Digital Commons Network^™

Flawed Framework, Fatal Discretion: Unraveling Implicit Bias In Capital Punishment Decisions, Justin D. Levinson, Rachel G. Schaefer

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tribute To Professor Kevin C. Mcmunigal, Peter A. Joy

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

How South Dakota Can Criminalize Child Sexual Grooming, Jackson Marnette

South Dakota Law Review

In 2023, the South Dakota Legislature proposed and rejected Senate Bill 94, which would have criminalized child sexual grooming. South Dakota, like most states, lacks a law that effectively deters potential child sexual abusers from initiating the child sexual abuse process. Other states’ grooming laws have been challenged on constitutional grounds with differing results. This article considers the benefits of grooming laws, the pros and cons associated with other states’ passed legislation, and any issues with Senate Bill 94’s language. The article concludes with a legislative proposal based on child sexual grooming academic theory.

The Carceral State(S), Esther K. Hong

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

The carceral state is everywhere. Legal and social science scholars are increasingly using the carceral state concept to criticize various aspects, or even the entirety, of the United States. But despite how popular and common this term has become in writings about mass incarceration, criminal processes and punishments, and other forms of social control, the definition, conceptualization, and theorization of the carceral state are far from settled. This Article analyzes and contributes to this discussion by highlighting the diversity and fluidity of ideas surrounding the carceral state.

Although the term often appears without an express definition, the limited ones that …

The Impact Of Divorce Proceedings On Victims Of Domestic Violence, Quinn G. Di Ienno

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Divorce often signifies the end of conflict in relationships that individuals no longer wish to continue. However, the impact of divorce on victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) is a topic that remains underexplored. This research investigates the extent to which individuals navigating divorce proceedings are victims of IPV and aims to illuminate their experiences within the legal system. The study delves into various forms of abuse, including physical, emotional, and financial, while also addressing the challenges victims face in seeking assistance. Employing a mixed-methods research design, this study comprises a comprehensive literature review and an online survey targeting those …

How Does The Modern Supreme Court Treat The Idea Of Retribution In The Context Of Capital Punishment?, Paige Forsberg

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis explores the modern U.S. Supreme Court's treatment of retribution in the context of capital punishment, analyzing how justices have framed and justified the death penalty as a form of justice. Through the examination of key Supreme Court rulings and legal arguments, this study evaluates the evolving role of retribution in the Court’s decisions on death penalty cases, highlighting how judicial reasoning has shifted over time in response to legal, philosophical, and societal developments.

Retribution, long considered one of the primary justifications for capital punishment, is examined through a nuanced lens in this study. While historically viewed as a …

Like Holding Up A Mirror: How I Learned To Teach Restorative Justice, Susan Abraham

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Life Of Or Measure 110: Evolution, Implementation, And Impact, Matthew D. Albertson

Anthós

In 2020, Oregon voters approved Measure 110, a groundbreaking policy that decriminalized possession of small quantities of controlled substances and redirected cannabis tax revenues to treatment and recovery centers. This article examines the passage, implementation, and rollback of Measure 110 with HB 4002, enacted in 2024. Drawing on state audits, legislative records, and public health data to contextualize Measure 110 within broader debates on public health, criminal justice reform, and policy-making, Albertson analyzes the progressive policy’s aspirational, reform-minded goals and the practical shortcomings in its enactment. Albertson argues that while Measure 110 has faced justified criticism and partial reversal, it …

Introducing Justice And Rights To Students Of Economics, Mark D. White

Publications and Research

Most economics instruction is focused on outcomes, whether evaluated in terms of individual or collective welfare or well-being. This is consistent with economics’ roots in classical utilitarianism, and no consideration is usually given to the process by which these results obtain, which is a deontological concern of right and wrong. This can seem odd to economics students, especially in the context of trade-offs in which one party is benefited at the expense of another, or aggregate welfare is maximized while some individuals are harmed, with no consideration in either of rights, desert, or justice. This chapter argues for the importance …

Police Brutality As Democide In The United States: The Supreme Court’S Acquiescence To Police-Civilian Violence, Jillian Fantuzzi

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

"Never again" is a power phrase used by survivors, observers, scholars, and descendants of survivors when reflecting on the mass casualties of innocent civilians resulting from government methods, like Nazism, ethnic cleansing, communism, and genocide, to exterminate groups deemed different or less than. Many blame dictatorial regimes for these mass atrocities, making democracy appear as a sound solution due to its attractive system ofchecks and balances. However, where the government agents responsible for mass killings of unarmed civilians remain unchecked by the judiciary, the product is not democracy but "democide." This unchecked power serves as a method of persecution of …

