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Children Are Constitutionally Different, But Life Without Parole And De Facto Life Sentences Are Not: Extending Graham And Miller To De Facto Life Sentences, Ellen Brink

Fordham Law Review

Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s current juvenile sentencing jurisprudence, a juvenile may legally receive a prison sentence of hundreds of years without parole in instances in which a sentence of life without parole would be unconstitutional. This illogical state of affairs is the result of the Court’s silence on whether its holdings in Graham v. Florida and Miller v. Alabama, which together limit the availability of juvenile life without parole sentences, also apply to so-called de facto life sentences. De facto life sentences are lengthy term-of-years sentences that confine offenders to prison for the majority, if not the entirety, …

The Federal Rules Of Emojis: A Proposed Framework For Handling Emoji Evidence In Trial Contexts, Marilyn Hurzeler

Fordham Law Review

Emojis are 3,633 ubiquitous symbols-as-communication used by 92 percent of internet users. These tiny yet influential pieces of evidence hold the power to complete, enhance, mitigate, and flip the meaning of surrounding text. Consequently, court references to emojis have grown exponentially in the last five years. As emojis have become a cornerstone of digital discourse, courts have increasingly encountered the significant impact of emojis on parties’ legal claims. A guide for handling of emoji evidence under the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE), therefore, is important to afford proper treatment to this relatively new evidentiary form.

This Note discusses how the …

Voting Rights And The Electoral Process: Resolving Representation Issues Due To Felony Disenfranchisement And Prison Gerrymandering, Andrew Calabrese, Tim Gordon, Tianyi Lu

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

Felony disenfranchisement and prison gerrymandering distort democratic representation by excluding incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals from political participation while artificially inflating representation in prison-hosting districts. In this report, the Fordham Law School Rule of Law Clinic recommends restoring voting rights to individuals with felony convictions once they are released from prison and ending prison-based gerrymandering by counting incarcerated persons with a certain number of years left in their sentences as residents of the districts where they intend to reside after their release, in addition to other reforms to effectively carry out these policies.

Criminalizing Threats Against Schools: A Divergence Of Mens Rea And Punishment Severity In Recent State Legislation, Max Kaufman

Fordham Law Review

School shootings occur on a regular basis in the United States. Fear of the next school shooting leads schools to take any potential threat of violence seriously, but responding to a threat can be extremely disruptive to a school’s operations and the community that it serves. In the last five years, nine state legislatures have attempted to deter these threats by specifically criminalizing threats of violence against schools.

Despite the proximity in time in which these states enacted school threat statutes, these laws diverge in two important ways: First, the nine statutes employ several different mens rea requirements. Second, these …

Parole Interview Transcript/Decision - Fusl000134 (2021-10-05)

Parole Interview Transcripts and Decisions

No abstract provided.

1240 Sheva Rlty Assoc., Llc V. Serrano

All Decisions

No abstract provided.

Rhode Was Right (About Character And Fitness), Leslie C. Levin

Fordham Law Review

In this Essay, Professor Leslie C. Levin revives Professor Deborah L. Rhode’s forty-year-old critique of the character and fitness process and shows that not much has changed. Levin exposes the process’s core problems, including the lack of public information available about character and fitness decisions, the process’s subjectivity, the disconnect between information sought and future lawyer misconduct, and the deterrent effect on individuals considering a legal career. Levin proposes that task forces reexamine problematic application questions, such as those targeting decriminalized conduct and mental health, and push for more transparency and disclosure.

2022-2023 Fordham Law School Faculty Bibliography, Fordham Law School Library

Faculty Bibliography

Bibliography of Fordham Law School faculty publications in print from July 2022-June 2023.

