Digital Commons Network^™

Court Appointment Of Attorneys In Civil Cases: The Constitutionality Of Uncompensated Legal Assistance Note, Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

Whether an individual becomes a party to judicial proceeding involuntarily, as a criminal or civil defendant, or voluntarily, as a civil plaintiff seeking redress of an injury, the assistance of counsel will increase his chances for a favorable disposition. When an impecunious litigant is unable to retain counsel, the question arises of who must bear the burden created by the complexity of adjudication. Although the Supreme Court has been sympathetic to the need for counsel in criminal cases, an indigent litigant in civil cases often will be denied legal assistance, and therefore will bear the burden himself In other instances, …

Conjugal Violence: The Law Of Force And The Force Of Law , Maria Marcus

Faculty Scholarship

The Article concludes that neither the impartial mission of the rule of law nor the neatly tooled goal of individual justice has been served by the governmental response to conjugal violence, and suggests the elements from which a valid approach may be constructed.

Competency To Stand Trial Under The Senate And House Proposed Revisions Of The Federal Criminal Code, Leo M. Romero

Faculty Scholarship

In 1980 the judiciary committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives reported bills revising the federal criminal code. Although neither of these bills was enacted by the Ninety-Sixth Congress, they represent the culmination of efforts, over a period of a decade, to revise and reform the federal criminal laws in a comprehensive code.

Conflicts Of Law And Morality – Institutions Of Amelioration, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

In his rich, intricate, and wise examination of themes from the Crito, A. D. Woozley explores Socrates' proposal, put in the mouth of the personified laws of Athens, that the duty of a citizen is to obey a law or to persuade society that the law is wrong. If this position is understood to permit disobedience and attempted persuasion after a law is adopted, one of its implications is that on some occasions when people intentionally break the law, those who administer the law may properly decline to impose the stipulated punishment, because they believe that disobedience was justified. Suggesting …

"Twisting Slowly In The Wind": A Search For Constitutional Limits On Coercion Of The Criminal Defendant, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

In the corridor outside Courtroom Four, Foster Clark approached the prosecutor. "I was wondering," he said, "are we really going to have to try this case?"

"Well," the prosecutor said, "that depends. He's dead on and gone to heaven, if that's what you mean. He doesn't have a prayer."

"I was wondering if we could work something out," Clark said. "I haven't really had a chance to talk with him, but I was wondering."

"So talk to him," the prosecutor said. "Find out where he stands, and call me."

* * *

"Look," the prosecutor said, "you know I can't …

Mathematical Models And Legal Realities: Some Comments On The Poisson Model Of Jury Behavior, David H. Kaye

Faculty Scholarship

While a mathematical model cannot reflect all the elements of reality, modeling involves drastic simplifications, and those expounding the mathematical model would recognize the complexity of the elements. This article illuminates this cause with a mathematical model that seems to be in vogue, developed by the renowned mathematician Simeon Poisson. It reviews the Poisson model in order to enucleate its many assumptions. It also explains why these assumptions may introduce serious errors into the probabilities calculated according to the model. It also indicates one reason that even a relatively error free model would have limited usefulness in resolving the constitutional …

Corporate Crime And Punishment: A Non-Chicago View Of The Economics Of Criminal Sanctions, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, Professor Coffee argues that fines are an inefficient means by which to deter organizational crimes. Instead, he urges a focus on the individual decision-maker and a system of competitive bids with respect to the choice of a fine as an alternative punishment.

