Digital Commons Network^™

2015-2016, University Of Memphis Bulletin

Bulletins

University of Memphis bulletin containing the graduate catalog for 2015-2016.

Standing Between The Past And The Future, How Defense Attorneys Use Stigma Management Techniques In Presenting Their Closing Arguments In Capital Sentencing Procedures: A Content Analysis, Abdulrahmane Abdul-Aziz

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In the penalty-phase of a capital case, defense attorneys face a difficult task in managing the identity of their now convicted client. They must present a coherent narrative that combats the prosecution’s case and engenders leniency from the jury. The closing argument given by the defense attorney(s) provides a unique opportunity to analyze and understand the general use of stigma management techniques and their applicability to capital cases. Using content analysis, 18 Transcripts from Texas capital cases from 2005 to 2015 were analyzed against the relevant techniques of neutralization (Sykes & Matza, 1957): appeal to a higher loyalty, appeal to …

Full Faith & Credit For Victims Of Human Trafficking, Joseph Woltmann

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

Debating Diya: Indirect Rule And The Transformation Of Islamic Law In British Colonial Northern Nigeria, Rabiat Akande

All Papers

Leading academic authority on British imperial governance, Dame Margery Perham famously made the above remark on the workings of indirect rule in Northern Nigeria—the colonial state resulting from the 1903 British conquest of the West African Sokoto Caliphate. First emerging on the heels of the 1857 mutiny in British India, British colonial indirect rule had a long and checkered history predating its arrival in Nigeria. The dominant understanding of the Indian rebellion was that of a revolt against empire’s anglicizing project with the consequence that it spurred the colonial state to turn to governing colonial populations through native institutions within …

Economic Success In The United States, Jason Render Jr.

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In this research project, I examine the factors that impact the economic success of an individual within the United States. In particular, I investigate the impact of inherent privilege and the impact which socioeconomic upbringing has on the economic success of an individual within American society. This investigation into economic success and the impact of inherent privilege will examine both poor and affluent U.S. citizen populations to find common factors present within both groups. The research will then examine how these factors impact an individual’s overall economic success as a result of the barriers which are inherent based on an …

Chopped & Screwed: Hip Hop From Cultural Expression To A Means Of Criminal Enforcement, Taifha Natalee Alexander

Faculty Publications

Take the word “overseer” like a sample. Repeat it very quickly in a crew, for example. Overseer, overseer, overseer, overseer. Officer, officer, officer, officer. Yeah, officer from overseer. You need a little clarity? Check the similarity! The overseer rode around the plantation. The officer is off, patrollin’ all the nation. The overseer could stop you, “what you’re doing?” The officer will pull you over just when he’s pursuing. The overseer had the right to get ill. And if you fought back, the overseer had the right to kill. The officer has the right to arrest. And if you fight back …

Restorative Approaches To Intimate Partner Violence And Sexual Harm, Donna Coker (Ed.)

Articles

No abstract provided.

Catching Up With Hpv Immunization: An Educational Video For College Students, Behrooz R. Soleimani

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US, and it can lead to minor health problems such as genital warts and serious problems like cancer in men and women. HPV vaccination can effectively prevent HPV-related cancers and is recommended by ACIP to individuals aged 9-26. HPV vaccine uptake is low among adolescents and young adults in the US. College students have a window of opportunity to catch up with their HPV immunizations, and are often uninformed about HPV, the HPV vaccine, their eligibility to receive the HPV vaccine, and where they can obtain the HPV vaccine. An …

When Public Defenders And Prosecutors Plea Bargain Race – A More Truthful Narrative, Elayne E. Greenberg

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

This paper challenges prevailing stereotypes about public defenders and prosecutors and updates those stereotypes with a more accurate narrative about how reform-minded public defenders and prosecutors can plea bargain race to yield more equitable justice outcomes.

I was invited to the discussion about criminal justice reform in plea bargaining, because of my work in dispute resolution, dispute system design, and discrimination. Plea bargaining is a justice system negotiation that is used in upwards of 97% of criminal case dispositions. Unlike many of my colleagues in criminal justice reform who have also had years of experience working in the criminal …

Addressing Racial Inequities In The Criminal Justice System Through A Reconstruction Sentencing Approach, Jelani Jefferson Exum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Justice reform is having a moment. Across the nation and in the federal government, legislation has passed “to reduce the scale of incarceration and the impact of collateral consequences of a felony conviction.” While some of these reforms were the result of fiscal concerns over mass incarceration, others were in response to the criminal justice reckoning brought on by events of 2020 and intensified calls for racial justice. In the summer of 2020 media attention on the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sparked nationwide and global protests and accompanying antiracism pledges by individuals and institutions. This …

