Digital Commons Network^™

Remedying Wrongful Execution, Meghan J. Ryan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The first legal determination of wrongful execution in the United States may very well be in the making in Texas. One of the state's district courts is in the midst of investigating whether Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004, was actually innocent. The court's investigation has been interrupted by objections from Texas prosecutors, but if the court proceeds, this may very well become a bona fide case of wrongful execution. Texas, just like other jurisdictions, is ill equipped to provide any relief for such an egregious wrong, however. This Article identifies the difficulties that the heirs, families, and …

Constitutional Limits On The Right Of Government Investigators To Interview And Examine Alleged Victims Of Child Abuse Or Neglect, Teri Dobbins Baxter

Scholarly Works

Investigating allegations of child abuse or neglect presents unique challenges, particularly if parents or guardians are the alleged perpetrators. Those accused of harming the children are in a position to prevent the victims from getting access to the help they need to escape their abuser(s). The courts have not clearly defined the federal constitutional boundaries of searches and seizures in this context. The Supreme Court, in particular, has not weighed in on the constitutionality of warrantless searches and seizures in connection with abuse and neglect investigations. This lack of Supreme Court guidance has led to unpredictable and sometimes conflicting opinions …

Reducing Courts’ Failure-To-Appear Rate By Written Reminders, Brian H. Bornstein, Alan J. Tomkins, Elizabeth M. Neeley, Mitchel N. Herian, Joseph A. Hamm

Alan Tomkins Publications

This article examines the effectiveness of using different kinds of written reminders to reduce misdemeanor defendants’ failure-to-appear (FTA) rates. A subset of defendants was surveyed after their scheduled court date to assess their perceptions of procedural justice and trust and confidence in the courts. Reminders reduced FTA overall, and more substantive reminders (e.g., with information on the negative consequences of FTA) were more effective than a simple reminder. FTA varied depending on several offense and offender characteristics, such as geographic location (urban vs. rural), type of offense, and number of offenses. The reminders were somewhat more effective for Whites and …

Capital Punishment And Race: Racial Culture Of The South, Jerry Joubert

Undergraduate Review

There are currently 34 states with the death penalty and 16 states without the death penalty in the United States. According to the most recent report from the Death Penalty Information Center, there have been 1276 executions in the United States since 1976. In the year 2011 alone, there were 42 executions. This was 4 executions less than the previous year. Among the 1276 total executions in the United States since 1976, 1048 have taken place in the South. There are approximately 3,251 inmates on death row. African-Americans represent 42% of these inmates (Death Penalty Information Center, 2011). This statistic …

Juvenile Life Without Parole, Kallee Spooner

Undergraduate Review

The purpose of this paper is to analyze data, policy trends, and legal concerns on the issue of sentencing juvenile offenders to life without the possibility of parole (LWOP). Policy changes in the 1980s and 90s dramatically changed the sentencing outcomes for juvenile offenders. Significantly departing from the rehabilitative goals established by the juvenile court, states adopted harsher punishments, including LWOP. During this shift, the diminished culpability of youth became insignificant when compared to the nature of their crimes. The recent cases of Roper v. Simmons (2005) and Graham v. Florida (2010) reinstated the importance of recognizing that juveniles are …

Tangled Up In Law: The Jurisprudence Of Bob Dylan, Michael L. Perlin

Fordham Urban Law Journal

In this Article, I will try to create a topography of Bob-as-jurisprudential scholar by looking at selected Dylan songs in these discrete areas of law (and law-and-society): civil rights; inequality of the criminal justice system; institutions; governmental/judicial corruption; equality and emancipation (political and economic); poverty, the environment, and inequality of the civil justice system; and the role of lawyers and the legal process.

