Black and White men continues throughout the life of their academic journey, and this research seeks to examine its impact on dropping out of school. The experience of Black young men being “othered” – compared to their White counterparts – coupled with the myriad ways Black youth must navigate normalcy creates additional challenges they must carry. This dissertation employs critical race theory and ecological systems theory as theoretical frameworks. It utilizes hierarchical regression modeling of the High School Longitudinal …

Police Sexual Violence As Psychological Detention: Making Full Use Of Charter Rights, Sandrine Ampleman-Tremblay

Dalhousie Law Journal

This paper argues that individual responsibility has been overemphasized in cases of sexual violence by police. The fact that police officers are part of a state system calls for an examination of the role of the state in contributing to the risks of sexual violence by police. The paper thus contends that Canadian law requires methods to address state blame in such cases. It analyses psychological detention under section 9 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a means to draw a connection between police powers, sexual violence, and state blame. The suggested section 9 interpretation builds on …

The Indispensability Of Human Paralegals In The Era Of Advancing Ai, Nicole L. Perry

The Guardianship Journal

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is causing ripples in all areas of life. The legal field is not immune, and concerns about AI replacing legal professionals abound. This manuscript explores the role of paralegals in the legal field from the inception of legal assistants to today and beyond. It examines research on the importance of the human paralegals’ expertise in navigating complex legal processes efficiently and accurately while providing emotional support for clients. This manuscript describes how human paralegals will remain indispensable thanks to their technological capabilities and emotional intelligence. Emphasizing the American Bar Association’s (ABA) mandate on …

The Clock Is Ticking: Legal Barriers In § 1983 Execution Protocol Challenges, Christian Witte

Missouri Law Review

At 7:53 p.m. on January 25, 2024, the curtains opened, revealing Kenneth Smith strapped down in the execution room, covered by a white sheet. A respirator mask covered his face, serving as the conduit for nitrogen gas that Smith would soon inhale. The prison warden entered the execution chamber, read Smith’s death warrant, and allowed Smith to share his final words: “Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards. I’m leaving with love, peace[,] and light . . . . Love all of you.” Alabama’s Attorney General permitted the warden to continue, signaling no court orders were staying the …

Time And Retribution, Meghan J. Ryan

Missouri Law Review

Time is missing from discussions on the theory of retribution. A colossal body of scholarship has been devoted to exploring the theory of retribution, or “just deserts,” but much less has attempted to translate this theory into practice, explaining how to determine an actual offender’s desert in real life. The limited scholarship on this topic touches on who might best assess an offender’s desert. For example, should a judge, a juror, or the public itself be making these desert decisions? But there is also a temporal aspect to this decision-making that has thus far largely eluded exploration: When should the …

The Right To Truth In Transitional Justice, Nouran Hassan

Theses and Dissertations

Transitional justice is sought by nations suffering from legacies of human rights violations. The field of transitional justice stands on four main pillars: truth seeking, criminal justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence. It promotes utilizing legal and non-legal mechanisms to achieve a transition to democracy and the mechanisms employed must relate to, at least, one of its pillars. Truth is considered substantial for transitions to happen. Revealing the truth is believed to be essential for reconciliation and promoting peace. However, in various experiences the truth did not lead to reconciliation and was widely distorted. The approach of the transitional justice …

Voices For Justice: Firsthand Accounts Of Innocent People Fighting For Access In New York’S Post-Conviction Process, Perlmutter Center For Legal Justice At Cardozo Law

Perlmutter Center Reports

In 2018, the New York State Court of Appeals’ decision in People v. Natascha Tiger created an insurmountable obstacle for wrongfully convicted individuals pursuing innocence claims. The ruling held that a guilty plea precluded persons accused of crime from challenging their conviction in the absence of newly discovered, exculpatory DNA evidence. This is a troubling fact given 97% of felony convictions and 99% of misdemeanor convictions in New York State are resolved by guilty plea. The National Registry of Exonerations documented that 24% of all exonerated people across the United States pled guilty to crimes they did not commit. According …

The Need For The Enactment Of Prize Law Legislation In Indonesia, Pornomo Rovan Astri Yoga

Indonesian Journal of International Law

Indonesia is a peace-loving nation. However, maintaining independence is more precious than maintaining peace. Therefore, Indonesia will always be ready to maintain its independence at any cost, including war. Indonesia claims itself as a maritime nation. All of those facts disregard the point that Indonesia lacks legislation regarding the law of naval warfare. This is particularly true in the case of the prize law. There are no single laws, statutes, or even procedures that govern the prize law in times of armed conflict at sea. The practice of the prize law has also been lacking since Indonesia’s independence in 1945. …