The Insanity Defense In Juvenile Delinquency Proceedings, Maxine M. Harrington, Ann O'Regan Keary

Faculty Scholarship

The insanity defense in delinquency proceedings poses an important legal dilemma concerning the rights of children in the juvenile justice system. Indeed, beyond the purely legal concerns of the rights of an accused juvenile, the concept of criminal responsibility in the context of juvenile court proceedings raises perhaps an even more important issue of what is the best model for dealing with mentally ill juvenile offenders, both from the juvenile's viewpoint and that of society as a whole. It is our opinion that not only does the insanity defense have an appropriate role in juvenile proceedings, but that legal as …

Manifest Criminality, Criminal Intent, And The Metamorphosis Of Lloyd Weinreb, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

My colleague has had a revelation. Professor Lloyd Weinreb's views about larceny have undergone a striking transformation in the last six months. As recently as May 1980, when he completed the preface to the third edition of his criminal law casebook, he held one set of views about The Carrier's Case and The King v. Pear. In the article published in this issue, he advances a different set of views about the two cases he regards as so important. He gives us no hint about how or why he underwent his change of heart. His transformation warrants our attention, …

Impact Of A Youth Service Center, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

This study evaluates the impact of a Youth Service Center (YSC) in South Philadelphia, using methods which consider both the Center's goals and relevant developments within its target area. The YSC is a delinquency-prevention program housed in the South Philadelphia Community Center (SPCC), a general recreation facility which evolved from the Philadelphia Boys' Club in 1974. The YSC program was added in June 1975 to "prevent and limit youth from becoming involved in the Juvenile Justice System, police courts, and institutions". Program referrals comprise area youths between the ages of 10 and 18 who have been arrested and are in …

Making The Punishment Fit The Corporation: The Problem Of Finding An Optimal Corporation Criminal Sanction, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

To be "present at the creation," in Dean Acheson's felicitous phrase, is always an honor. In addition, to be present at the commencement of what I expect will be a sustained and fruitful tradition at this law school, namely, the Governor Thompson Lectureship, is a second honor. Finally, let me express my thanks to Dean Bainbridge for a third honor: the compliment implicit in the 2 to 1 odds he has arranged today. Both Norval Morris and Mark Crane are men with distinguished careers in quite different fields of the law. If I am confident of one thing today, it …

Rape Victim Shield Laws And The Sixth Amendment, J. Alexander Tanford, Anthony J. Bocchino

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Functional Analysis Of The Effective Assistance Of Counsel, A Note, Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

The sixth amendment provides that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right "to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence." The Supreme Court has construed this clause to guarantee to criminal defendants the "effective" assistance of counsel performing within a minimum standard of competency. Prevalent lower court interpretations of the right. to effective assistance require a showing that counsel's inadequate performance caused actual prejudice to the defendant's interest in obtaining an acquittal. Because most defendants are unable to demonstrate the actual impact upon the outcome of their trial of an attorney's departure from normal competency, courts …

Dealing With Incompetent Counsel- The Trial Judge's Role, William W. Schwarzer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ambivalent Reflections On Regulation, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ambivalent Reflections On Regulation, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Right To Life, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

In the theory of rights we repeatedly encounter the problem of reconciling someone's having a right with his properly suffering damage to the interest protected by the right. In the case of right to life, we have to assess numerous cases in which individuals are killed or allowed to die, and we wish nonetheless to affirm their right to life. These cases include killing an aggressor in self-defense, accidental homicide, terminating life-sustaining therapy, and capital punishment.

My program in this Article is to provide an account of how it is that those with a right to life may nonetheless be …

Contractual Agreements To Arbitrate Disputes: Waiver Of The Right To Compel Arbitration, Frederick Mark Gedicks

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Families With Service Needs: The Newest Euphemism, Stanley Z. Fisher

Faculty Scholarship

Juvenile court jurisdiction over "status offenders" - juveniles engaging in noncriminal misconduct such as truancy, running away, and "incorrigibility" - has become the subject of national debate. Most participants in the many-sided discussion agree that the system needs reform. The major disagreement, however, is between those who wish merely to reform the court's jurisdiction over this conduct, and those who would substantially eliminate it. This article concerns the newest reform proposal: to revise status offense jurisdiction under a new category entitled "Families With Service Needs" (FWSN). Proposed in 1977 by a federally funded task force, 5 the FWSN concept has …

