Digital Commons Network^™

Challenges Facing Judges Regarding Expert Evidence In Criminal Cases, Paul W. Grimm

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Reliable Application Of Fingerprint Evidence, Brandon L. Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

In November 2017, a state appellate court did something almost unprecedented: It held that a trial judge made an error by admitting testimony on latent fingerprinting. In State v. McPhaul, the North Carolina appellate panel found error in admitting expert testimony, based on the lack of evidence that the expert reliably reached conclusions about the fingerprint evidence. The panel did not reverse the defendant's conviction, however, finding the error to be harmless. The ruling has broader significance for as-applied challenges to the forensic testimony commonly used in criminal cases, in which judges have often not carefully examined reliability either for …

Evidence-Informed Criminal Justice, Brandon L. Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

The American criminal justice system is at a turning point. For decades, as the rate of incarceration exploded, observers of the American criminal justice system criticized the enormous discretion wielded by key actors, particularly police and prosecutors, and the lack of empirical evidence that has informed that discretion. Since the 1967 President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice report, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, there has been broad awareness that the criminal system lacks empirically informed approaches. That report unsuccessfully called for a national research strategy, with an independent national criminal justice research institute, along …

Judicial Appraisals Of Risk Assessment In Sentencing, John Monahan, Ann Metz, Brandon L. Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Pioneer In Forensic Science Reform: The Work Of Paul Giannelli, Brandon L. Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Symposium On “Forensics, Statistics, And Law”, Brandon L. Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Bosses' Constitution: The First Amendment And Class Entrenchment, Jedediah Purdy

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court’s “weaponized” First Amendment has been its strongest antiregulatory tool in recent decades, slashing campaign-finance regulation, public-sector union financing, and pharmaceutical regulation, and threatening a broader remit. Along with others, I have previously criticized these developments as a “new Lochnerism.” In this Essay, part of a Columbia Law Review Symposium, I press beyond these criticisms to diagnose the ideological outlook of these opinions and to propose an alternative. The leading decisions of the antiregulatory First Amendment often associate free speech with a vision of market effi­ciency; but, I argue, closer to their heart is antistatist fear of entrench­ment …

Criminally Bad Management, Samuel W. Buell

Faculty Scholarship

Because of their leverage over employees, corporate managers are prime targets for incentives to control corporate crime, even when managers do not themselves commit crimes. Moreover, the collective actions of corporate management — producing what is sometimes referred to as corporate culture — can be the cause of corporate crime, not just a locus of the failure to control it. Because civil liability and private compensation arrangements have limited effects on management behavior — and because the problem is, after all, crime — criminal law is often expected to intervene. This handbook chapter offers a functional explanation for corporate criminal …

Why Do Prosecutors Say Anything? The Case Of Corporate Crime, Samuel W. Buell

Faculty Scholarship

Criminal procedure law does not require prosecutors to speak outside of court. Professional regulations and norms discourage and sometimes prohibit prosecutors from doing so. Litigation often rewards strategic and tactical maintenance of the element of surprise. Institutional incentives encourage bureaucrats, especially those not bound by procedural requirements of administrative law, to decline to commit themselves to future action. In the always exceptional field of corporate crime, however, the Department of Justice and federal line prosecutors have developed practices of signaling and describing their exercise of discretion through detailed press releases, case filings, and policy documents. This contribution to a symposium …

Local Evidence In Constitutional Interpretation, Brandon L. Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court frequently relies on state law when interpreting the U.S. Constitution. What is less understood is the degree and manner in which the Supreme Court and other federal courts look not to state law, but to local law. Although it has largely gone unnoticed, there is a robust practice of acknowledging and accounting for local law in the course of constitutional interpretation. To take an example, one area in which the Supreme Court has examined local enforcement patterns is in death penalty jurisprudence. In 2015, Justice Stephen Breyer, dissenting in Glossip v. Gross, cited to empirical data to …

Cultural Competency In A Post-Model Rule 8.4(G) World, Latonia Haney Keith

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Sessions V. Dimaya: Vagueness Doctrine & Deportation Statutes, Matthew Gibbons

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar

Sessions v. Dimaya seeks to determine whether the residual clause of a criminal provision, incorporated by reference into a civil immigration law, is void for vagueness. Although there is an instance of the Supreme Court applying the criminal vagueness standard to an immigration statute resulting in deportation, the United States argues that immigration law is not subject to that vagueness standard because it is civil and not criminal. This commentary argues that Sessions v. Dimaya presents the Supreme Court with an opportunity to conform with its precedents, further the principles underlying vagueness doctrine, and appear to apply judicial rules consistently. …

Slave To The Algorithm? Why A 'Right To An Explanation' Is Probably Not The Remedy You Are Looking For, Lilian Edwards, Michael Veale

Duke Law & Technology Review

Algorithms, particularly machine learning (ML) algorithms, are increasingly important to individuals’ lives, but have caused a range of concerns revolving mainly around unfairness, discrimination and opacity. Transparency in the form of a “right to an explanation” has emerged as a compellingly attractive remedy since it intuitively promises to open the algorithmic “black box” to promote challenge, redress, and hopefully heightened accountability. Amidst the general furore over algorithmic bias we describe, any remedy in a storm has looked attractive. However, we argue that a right to an explanation in the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is unlikely to present a …