Ndls Communicator: Week Of 01.27.25, Notre Dame Law School

NDLS Communicator

The Latest News

• Notre Dame Law School Global Human Rights Clinic presents human rights pedagogy at Midwest Clinical Conference
• ND Law Global Human Rights Clinic addresses ongoing human rights violations in Nicaragua

Faculty News and Briefs

• Last week, Dean Marcus Cole spoke at the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law as part of the Dean's Speaker Series, delivering a talk on "Faith and Martin Luther King, Jr."
• John Meiser was quoted by OSV News and Catholic Review about the Supreme Court's decision to hear the St. Isidore case.
• Nicole Garnett co-authored a Manhattan Institute report that highlights how many publicly funded …

Determinants Of Socially Responsible Ai Governance, Daryl Lim

Duke Law & Technology Review

The signing of the first international AI treaty by the United States, European Union, and other nations marks a pivotal step in establishing a global framework for AI governance, ensuring that AI systems respect human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. This article advances the concepts of justice, equity, and the rule of law as yardsticks of socially responsible AI—from development through deployment—to ensure that AI technologies do not exacerbate existing inequalities but actively promote fairness and inclusivity. Part I explores AI’s potential to improve access to justice for marginalized communities and small and medium-sized law firms while scrutinizing …

Children's Rights Debates, Revisited, Martha Minow

Florida Law Review

A Dunwody distinguished lecture in law that reflects on children's rights.

A Half Century Of Criminalizing Serious Mental Illness: Observations And Considerations, Arthur J. Lurigio

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

This article describes the difficulties of working with people with serious mental illnesses (PSMIs) at every stage of the criminal justice process—from arrest to post- incarceration release from prison. The needs of PSMI for mental health and social services are complex and require different case management plans and strategies at various points in the process. Severe mental illnesses (SMIs), such as schizophrenia, major depression, and bipolar disorder, stem from abnormalities in the brain structure and neuroprocessing that cause significant distress and dysfunction. People with serious mental illnesses typically suffer from a variety of other related problems (e.g., addiction) that can …

Mental Health Courts: Is There Any Hope For Mental Illness In An Outdated Criminal Justice System?, Brock Imel

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

Mental health awareness is an ever-growing field of study that has garnered more attention in America after the COVID-19 pandemic. As far back as colonial America, mental illness was considered taboo in society and often reprimanded with punishable crimes. This article seeks to divulge into the history of mental health and its relation to the law, as well as how the creation of mental health courts has led to a decrease in recidivism.

This article aims to provide the reader with an understanding of the evolving field of mental health courts and provide state legislatures foundational knowledge for creating and …

Wayne Ford Racial Impact Statement Act And The Necessity Of Minority Impact Statements, Seonwoo Kim

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice (ERSJ) Blog

In 1968, Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act (“ADAA”) in response to the drug overdose of Len Bias, a basketball star at the University of Maryland.  The Act imposed harsh sentences for crack cocaine offenses; a person charged with possession of crack cocaine faced the same mandatory minimum prison sentence as someone charged with possession of one hundred times more powered cocaine.  For example, a person charged with carrying five grams of crack cocaine would receive the same sentence as someone carrying five hundred grams of powdered cocaine. Historically, the enforcement of drug-related crimes disproportionately targeted Black Americans, and this …

How Safe Is Safe Enough? Analyzing The Incentive Structure Of The Products Liability Scheme On Commercial Aviation Manufacturers, Ethan Schwab

University of Miami Law Review

How do aviation manufacturers work to prevent tragedy? After tragedy strikes, how does the legal system’s imposition of a remedy change the operations and decision-making of these manufacturers, if at all? This Note explores whether the current products liability framework effectively achieves the goals of tort law—including whether it deters unsafe innovation in the high-risk commercial aviation manufacturing industry. The Note explores these topics through the lens of the recent Boeing 737 Max disasters of 2018 and 2019, using such disasters to exemplify the skewed incentive structure that manufacturers face in the modern products liability tort system. This Note argues …

Congressional Tribal Trust Responsibility And The Opioid Mdl: A Call To Finish The Work The Judiciary Was Forced To Undertake, Curtis E. Osceola Esq.