Pain, Love, And Voice: The Role Of Domestic Violence Victims In Sentencing, Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg, Dana Pugach

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Criminal law systems throughout the world have evolved to a stage where they no longer ask, "What is the appropriate role of the victim in a criminal trial?" The questions now relate to the scope of the victim's rights, in which procedures she has independent standing, and at what stage she should be heard. The process of the "prosecution stepping into the victim's shoes," whereby the state controls the entire criminal process, seemingly on behalf of the victim, has been replaced by the recognition that the interests of the prosecution (the State) are not always consistent with those of the …

The Border Of Juveniles And Criminal Justice, Vicki Ann Mellenberger

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

No abstract provided.

Illich (Via Cayley) On Prisons, Giovanna Shay

Western New England Law Review

This Article considers whether, more than a dozen years after publication of Cayley’s book The Expanding Prison: The Crisis in Crime and Punishment and the Search for Alternatives, Illich’s theories help us to make sense of America’s “prison-industrial complex.” The Author concludes that our current situation reflects in part the dynamics of his theory of “counterproductivity,” but that Illich did not take sufficient account of the salience of race and class in American criminal punishment.

The Emerging Enforcement Practice Of The International Criminal Court, Hirad Abtahi, Steven Arrigg Koh

Cornell International Law Journal

The dual enforcement regime of the International Criminal Court constitutes a fundamental pillar of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and represents a novel system within the history of international criminal law. This article is the first to focus on the emerging practice of the Court as it begins developing and implementing this unique enforcement regime. Drawing directly from the recent history within the Presidency and focusing on the current activities of the Trust Fund for Victims, this Article explains how, why, and in what direction the Court's enforcement practice is evolving.

Play Fair With Recidivists, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Retributivists thus face a difficult challenge. Either we must go against the social grain, and perhaps our own intuitions, by insisting that a criminal offense carry the same penalty or punishment no matter how many previous convictions an offender has accrued; or we must find a way to justify the recidivist premium. I shall take the second route here by arguing that recidivism itself is a kind of criminal offense. In developing this argument, I shall rely on Youngjae Lee's insightful analysis of "recidivism as omission." I shall complement his analysis, however, by grounding it in a conception of criminal …

Public Attitudes Toward Crime Control In Contemporary China : A Multilevel Analysis, Yue Zhuo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study applies the Western sociological theories in the Chinese context and systematically explores crime control attitudes in contemporary China. This research links individual-level data from the 2005 China General Social Survey with contextual-level data from China Procuratorial Yearbooks, Chinese Population Census 2000, and China Statistical Yearbooks. A multilevel framework informed by the instrumental perspective, the constructionist/conflict perspective, and the symbolic perspective is adopted to examine the individual-level and contextual-level social factors that affect the three dimensions of public attitudes toward crime control - satisfaction, spending, and due process.

Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Grant, Nebraska Strategic Plan, 2012-2015, Ryan E. Spohn, Melissa Gray, Mike Behm, Lisa Stamm

Reports

The Consortium for Crime and Justice Research (CCJR) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha was tasked by the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice to facilitate the development of a three-year strategic plan for the use of Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistant Grant (JAG) funds. The Crime Commission serves as the State Administering Agency that is responsible for funding projects that fit into one or more of the seven JAG purpose areas: law enforcement programs; planning, evaluation, and technology improvement programs; prevention and education programs; drug treatment and enforcement programs; corrections and community corrections programs; prosecution and …

Frye And Lafler: No Big Deal, Gerard E. Lynch

Faculty Scholarship

The only surprise about the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Missouri v. Frye and Lafler v. Cooper is that there were four dissents. The decisions are straightforward recognitions that the defendants in those cases received unquestionably derelict representation, to their considerable prejudice. The decisions do not represent a novelty in the law, but rather continue the longstanding recognition by the courts that “plea bargaining” is an integral part of our criminal justice system – indeed, I have argued at length that it is our criminal justice system – and that minimal competence of defense lawyers in dealing with that process …

The Influence Of Past Racism On Criminal Injustice: A Review Of The New Jim Crow And The Condemnation Of Blackness, Jelani Jefferson Exum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

There are books that, on their own, are informative and moving. But, oftentimes, reading books together—one right after the other—compounds each works’ transformative power. Michelle Alexander’s much-needed report (calling it simply a book hardly does it justice), The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, can certainly stand on its own as an important statement about the current use of mass incarceration to maintain a racial caste system in the United States. The same strength can be found in The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, Khalil Gibran …