Interrogating Miranda's Custody Requirement, Lauren E. Clatch

Law Faculty Publications

Interrogating officers need only issue Miranda warnings in “custodial” settings, and a significant degree of psychological coercion makes a setting custodial. This Article asks a question at the heart of Miranda caselaw: Have courts applied Miranda’s custody trigger consistent with people’s real experiences of police questioning? If not, courts are allowing, and justifying, the admission of unwarned self-incriminating statements by deeming those interrogations “noncustodial” even when there is a significant element of compulsion. To compare courts’ custody decisions to civilians’ perceptions of coercion in interrogations, I surveyed laypeople across two studies using forty interrogation scenarios from jurisdictionally diverse cases spanning …

No Knock? No Case: Prosecutorial Deterrence As A Countermeasure To No-Knock Warrants, Tamika Griffin Moses

Law Faculty Publications

The high-profile deaths of Amir Locke and Breonna Taylor ignited a national debate surrounding the legitimacy of no-knock warrants. Their deaths are part of a cycle of reaction and inaction that permeates this debate. As the impacted communities and segments of the populace respond by demanding that federal and state legislatures abolish or severely restrict the use of no-knock warrants, they are met with inaction. The legislative bodies have failed to pass laws banning the warrants and judges continue to sign them. This inaction continues to undermine the public’s trust in law enforcement and challenges the legitimacy of a democracy …

Privileging Genetic Privacy, Natalie Ram

Emory Law Journal

Right now, research is being done on the genetic material or genetic information of practically every person in the United States, often without their knowledge or consent. These vast stores of research materials offer a tempting target for law enforcement, who have sought to obtain DNA profiles from as many sources as possible. This Article makes the case that this scenario should trouble us—and also that there are existing legal tools that could guard against it.

In so doing, it makes four contributions to the existing literature. First, it identifies the unique features of research genetic data that make …

Bridging The Information Gap Between Criminal Law And Psychological Science, John B. Meixner Jr.

Scholarly Works

Some of the most pressing issues in American criminal law—the dominance of plea bargaining, vast executive discretion, and systemic racial disparities—turn on fundamentally empirical questions. Yet, while legal academics largely analyze these issues through doctrinal or theoretical lenses, psychologists and criminologists frequently study the exact same phenomena using empirical methods. Surprisingly, these fields operate almost entirely independently. The legal academy consistently overlooks substantial psychological research that could inform normative arguments, while psychologists often design studies without crucial context from criminal legal scholarship. This chapter outlines the contours of this critical information gap and proposes solutions to bridge it.

Lawyers And Public Service: Duty, Faith, And The 'Good Republican' In The West Wing, Andrew Flavelle Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Popular culture reveals much about the perceived role of lawyers in contemporary life. In this article, I draw lessons from the portrayal of lawyers in Aaron Sorkin's classic television series, The West Wing. As a drama centred around a Democratic presidential administration, Republicans often provide the foil. From time to time, however, the show lionizes what might be termed ‘the good Republican’. That ‘good Republican’ is most often a practicing lawyer whose desire to serve is grounded in duty or faith. In this essay, I use a trio of these characters to explore the role of lawyers in public service. …

Interest-Holder Priorities For Health Surveillance Of People Incarcerated In Canada: A Qualitative Study, Jessica Gaber, Njideka Sanya, Alice Cavanagh, Savage Bear, Sara Howdle, Iridian M. Grenada, Michelle Howard, Adelina Iftene, Fiona G. Kouyoumdjian

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Objectives: As a core function of public health, health surveillance for people who are incarcerated could address gaps in knowledge regarding their health status. The views of people who could use these data and who are included in health surveillance data should inform health surveillance. In this study, we aimed to identify the priorities of interest-holders for health surveillance of people incarcerated in Canadian correctional facilities.

Study design: We conducted an overall qualitative descriptive study with an embedded reflexive thematic analysis and a qualitative content analysis.

Methods: We conducted virtual or phone-based focus groups and interviews with people across Canada, …

Fingerprints Of Injustice: The Truth Behind Artificial Intelligence And Algorithmic-Driven Evidence,, Aubrey Butler

Chapman Law Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) has steadily grown in prominence, reaching into nearly every aspect of daily life, and the legal system is not immune from its influence. As various forms of machine evidence have been admitted in court, there has been an accompanying rise in concerns from researchers, judges, and defense attorneys as to the trustworthiness and reliability of this new category of evidence.