University of Miami Law Review

Congressional inaction has forced Native American Tribes to utilize the judiciary as a last resort to obtain relief from the crippling effects of the opioid epidemic. Tribes have received inadequate funding from settlements to abate the widespread use of prescription opiates on and around their lands of concern. Hundreds of mass tort lawyers have been navigating the In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation (MDL 2804)—one of the largest and most valuable litigation pools in the history of the Republic—in an effort to provide relief for cities and counties, individuals, consumers, hospitals, third-party payors, and federally recognized Tribes. Based on …

Two Piecemeal Treatments For A System Addicted To Punishment, Myles Crandall

University of Miami Law Review

For decades, the American criminal legal system has failed to curtail illicit drug use and overdose deaths through punitive and selective enforcement. The federal government has prosecuted people and succeeded in securing many long prison sentences based on drug crimes. In the past two years, two amendments by the United States Sentencing Commission offered a measured reprieve through sentence reductions. Amendment 821 offered the possibility for sentence reductions based on recalculating the guidelines associated with certain prior offenses. Amendment 814 updated policy statements for assessing “extraordinary and compelling reasons” for a sentence reduction. These changes are not revolutionary; however, the …

Evaluating Efficiency In Laboratory Methods For Testing Sexual Assault Kits, Renee Mercer

D.U.Quark

Sexual assault kits (SAKs) are a collection of physical evidence from a sexual assault victim. SAK testing provides victims justice and helps prevent repeated crime through the addition of perpetrator DNA into criminal databases. With large numbers of SAKs being collected yearly, the limitations of common laboratory procedures and resources create a backlog of SAKs. For that reason, there is a need for more efficient testing. This review evaluates three different methods of testing throughout this process. Reverse Transcription Recombinase Polymerase Amplification and Proximity Ligation Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction confirms body fluid identification. The Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assay reaction amplifies …

Perttu V. Richards: Brief Of Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent, Margo Schlanger

Appellate Briefs

Amici are professors of law who have studied, taught, and written about prisoner litigation and about rights to jury trials. They submit this brief to share their views, based on that experience, on the proper interpretation of the Prison Litigation Reform Act) in light of the important jury trial rights at stake and the practical realities of prisoner litigation.

Perttu V. Richards: Brief Of Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent, Margo Schlanger

Appellate Briefs

Amici are professors of law who have studied, taught, and written about prisoner litigation and about rights to jury trials. They submit this brief to share their views, based on that experience, on the proper interpretation of the Prison Litigation Reform Act) in light of the important jury trial rights at stake and the practical realities of prisoner litigation.

Brief Of Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent, Betsy Ginsberg

Amicus Briefs

Amici are professors of law who have studied, taught, and written about prisoner litigation and about rights to jury trials. They submit this brief to share their views, based on that experience, on the proper interpretation of the Prison Litigation Reform Act) in light of the important jury trial rights at stake and the practical realities of prisoner litigation.

Brief Of Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent, Ira P. Robbins

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT: "The right to trial by jury is 'of such importance and occupies so firm a place in our history and jurisprudence that any seeming curtailment of the right' has always been and 'should be scrutinized with the utmost care." SEC v. Jarkesy, 144 S. Ct. 2117, 2128 (2024) (quoting Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 U.S. 474, 486 (1935)). The Seventh Amendment reflects and enshrines that tradition, providing that in "[s]uits at common law ... the right of trial by jury shall be preserved." U.S. Const. amend. VII (quoting Dimick; see also City of …

Infiltrating The Black Box: Expanding The No-Impeachment Rule To Protect Defendants From Pervasive Juror Bias, Jordan Whitfield

Arkansas Law Review

In the United States, a criminal defendant is entitled to “a fair trial but not a perfect one, for there are no perfect trials.” However, defendants are also guaranteed the right to an impartial jury. While perfection within a jury is “an untenable goal,” a system that allows for juror bias during deliberations to go undetected threatens a defendant’s most crucial constitutional rights. Thus, when juror bias threatens to interfere with a defendant’s rights to a fair trial and impartial jury, there is a prevalent need for the judicial system to step in and mitigate the effects of juror bias. …

Decriminalizing Disease: A Health Justice Approach To Infectious Diseases And Criminal Law, Sean E. Bland

Arkansas Law Review

Infectious diseases, also called communicable diseases, are largely a public health issue and should not be criminalized. This Article seeks to re-frame the discussion around the legal framework for infectious diseases in a way that moves beyond a punishment mindset and toward a health justice mindset. The focus in this Article is on health justice rather than traditional understandings of public health, defined as the science and practice of improving the health of people and their communities. The Article makes three novel contributions. First, it applies a health justice framework to the critique of infectious disease criminalization. Second, the Article …

The Virginia General Assembly Needs To Spe(Llc) It Out: What Are The Vllca’S Fiduciary Duties And The Standards That Parties Must Abide By?, Carter B. Leverette

Liberty University Law Review

The limited liability company (LLC) has quickly become the most popular business entity in the United States thanks to its favorable pass-through tax treatment, limited liability, and customizability. A catalyst to this success is the parties’ ability to customize their business’s leadership structure and members’ relations through an operating agreement. In the world of business law, the fiduciary relationship and the duties that accompany it—loyalty, care, and good faith—are essential due to the need in a complex society for parties to bargain for and share or acquire different knowledge, skills, or expertise to accomplish particular goals. The flexibility of the …