Digital Commons Network^™

Plea Bargaining In The Dark: The Duty To Disclose Exculpatory Brady Evidence During Plea Bargaining, Michael Nasser Petegorsky

Fordham Law Review

   Ninety-seven percent of federal convictions are the result of guilty pleas. Despite the criminal justice system’s reliance on plea bargaining, the law regarding the prosecution’s duty to disclose certain evidence during this stage of the judicial process is unsettled. The Supreme Court’s decision in Brady v. Maryland requires the prosecution to disclose evidence that establishes the defendant’s factual innocence during a trial. Some courts apply this rule during plea bargaining and require the disclosure of material exculpatory evidence before the entry of a guilty plea. Other courts have held or suggested that the prosecution may suppress exculpatory evidence during plea …

United States Of America V. Anthony Davila, Bruce Green, Thomas Jones

Amicus Briefs

No abstract provided.

Is It Safe? The Need For State Ethical Rules To Keep Pace With Technological Advances, Ann M. Murphy

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Popular Constitutional Values: The Links Between Public Opinion And The Supreme Court's 2011 Term, Peter J. Woolley, Bruce G. Peabody

Res Gestae

No abstract provided.

Emerging From The Haze Of America's War On Drugs And Examining Canada's New Half-Baked Laws, Ramy Oden

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

What Real-World Criminal Cases Tell Us About Genetics Evidence, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

This Article, which is part of a symposium on "Law and Ethics at the Frontier of Genetic Technology," examines an unprecedented experimental study published in Science. The Science study indicated that psychopathic criminal offenders were more likely to receive lighter sentences if a judge was aware of genetic and neurobiological explanations for the offender’s psychopathy. This Article contends that the study’s conclusions derive from substantial flaws in the study’s design and methodology. The hypothetical case upon which the study is based captures just one narrow and unrepresentative component of how genetic and neurobiological information operates, and the study suffers from …

Perceptions Of Justice- An International Perspective On Judges And Apperances, Debra Lyn Bassett, Rex R. Perschbacher

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

"You May Say I'M A Dreamer, But I'M Not The Only One": Categorical Prosecutorial Discretion And Its Consequences For Us Immigration Law, Maria Fufidio

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fingerprints Of Apartheid Residual Effects Of The Former South African Government On Current Dna Legislation, Alex D'Amico

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

"We Are Left To Rot": Arbitrary And Excessive Pretrial Detention In Bolivia, Aya Fujimura-Fanselow, Elisabeth Wickeri

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Gideon’S Amici, Why Do Prosecutors So Rarely Defend The Rights Of The Accused?, Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

In Gideon v. Wainwright, twenty-three state attorneys general, led by Walter F. Mondale and Edward McCormack, joined an amicus brief on the side of the criminal accused, urging the Supreme Court to recognize indigent defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to appointed counsel in felony cases. This was a unique occurrence. Although amicus filings by public entities have increased significantly since then, including in criminal cases, government lawyers rarely submit amicus briefs in the Supreme Court supporting criminal defendants’ procedural rights, and never en masse as in Gideon. The states’ public support for Gideon’s position points up the special nature of the …

Waylaid By A Metaphor: A Deeply Problematic Account Of Prison Growth. Review Of Plague Of Prisons: The Epidemiology Of Mass Incarceration In America By Ernest Drucker, John F. Pfaff

Faculty Scholarship

This article reviews Ernest Drucker's recent book, "A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America," which attempts to explain the causes behind the explosion in prison growth over the past several decades. The account proves to be unsatisfying, and this review highlights four major flaws with Drucker's work. First, Drucker places too much weight on the war on drugs. While he argues it is the primary engine of prison growth, the increase in drug incarcerations explains only about 25% of the total growth since the 1970s. Second, he significantly underplays the importance of soaring crime rates between …

China At The Tipping Point? The Tum Against Legal Reform, Carl F. Minzner

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Firearms Policy And The Black Community: An Assessment Of The Modern Orthodoxy, Nicholas J. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

The heroes of the modern civil rights movement were more than just stoic victims of racist violence. Their history was one of defiance and fighting long before news cameras showed them attacked by dogs and fire hoses. When Fannie Lou Hamer revealed she kept a shotgun in every corner of her bedroom, she was channeling a century old practice. And when delta share cropper Hartman Turnbow, after a shootout with the Klan, said “I don’t figure I was being non-nonviolent, (yes non-nonviolent) I was just protecting my family”, he was invoking an evolved tradition that embraced self-defense and disdained political …

What Is Philosophy Of Criminal Law?, Youngjae Lee

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Federalism And The Eighth Amendment, Youngjae Lee