Unshackling Plea Bargaining From Racial Bias, Elayne E. Greenberg

Faculty Publications

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, [but] if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

Dr. Maya Angelou

When an African American male defendant tries to plea bargain an equitable justice outcome, he finds that the deep-rooted racial bias that casts African American men as dangerous, criminal and animalistic, compromises his justice rights. Plea bargaining has become the preferred process used to secure convictions for upwards of 97 percent of cases because of its efficiency. This efficiency, however, comes at a cost. The structure and process of plea bargaining makes it more likely that the historical racial …

Victims, Right?, Anna Roberts

Faculty Publications

In criminal contexts, a “victim” is typically defined as someone who has been harmed by a crime. Yet the word commonly appears in legal contexts that precede the adjudication of whether a crime has occurred. Each U.S. state guarantees “victims’ rights,” including many that apply pre-adjudication; ongoing “Marsy’s Law” efforts seek to expand and constitutionalize them nationwide. At trial, advocates, judges, and jury instructions employ this word even though the existence or not of crime (and thus of a crime victim) is a central question to be decided. This usage matters in part because of its possible consequences: it risks …

Special Education No Man's Land, Adrián E. Alvarez

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Since 2014, unaccompanied immigrant children have migrated to the United States in staggering numbers. The vast majority come from the Northern Triangle countries of Central America—El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—and many are fleeing some of the highest homicide rates in the world. Immigration lawyers have highlighted many problems with the federal regime that cares for these children before they are released to family members or other adults living in the United States while their immigration cases move forward. Yet there is one group of unaccompanied minors that is not even on the radar of many advocates: unaccompanied children with …

Presumed Punishable: Sentencing On The Streets And The Need To Protect Black Lives Through A Reinvigoration Of The Presumption Of Innocence, Jelani Jefferson Exum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Following the police killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, there has been a renewed focus on protecting Black people in America from excessive police violence. While the images of George Floyd were shocking to the public, that level of extreme violence and disregard for life has been a common aspect of the lives of Black Americans throughout history. In America, Black people are "pre­sumed punishable." Due to the historical and persistent biases against Black people, Black people find themselves subject to false assumptions about their criminality and presumptions that they are deserving of punishment. This stands …

Deapsecure Computational Training For Cybersecurity Students: Improvements, Mid-Stage Evaluation, And Lessons Learned, Wirawan Purwanto, Yuming He, Jewel Ossom, Qiao Zhang, Liuwan Zhu, Karina Arcaute, Masha Sosonkina, Hongyi Wu

University Administration Publications

DeapSECURE is a non-degree computational training program that provides a solid high-performance computing (HPC) and big-data foundation for cybersecurity students. DeapSECURE consists of six modules covering a broad spectrum of topics such as HPC platforms, big-data analytics, machine learning, privacy-preserving methods, and parallel programming. In the second year of this program, to improve the learning experience, we implemented a number of changes, such as grouping modules into two broad categories, "big-data" and "HPC"; creating a single cybersecurity storyline across the modules; and introducing post-workshop (optional) "hackshops." Two major goals of these changes are, firstly, to effectively engage students to maintain …

The Necessity Of Imagination: Using The Counterfactual Method To Overcome International Law's Epistemological Limitations, Mohsen Al Attar

National Law School of India Review

As a social phenomenon, law is subject to countless influences that shape its contours. This quality is compounded in international law, where the regime contends with the contexts, cultures, and complexities of disparate nation-states. Yet, despite international law’s evident contingency, few publicists explore the implications of this quality, preferring to engage with the regime from within the dominant history and logic. This approach narrows both scholarly imagination and regulatory potential, confining us to a contingent status quo. In the following article, I argue for the use of counterfactuals in international legal scholarship to, first, enrich our understanding of the biases …

Separating Crime From Punishment: What India’S Prisons Might Tell Us About Its Criminal Process, Abhinav Sekhri

National Law School of India Review

No abstract provided.

The Promise Of Machine Learning For The Courts Of India, Sandeep Bhupatiraju, Daniel L. Chen, Shareen Joshi

National Law School of India Review

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Equality And Justice In African Americans: Implications For Well-Being And Success, Elaney C. Ortiz

Scripps Senior Theses

Focusing on the intersections of the perceptions of legal equality and justice and lived experiences of equality and justice in the Black Community, this study seeks to find an interaction between these different perceptions of equality and justice, and well-being and success for Black Americans. Grounded in theory, but taking an original approach to this field, it is hypothesized that increased perceptions of equality and justice in either realm will increase well-being and success. Distinctly, lower perceptions of equality and justice will contribute to lower levels of well-being and success. This research is critical, as it looks at the importance …

A Call For An Intersectional Feminist Restorative Justice Approach To Addressing The Criminalization Of Black Girls, Donna Coker, Thalia Gonzalez

Articles

No abstract provided.