First Amendment Ancillary Doctrines, David S. Bogen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bordenkircher V. Hayes: Ignoring Prosecutorial Abuses In Plea Bargaining, Stephen F. Ross

Faculty Scholarship

In Bordenkircher v. Hayes, the United States Supreme Court upheld a conviction on a charge the prosecutor admittedly filed solely because the defendant refused to plead guilty to another set of charges. Hayes is a sudden departure from a line of cases in which the Court refused to allow prosecutorial charging decisions to be made to discourage a criminal defendant from exercising constitutional or procedural rights. The decision effectively removes plea bargaining from its constitutional premise: the "mutuality of advantage" between the prosecutor and the defendant. Rather than approving the broad exercise of prosecutorial discretion in plea negotiations, the …

Socialist Legality And Uncensored Literature In The Soviet Union, Kazimierz Grzybowski

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Guiding Capital Sentencing Discretion Beyond The "Boiler Plate": Mental Disorder As A Mitigating Factor, James S. Liebman, Michael J. Shepard

Faculty Scholarship

In five decisions handed down on July 2, 1976, the United States Supreme Court held that the death penalty may be imposed for the crime of murder, so long as there are clear standards to guide the sentencing authority and the sanction is not imposed mandatorily. The authors examine the eighth amendment doctrinal framework used by the Court in the July 2 Cases, with particular reference to the requirement that individualized mitigating information be considered in the sentencing decision. Illustrating that requirement, they contend that mental disorder should be considered as a possibly mitigating factor and then suggest a standard …

The Repressed Issues Of Sentencing: Accountability, Predictability, And Equality In The Era Of The Sentencing Commission, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

The existence of disparities in the sentences imposed on equally culpable offenders has long been a subject of jurisprudential concern. The author provides a critique of recent efforts to objectify the sentencing process that rely on a matrix table prescribing guideline sentence lengths on the basis of offense severity and predictions of recidivism. With particular emphasis on the Sentencing Commission authorized by pending federal legislation, he urges the need for political accountability in the body that inevitably makes value judgments in the preparation and administration of such a guideline system. Finally, the author discusses the normative issues that surround the …

Evolution Of The Concept Of The Rights Of The Child In The Western World, D. Kelly Weisberg

Faculty Scholarship

The General Assembly of the United Nations has proclaimed 1979 to be the International Year of the Child. It is also the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations' Declaration of the Rights of the Child. The concept of the rights of the child is of relatively recent origin. This modern notion that a child is entitled to special protection, opportunities and facilities emanates from two historical sources. First, it reflects the culmination of the evolution of the concept of childhood. Second, it springs from the development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of the juristic concept of the child as …

An Historical Perspective On The Attorney-Client Privilege, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Standards' Recommendations On Dispositions: A Panel Discussion, Stanley Z. Fisher, Howard A. Levine, Fred Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

ROFESSOR STANLEY FISHER, MODERATOR: Good evening. I'd like to welcome you all here. Of all of the volumes of the Juvenile Justice Standards Project, I suppose the most controversial are those dealing with the disposition stage. They have elicited a good deal of critical comment, even though they haven't yet been published, and many of the comments and criticisms have apparently been on the basis of speculation and rumor as to what the Standards actually say. We have with us tonight to discuss these Standards two persons who have a great deal of expertise in this field. The first, on …

Discretionary Decision-Making In The Criminal Justice System And The Black Offender: Some Alternatives, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Discretionary Justice And The Black Offender, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Homer Of The Pacific: Melville's Art And The Ambiguities Of Judging Evil, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

It should not be surprising that Herman. Melville has an important message for students of the legal system, when one reflects for a moment on his biography and the subject matter of his writings. Melville had an intimate exposure to various legal systems ranging from the very crude to the more sophisticated, due in part at least to close personal ties with people who. were themselves connected with the law in one way or another. When Melville was thirteen years old his father declared himself bankrupt, then went mad and died. Melville's cousin had presided over a widely publicized and …