Activism Or Domestic Terrorism? How The Terrorism Enhancement Is Used To Punish Acts Of Political Protest, Madeline Johl

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Impossibility Of Local Police Reform, Ava Ayers

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Peter C. Angelica

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Prosecutors As Partisans, Lauren M. Ouziel

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Prosecution And Polarization, Steven Arrigg Koh

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The (Immediate) Future Of Prosecution, Daniel Richman

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Forfeiting Due Process: How Adjudicative Reform Fails Property Owners, Claire Johnson Raba

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Elevating Trust In Prosecutors: Enhancing Legitimacy By Increasing Transparency Using A Process-Tracing Approach, Trace C. Vardsveen, Tom R. Tyler

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Bastions Of Independence Or Shields Of Misconduct?: Increasing Transparency In Judicial Conduct Commissions, Katarina Herring-Trott

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Carceral Deference: Courts And Their Pro-Prison Propensities, Danielle C. Jefferis

Fordham Law Review

Judicial deference to nonjudicial state actors, as a general matter, is ubiquitous, both in the law and as a topic of legal scholarship. But “carceral deference”—judicial deference to prison officials on issues concerning the legality of prison conditions—has received far less attention in legal literature, and the focus has been almost entirely on its jurisprudential legitimacy. This Article contextualizes carceral deference historically, politically, and culturally, and it thus adds a piece that has been missing from the literature. Drawing on primary and secondary historical sources and anchoring the analysis in Bourdieu’s field theory, this Article is an important step to …

Prosecuting Gender Persecution At The Icc: Definitions, Policies, And Practice, Yvonne Dutton, Milena Sterio

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Black Liberty In Emergency, Norrinda Brown

Faculty Scholarship

COVID-19 pandemic orders were weaponized by state and local governments in Black neighborhoods, often through violent acts of the police. This revealed an intersection of three centuries-old patterns— criminalizing Black movement, quarantining racial minorities in public health crises, and segregation. The geographic borders of the most restrictive pandemic order enforcement were nearly identical to the borders of highly segregated, historically Black neighborhoods.

The right to free movement is fundamental and, as a rule, cannot be impeded by the state. But the jurisprudence around state power in public health emergencies, deriving from the 1905 case Jacobson v. Massachusetts, has practically resulted …

Race, Gatekeeping, Magical Words, And The Rules Of Evidence, I. Bennett Capers

Faculty Scholarship

Although it might not be apparent from the Federal Rules of Evidence themselves, or the common law that preceded them, there is a long history in this country of tying evidence—what is deemed relevant, what is deemed trustworthy—to race. And increasingly, evidence scholars are excavating that history. Indeed, not just excavating, but showing how that history has racial effects that continue into the present.

One area that has escaped racialized scrutiny—at least of the type I am interested in—is that of expert testimony. In this brief Essay written for the Vanderbilt Law Review Symposium, Reimagining the Rules of Evidence at …

A Fiduciary Theory Of Progressive Prosecution, Bruce A. Green, Rebecca Roiphe

Faculty Scholarship

Progressive prosecutors differ from their more traditional counterparts primarily in the way in which they make decisions. They tend to bind their discretion by announcing categorical policies rather than making fact-based decisions case by case. This Article catalogs the unusual degree of pushback progressive prosecutors have encountered from the public, legislatures, courts, police, and their own subordinate prosecutors. Drawing on fiduciary theory, it explains this reaction as a response to progressive prosecutors’ abdication of their fiduciary role. As a public fiduciary, prosecutors are entrusted with protecting the public’s abstract interest in justice, and an integral part of this role is …

Budgeting For Exoneree Compensation:Indemnifying Exonerees Not Officials To Deter Future Wrongful Convictions, Mackenzie Philbrick

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reporting Sexual Assault: What Privileges Should Exist In Defamation Suits Stemming From A Police Report?, Katharine Rubery

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Evidence Rules For Decarceration, Erin R. Collins

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reforming Prior Conviction Impeachment, Anna Roberts, Julia Simon-Kerr

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

“The Peace,” Domestic Violence, And Firearms In The New Republic, Laura Edwards

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Age-Related Gun Regulations And Public Opinion, Rebecca Valek, Cassandra Crifasi, Alex Mccourt

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Prosecuting The Crisis, Benjamin Levin

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Poor Reform Prosecutor: So Far From The State Capital, So Close To The Suburbs, John F. Pfaff

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.