Challenging Gender In Single-Sex Spaces: Lessons From A Feminist Softball League, Erin E. Buzuvis

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Note From The Editor

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice Reinvestment In Alaska: The Past, Present, And Future Of Sb 91, Michael A. Rosengart

Alaska Law Review

In the summer of 2016, Alaska Governor Bill Walker signed SB 91, a landmark criminal justice reform law that implements a “justice reinvestment” program. SB 91 aims to reduce Alaska’s prison population, cut corrections costs, and then reinvest savings back into the state to improve public safety and reduce recidivism. It is 193 sections long and is likely the most substantial change to Alaskan criminal law since statehood. It also comes at a time when similar legislation, spearheaded by the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, is proliferating through the country. This Note overviews Alaska’s corrections problems that prompted SB 91, discusses the …

Towards An International Right To Claim Innocence, Brandon L. Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

In the past, wrongful convictions were seen as a local problem largely undeserving of national or international attention. Very different legal systems have shared a common approach of emphasizing the finality of criminal convictions, thereby making it very difficult to claim innocence by relying on new evidence uncovered post-trial. While international law guarantees a right to a fair trial, a presumption of innocence, and a right to appeal, no international human rights norms clearly obligate countries to allow defendants to meaningfully assert post-trial claims of innocence. Today, the procedures and attitudes toward claims of innocence that rely on newly discovered …

Volume 101, Number 2 (Summer 2017)

Judicature

No abstract provided.

Consumer Credit In America: Past, Present, And Future, Pamela Foohey, Jim Hawkins, Creola Johnson, Nathalie Martin

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Prosecuting Creditors And Protecting Consumers: Cracking Down On Creditors That Extort Via Debt Criminalization Practices, Creola Johnson

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

The Asymmetry Of Crimes By And Against Police Officers, Monu Bedi

Duke Law Journal Online

Crimes by and against police officers during the performance of their duties are treated differently. If a police officer unlawfully harms a citizen, regular assault or homicide charges apply, whereas if a citizen unlawfully harms a police officer, aggravated assault or homicide charges apply. The enhancement stems from the fact that the citizen interfered with police activity. No one would dispute that states have a special interest in protecting this kind of important state-sanctioned behavior. But do they not also have an equal interest in deterring its abuse through commensurate charges?

This Essay is the first to tackle this asymmetry …

Human Trafficking And Terrorism: Utilizing National Security Resources To Prevent Human Trafficking In The Islamic State, Shannon A. Welch

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Children Crossing Borders: Internationalizing The Restatement Of The Conflict Of Laws, Louise Ellen Teitz

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

No abstract provided.

Damned Lies & Criminal Sentencing Using Evidence-Based Tools, John Lightbourne

Duke Law & Technology Review

The boom of big data and predictive analytics has revolutionized business. eHarmony matches customers based on shared likes and expectations for romance, and Target uses similar methods to strategically push its products on shoppers. Courts and Departments of Corrections have also sought to employ similar tools. However, the use of data analytics in sentencing raises a host of constitutional concerns. In State v. Loomis, the Wisconsin Supreme Court was faced with whether the use of an actuarial risk assessment tool based on a proprietary formula violates a defendant’s right to due process where the defendant could not review how the …

Gendering The Second Amendment, Jennifer Carlson, Kristin A. Goss

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Implementation And Effectiveness Of Connecticut’S Risk-Based Gun Removal Law: Does It Prevent Suicides?, Jeffrey W. Swanson, Michael A. Norko, Hsiu-Ju Lin, Kelly Alanis-Hirsch, Linda K. Frisman, Madelon V. Baranoski, Michele M. Easter, Allison G. Robertson, Marvin S. Swartz, Richard J. Bonnie

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Self-Defense, Defense Of Others, And The State, Darrell A. H. Miller

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Lawful Gun Carriers (Police And Armed Citizens): License, Escalation, And Race, Nicholas J. Johnson

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Administering Suspect Classes, Bertrall L. Ross Ii

Duke Law Journal

It has been over forty years since the Supreme Court declared a class suspect under the Equal Protection Clause. In that time, the Court has denied suspect-class status—and the special judicial protections associated with it—to the elderly, the disabled, and the poor, and it has avoided suspect-class determinations when addressing laws that discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community. Administrative agencies, however, have stepped in to provide marginalized groups with some protections through their interpretation of civil rights laws. The Court has shown hostility to those agency interpretations, often in opaque decisions that seem to rest on principles of judicial …

An Administrative Right To Be Free From Sexual Violence? Title Ix Enforcement In Historical And Institutional Perspective, Karen M. Tani

Duke Law Journal

One of the most controversial administrative actions in recent years is the U.S. Department of Education’s campaign against sexual assault on college campuses. Using its authority under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (mandating nondiscrimination on the basis of sex in all educational programs and activities receiving federal funds), the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has launched an enforcement effort that critics denounce as aggressive, manipulative, and corrosive of individual liberties. Missing from the commentary is a historically informed understanding of why this administrative campaign unfolded as it did. This Article offers crucial context by reminding readers …