Faculty Scholarship

How many “cruel and unusual punishments” clauses are there? Michael Mannheimer, in his article, Cruel and Unusual Federal Punishments, argues that there are two—one for the federal government and one for state governments.1 Mannheimer contends that courts have been unduly neglecting the former and mistakenly applying the latter to the federal government without adequate reflection.2 Mannheimer further argues that the Eighth Amendment is primarily a device to promote state sovereignty and that we should accordingly read it as requiring that federal punishments be no more severe than state punishments for equivalent crimes.3 I cannot do justice in this brief Response …

The Right To Plea Bargain With Competent Counsel After Cooper And Frye: Is The Supreme Court Making The Ordinary Criminal Process Too Long, Too Expensive, And Unpredictable In Pursuit Of Perfect Justice, Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

In Lafler v. Cooper and Missouri v. Frye, the Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of criminal defendants who were deprived of a favorable plea offer because of their lawyers’ professional lapses. In dissent, Justice Scalia complained that “[t]he ordinary criminal process has become too long, too expensive, and unpredictable,” because of the Court’s criminal procedure jurisprudence; that plea bargaining is “the alternative in which...defendants have sought relief,” and that the two new decisions on the Sixth Amendment right to effective representation in plea bargaining would add to the burden on the criminal process. This essay examines several aspects of …

Supranational? Federal? Intergovernmental? The Governmental Structure Of The European Union After The Treaty Of Lisbon, Roger J. Goebel

Faculty Scholarship

The goal of this article is to provide an overview of the progressive augmentation of the supranational character of the governmental structure of the initial EEC, gradually evolving into the present European Union, particularly as a consequence of revisions to the constituent Treaties. Part I of this article presents the European Commission, the initial institution whose structure and operations have always been markedly supranational in character and which has always been dedicated to the promotion of supranational goals. Part II examines the Council of Ministers, the political institution that is intrinsically intergovernmental in character, but whose operational role in the …

Stein Center News - December 2012, Stein Center For Law And Ethics

Stein Center News

No abstract provided.

Recognizing The Right To Petition For Victims Of Domestic Violence, Tamara L. Kuennen

Fordham Law Review

    Like any citizen, a victim of domestic violence (DV) may call the police for help when she needs it. And yet, when a victim calls the police, she not only seeks law enforcement assistance but also invokes her constitutional right to seek one of the most fundamental services the government can provide—protection from harm. That right, recently described by the Supreme Court as “essential to freedom,” is the right “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” guaranteed by the First Amendment.

    This Article argues that a combination of law and policy initiatives produces negative collateral consequences for DV …

The Moral Complexity Of Cause Lawyers Within The State, David Luban

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Call To Action—Examining Nepal’S Post-Conflict Strategy Toward Persons Accused Of Gross Human Rights Abuses, Jennifer Chiang

Fordham Law Review

   This Note analyzes Nepal’s attempts to establish accountability and the rule of law in the aftermath of its ten-year civil war. It compares Nepal’s treatment of persons implicated in gross human rights violations with the international human rights legal framework surrounding a state’s international obligations, particularly in its use of transitional justice mechanisms. It argues that Nepal’s failure to bring either administrative sanctions or criminal prosecutions against officials accused of human rights abuses—and its reliance instead on truth commissions—undermines the rule of law and violates the country’s international human rights obligations.

A Gate Forever Closed? Retiring Immigration Law’S Post-Departure Bar, Jonathan H. Ross

Fordham Law Review

   Immigration law’s “post-departure bar” destroys the jurisdiction of either an immigration judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals to hear a motion to reopen or reconsider filed by an alien who is no longer physically within the country. This Note examines the current conflict between the federal circuits regarding the post-departure bar and why the circuits that have decided to strike down the bar in the cases before them have ruled in line with certain trends present in recent Supreme Court immigration cases.

   Conflict between the circuits has arisen because the governing statute, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility …

Stein Center News - September 2012, Stein Center For Law And Ethics

Stein Center News

No abstract provided.

Fordham Lawyer, No. 3 - Fall 2012, Fordham Law Alumni Association, Fordham Law School

Fordham Lawyer

Fordham Lawyer magazine was first published in 1988 and continued through 2004. It returned in 2011 under Dean Michael M. Martin. The magazine shines a spotlight on faculty research, the Law School community, and the accomplishments of our alumni. No issues were published between 2004 and 2011.

Corporate Law Firms, Ngos, And Issues Of Legitimacy For A Global Legal Order, Yves Dezalay, Bryant G. Garth

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cooperative Justice: Understanding The Future Of The International Criminal Court Through Its Involvement In Libya, Brenan Leanos

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

A House Of Cards Falls: Why "Too Big To Debar" Is All Slogan And Little Substance, Jessica Tillipman

Res Gestae

No abstract provided.

Support And Defend: Civil-Military Relations In The Age Of Obama - Human Rights In The Obama Administration: A Stein Center & Leitner Center Colloquium, Mark R. Shulman

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Confronting The Challenges Of Domestic Violence Sentencing Policy: A Review Of The Increasingly Global Use Of Batterer Intervention Programs, Ashleigh Owens

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.