Prosecutors And Bargaining In Weak Cases: A Comparative View, Jenia I. Turner

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

One of the most controversial uses of prosecutorial discretion in plea bargaining concerns cases involving weak evidence of guilt. When a prosecutor bargains about the charges or even the facts in a case with weak evidence, at least three problems may arise. First, if the charge bargain is generous, it may coerce an innocent defendant to plead guilty. Second, such a bargain may let a guilty defendant off too easily, thus disserving the public and victim’s interests. Third, if the parties bargain about the facts, the result may distort the truth of the case.

In this book chapter, I examine …

Are Prosecutors Born Or Made?, Abbe Smith

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In more than thirty years of criminal law practice--from public defender in Philadelphia to professor running a criminal law clinic in New York, Boston, and DC--the author has had countless encounters with prosecutors and countless conversations. Early in her career, the encounters and conversations were noteworthy--something to rail about back at the office, or to "dine out on" with friends. Soon enough they became commonplace, not even worthy of mention, just the way things were. But the author felt it important to pick a few examples and talk about them.

January Roundtable: Crime And Human Rights In Brazil: The Police Pacification Units, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Brazil slum raids impress, but what's the impact?” By Bradley Brooks. Huffington Post, November 14, 2011.

Keynote: The Crisis And Criminal Justice, Bernard Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

There has been a lot of recent debate over whether the economic crisis presents an opportunity to reduce prison populations and improve the state of criminal justice in this country. Some commentators suggest that the financial crisis has already triggered a move towards reducing the incarcerated population. Some claim that there is a new climate of bipartisanship on punishment. Kara Gotsch of the Sentencing Project, for example, suggests that we are now in a unique political climate embodied by the passage of the Second Chance Act under President George W. Bush – a climate that is substantially different than the …

Overcriminalization For Lack Of Better Options: A Celebration Of Bill Stuntz, Daniel C. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

The unity of Bill Stuntz's character – his profound integrity – makes it easy to move from a celebration of his friendship (which I’ve treasured since we first met back in 1985) to one of his scholarship, for creativity, wisdom, and humility are strengths not just of Bill himself but of his work. Even as his broad brush strokes have fundamentally advanced our understanding of the interplay between substantive criminal law, criminal procedure, and criminal justice institutions over time, Bill's work – like Bill himself – welcomes and endures sustained engagement. Humility is appropriate for me, too, as I offer …

"The Good Mother": Mothering, Feminism, And Incarceration, Deseriee A. Kennedy

Scholarly Works

As the rates of incarceration continue to rise, women are increasingly subject to draconian criminal justice and child welfare policies that frequently result in the loss of their parental rights. The intersection of an increasingly carceral state and federally imposed timelines for achieving permanency for children in state care has had a negative effect on women, their children, and their communities. Women, and their ability to parent, are more adversely affected by the intersection of these gender-neutral provisions because they are more likely than men to be the primary caretaker of their children. In addition, incarcerated women have higher rates …

Brief Of Amici Curiae On Behalf Of Appellants, Paul Dewolfe, Jr., Et Al. V. Quinton Richmond, Et Al., 2011 No. 34, A.J. Bellido De Luna, Michael Pinard

Court Briefs

In this case the appellants sought to overturn a decision by the Circuit Court for Baltimore City that held criminal defendants have a right to representation by an attorney at an initial bail hearing. Due to their concern about the quality of justice given to criminal defendants in the state’s criminal justice process, law professors at both the University of Baltimore and the University of Maryland filed an amicus brief with the Maryland Court of Appeals in support of the appellees.