Bargaining Justice: Negotiating Law In An Indian Bazaar, Andy Rotman

Seattle University Law Review

This Symposium Article details the bazaars in the city of Banaras and explains why it is an especially good test case for considering the topic at hand: Corporate Capitalism and the City of God. The article explores how Banaras challenges normative views of “corporate capitalism,” both in terms of how it is practiced in the city and the rules that govern it. It further focuses on the legal system that is mobilized to guide commercial exchange and daily life in the bazaars of Banaras, this legal system’s relationship to the city’s courts and police, and the relationship between these two …

Post-Trump Intersections And “Post-Racial” Reflections: A Black Feminist Analysis Of Black Women And Navigating Structured Inequality In The U.S., 2012-2017, Jasmine K. Cooper, Ph.D.

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

Barely a decade ago, the 2008 and 2012 elections of President Barack Obama to the U.S. Executive Office propelled questions about whether the U.S. had overcome its racially oppressive history, through the presidency of a political centrist of African descent. The premature celebrations of racial transcendence in were countered shortly thereafter by the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency in 2016. The latter was accomplished partly by using “dog-whistle politics” to covertly (and overtly) bolster a tide of racialized political backlash to the prior administration. Ultimately, just after post-racialism dominated discussions on U.S. racial attitudes, an openly white …

The University Of Wyoming College Of Law At 100: A Brief History, Klint W. Alexander

Wyoming Law Review

No abstract provided.

Missouri’S Path Towards “A Meaningful Opportunity For Release.” Should Remedying Unconstitutional Sentences Permit Judicial Review Of Parole Board Decisions?, Kristen S. Spina

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Dye In The Cracks: The Limits Of Legal Frameworks Governing Police Use Of Big Data, Sarah Brayne

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Computational procedures increasingly inform how we work, communicate, and make decisions, raising sociolegal questions about how data are used by police and what the consequences are for laws governing police activity. Legal scholars have begun analyzing the implications of big data policing, yet their work to date is largely theoretical. In this article, I draw on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with the Los Angeles Police Department (“LAPD”) to ground legal debates about police use of big data in empirical detail. The article opens with a brief description of the fieldwork and findings on how the police use big data for dragnet …

The Burden Of Public Blackness And The Promise Of Black Privacy, Adeyemi Doss

The North Meridian Review

No abstract provided.

Full, North Meridian Review Staff

The North Meridian Review

No abstract provided.

Supporting Advocacy, Deliberation, And Civic Learning In The Classroom, Leslie Martin, P. Anand Rao, Adrienne Brovero, Gonzalo Campos-Dintrans, Steve Greenlaw, Pamela R. Grothe, Jason Hayob-Matzke, Jodie Hayob-Matzke, Christine Henry, Joseph Romero, Andrea Livi Smith

Interdisciplinary

We live, teach and learn in complicated times. As faculty in higher education, we have the opportunity to help uphold the civic purpose of higher education. We are accustomed to helping students navigate academic information, and to equipping them for more standard academic tasks. Through thoughtful course design, we can also help our students become better consumers and evaluators of less traditionally academic information: from critically interpreting what they read and see in the news media, to engaging the arguments of their friends, peers and family members. Further, we can challenge our students to use these evaluative skills to engage …

Meaningless Guarantees: Comment On Mitchell E. Mccloy’S “Blind Justice: Virginia’S Jury Sentencing Scheme And Impermissible Burdens On A Defendant’S Right To A Jury Trial”, Alexandra L. Klein

Washington and Lee Law Review

Despite the important role that jurors play in the American criminal justice system, jurors are often deprived of critical information that might help them make sense of the law their oaths require them to follow. Such information with regard to sentencing might include the unavailability of parole, geriatric release, sentencing guidelines, or other information that is relevant to determining a defendant’s penalty. Withholding information from juries, particularly in sentencing, risks unjust and inequitable sentences. Keeping jurors in the dark perpetuates injustices and undermines public confidence and trust in the justice system.

Mitch McCloy’s excellent Note provides a compelling illustration of …

Prisoners, Power And Panopticon: Investigating Fremantle Gaol, 1831-1841, Emily Lanman

Theses

The history of crime and punishment is intertwined with Australia’s colonisation, including the foundation of the Swan River Colony in 1829. It can be demonstrated that Jeremy Bentham’s writings on criminal reform, specifically through his work on the panopticon model prison, influenced the development of punishment and prisons in the colony. This is evident in the construction of Fremantle Gaol (1831), which was built on the principles set forth by the panopticon and provides an interesting insight into what was deemed important in the penal system the colony continued to establish between 1831 and 1841. While Fremantle Gaol conformed to …