Though AI and machine evidence takes various forms, this Note focuses on some of the most prominent programs being used in courtrooms today, namely the probabilistic genotyping software TrueAllele and the recidivism rate prediction software COMPAS. The …

The Debate On Trying Minors Who Commit Adultlike Offenses As Adults: A Middle-Ground Contribution, Philip C. Aka

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Nontestimonial: State Child Hearsay Exceptions In The Post-Crawford Era, Mckenzie J. Brummond

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Optimizing Death To Effectuate Deterrence, Lucas Brolin

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

The Art Belongs To The Artists, Deborah M. Weissman, Louis A. Pérez

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the rights of detainees interned at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station to claim ownership of cultural work produced during their imprisonment. Through a series of arbitrary policies, the U.S. government alternately punished detainees for creating works of art, confiscated paintings and drawings, and otherwise denied detainees’ rights to control their creative works. This Article suggests the need to understand these policies as acts akin to plunder—that is, as a practice long associated with colonialism as a means through which the artifacts of the material culture of conquered peoples were expropriated and claimed as “trophies” of conquest. It …

Exploring The Dynamics And Outcomes Of Family Engagement In Child Welfare Services: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach, Jianchao Lai, Michelle Graef, Todd Franke

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

Background: Engaging families effectively in child welfare services remains a persistent challenge, shaped by complex interactions between agency practices and family circumstances. While existing research has explored this issue, it has predominantly relied on data from agency and caseworker perspectives, often overlooking the crucial viewpoint of the families. Objectives: This study investigates families’ subjective experiences and perceptions within the child welfare system, focusing on their satisfaction with child welfare workers and overall engagement. Methods: The study draws on data collected through an evaluation of the implementation of Alternative Response in a Midwestern state. Agency administrative data is integrated with additional …

A New Satanic Panic, Jonathon J. Booth

Publications

A broad backlash to LGBTQ visibility and equality has emerged in recent years. Its conservative proponents have asserted that queer people are Satanic, called gender affirming healthcare child abuse, and labeled adults who teach about gender and sexuality "groomers." This rhetorical shift, combined with an explosion of anti-transgender legislation, may presage a revival of the 1980s Satanic Panic, when fears of brutal crimes allegedly committed by Satanic cults swept the nation. These accusations spurred the longest trial in American history, commanded tabloid news, and led dozens of people to be convicted of lurid crimes, nearly all of whom were later …

The Supervisory Power Of State Supreme Courts, Adam B. Sopko

Publications

State supreme courts are currently center stage as they face some of the most important issues of our time. But nearly all of the attention is focused on their ability to interpret state constitutions to provide rights guarantees that the U.S. Supreme Court has diminished or eliminated from the Federal Constitution. While important, judicial review is but one instance of a state high court’s authority. Their supervisory power—the primary source of judicial administrative authority—has served as a vital source of policymaking power to safeguard individual rights and enhance the public good. Supreme courts have relied on their supervisory power to …

Dangerousness And The Undocumented, Pratheepan Gulasekaram

Publications

The Supreme Court's most recent Second Amendment opinion, United States v. Rahimi, centers the question of dangerousness in right to bear arms challenges. There, the Court upheld 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), the federal criminal prohibition on possession of firearms by those subject to a civil domestic violence order, opining that legislatures could regulate the right to bear arms of those who were proven credible threats to public safety. Rahimi, however, left open the question whether dangerousness might be imputed to an entire group, absent individual determinations of threat or danger. The several lower federal court cases adjudicating 18 U.S.C. § …

Prosecutorial Reform And The Myth Of Individualized Enforcement, Justin Murray

Publications

The American prosecutor’s legitimacy faces unprecedented challenges. A new wave of reformist prosecutors has risen to power promising to transform the criminal justice system from within, sparking fierce backlash from defenders of the prosecutorial status quo. Central to this conflict is a debate over the nature of prosecutorial discretion, influenced by a set of claims and assumptions that this Article terms the myth of individualized enforcement. This myth posits that prosecutors base discretionary decisions on case-specific facts and equitable circumstances rather than generalizable criteria or categorical nonenforcement practices, such as the policies some reformist prosecutors have adopted that disfavor prosecuting …

Law Enforcement Independence In Trump’S Second Term, Justin Murray

Publications

No abstract provided.

Yars 18(32)

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies

YARS Vol. 18(32)

From Pickaninny To Superpredator To The Prison Pipeline: The Criminal Legal System’S Immunization To Black Children’S Pain, Brenita Softley

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

About The Authors, Sjsj

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.