The amici presented one issue: Did a Court of Appeals decision in 2001 holding that the Maryland Public Defender …

Where Do We Go From Here: Plea Colloquy Warnings And Immigration Consequences Post-Padilla, Vivian Chang

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note argues for the passage of criminal procedure rules that would require judges to warn criminal defendants about immigration consequences at plea colloquy. Part I addresses the overlap of criminal and immigration law, arguing that the increased use of the criminal justice system to police federal immigration laws calls for greater protection of non-citizen defendants at plea colloquy. Part II then addresses the legal duties imposed on both defense counsel and trial courts in relation to plea colloquy. Padilla merely addressed the duty of defense counsel to provide constitutionally effective assistance before plea colloquy and did not reach the …

Overcriminalization: Is There A Problem To Solve?, Roger Fairfax

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Alaska Justice Forum ; Vol. 28, No. 2-3 (Summer / Fall 2011), Antonia Moras, N/A Bureau Of Justice Statistics

Vols 21-30 (2004-2014)

The Summer/Fall 2011 issue of the Alaska Justice Forum features articles on immigration in Alaska, a pilot project for Anchorage probation violators, Alaska's five-year plan for offender reentry, and the impact of Village Public Safety Officers (VPSOs) in violence against women cases.

Coping Methods Of Female Correctional Officers, Kathryn Flannery

Justice Studies Theses

A huge population increase has happened in the last 39 years for females working in the correctional field. Unfortunately, the research has barely kept up with such gender progress in the workforce. A much needed study on stress and the female correctional officer was conducted to evaluate three certain hypotheses: it is hypothesized that years of service are associated with different stress levels, that years of service is associated with different coping strategies, and that stress and coping are negatively related. Independent T-tests, multiple ANOVAs, and one-way ANOVAs found that there were not any correlational relationships for years in service …

O.P.P.: How "Occupy's" Race-Based Privilege May Improve Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence For All, Lenese C. Herbert

Seattle University Law Review

This Article submits that Occupy’s race problem could, ironically, prove to be a solution if protesters grow more serious about exposing the injury of political subordination and systems of privilege that adhere to the criminal justice system. Privilege is a “systemic conferral of benefit and advantage [as a result of] affiliation, conscious or not and chosen or not, to the dominant side of a power system.” Accordingly, now that police mistreatment affects them personally, Occupy may finally help kill a fictitious Fourth Amendment jurisprudence that ignores oppression through improper policing based on racial stigma. Occupy may also help usher in …

Analyzing Stops, Citations, And Searches In Washington And Beyond, Mario L. Barnes, Robert S. Chang

Seattle University Law Review

Racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system is a fact. But the fact of racial disproportionality is the beginning and not the end of the conversation. The fact that blacks are overrepresented in stop, arrest, charge, pretrial detention, conviction, and incarceration statistics demonstrates only correlation and not causation. A number of commentators caution that disproportionality and the overrepresentation of blacks, Native-Americans, and Hispanics in Washington State’s prisons do not prove racial discrimination. Further, the fact of disproportionality at each stage of criminal justice processing does not prove that racial discrimination occurs at each particular stage. For example, the observed disproportionality …

Whither Criminology?: On The State Of Criminology's Paradigm, Brendan David Dooley

Dissertations

What is the condition of criminology’s paradigm? The reply to this question has implications bearing on the profession’s bona fides as a science as well as its sustainability as an independent academic enterprise. The work attempts to capture the elusive term through the use of five themes: theoretical consensus, methodological consensus, boundaries, the departure from sociology, and the current and future status of the field. In approaching this question the work presents an analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seventeen renowned criminologists. The centerpiece of the latter data set was assembled and analyzed in …

Restorative Justice In Schools: An Examination Of Peace Circles Within Monroe High School, Christian Isaac

Theses

Literature suggests that restorative justice programs can have improved outcomes when examining recidivism rates and satisfaction levels of both victim and offender in many instances compared to traditional approaches. Partners in Restorative Initiatives implemented peace circles and community conferencing, both restorative justice programs, within James Monroe High School in Rochester, NY. The practice of peace circles within Monroe High School was explored in comparison to theory and current national and international uses of peace circles. This paper discussed the restorative justice approach of using peace circles within James Monroe High School in Rochester, NY and how it affected perceptions of …