Digital Commons Network^™

Harnessing Payne: Controlling The Admission Of Victim Impact Statements To Safeguard Capital Sentencing Hearings From Passion And Prejudice, Beth E. Sullivan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article begins by tracing the historical development of victim impact evidence through Supreme Court jurisprudence and state legislation and analyzes their use in the sentencing of phase capital punishment trials. It argues that the Supreme Court's decision in Payne V Tennessee allowing a jury to consider victim impact evidence in capital punishment sentencing is troublesome in light of a capital punishment defendant's constitutional rights, the history of the death penalty and traditional sentencing procedures. It concludes with a proposal for guidelines to regulates the use of such evidence in capital punishment sentencing,

Lost Lives: Miscarriages Of Justice In Capital Cases, Samuel R. Gross

Articles

One of the longstanding complaints against the death penalty is that it "distort[s] the course of the criminal law."' Capital prosecutions are expensive and complicated; they draw sensational attention from the press; they are litigated-before, during, and after trial-at greater length and depth than other felonies; they generate more intense emotions, for and against; they last longer and live in memory. There is no dispute about these effects, only about their significance. To opponents of the death penalty, they range from minor to severe faults; to proponents, from tolerable costs to major virtues. ntil recently, however, the conviction of innocent …

Gender, Race, And Court Location Effects On Exceptional Sentencing In The State Of Washington, Catherine L. Drezak

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Policy statements by the Sentencing Commission for the State of Washington emphasize that gender, race, and community ties are irrelevant to sentencing decisions. Based on prior sentencing practices, these policies carry the potential to incorporate unrecognized sentencing disparity practices into the proposed sentencing equality solution. Using Washington's sentencing data under current sentencing guideline structures, this research examined the sentencing outcomes with respect to sentences given outside the guidelines. This study was designed to address the research questions: What effect, if any, does gender have on exceptional sentence outcome? To what extent, if any, is race a factor in determining gender …

The Limits Of Legal Language: Decisionmaking In Capital Cases, Jordan M. Steiker

Michigan Law Review

To make the case for the proposed changes, I will first describe briefly in Parts I and II the structure of pre- and post-Furman capital decisiorurtaking and the weaknesses of those approaches. I then will set forth in Part III the specific rationales for each proposed reform.

The scheme I propose raises a significant constitutional question. Can the death penalty be retained as a punishment if we abandon the pretense of providing meaningful guidance through detailed sentencing instructions? Would the reestablishment of relatively unstructured penalty phase deliberations similar to, but also importantly different from, those characteristic of pre-Furman …

When Discretion Leads To Distortion: Recognizing Pre-Arrest Sentence-Manipulation Claims Under The Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Jeffrey L. Fisher

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that sentence manipulation should be a legally viable partial defense - a defense that does not warrant complete exoneration, but does warrant a reduced sentence when the government's investigative techniques place a quantity of drugs before the court that overrepresents the defendant's culpability, or individual blameworthiness. Part I describes the policies and objectives that underlie the Guidelines, but then demonstrates how the rigid application of quantity-based sentencing provisions can lead to sentence manipulation that thwarts these goals, particularly the goal of sentencing according to culpability. Part II describes how courts have responded to sentence manipulation claims. It …

Alaska Justice Forum ; Vol. 13, No. 1 (Spring 1996), Lerman N/A, N/A Bureau Of Justice Statistics, N/A National Institute Of Justice, N/A Uaa Justice Center

Vols 11-20 (1994-2004)

The Spring 1996 issue of the Alaska Justice Forum presents an account based on historical research of the trial and execution for murder of a Native fisherman, Nelson Charles, in Juneau in 1939 — one of the last executions in Alaska, which abolished the death penalty in 1957. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports on capital punishment in the U.S. in 1994, during which 13 states executed 31 prisoners. The second of two articles on the village component of a statewide public safety project conducted in 1994 by the Justice Center for the Alaska Department of Public Safety focuses on …

Fact-Bargaining: An American Phenomenon, William T. Pizzi

Publications

No abstract provided.

Towards A Common Law Of Sentencing: Developing Judicial Precedent In Cyberspace , Robert W. Sweet, D. Evan Van Hook, Edward V. Di Lello

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Punishment And Procedure: A Different View Of The American Criminal Justice System, William T. Pizzi

Publications

No abstract provided.

Sentencing Criminals: The Constitutionality Of Victim Impact Statements, Carrie L. Mulholland

Missouri Law Review

Most jurisdictions around the country permit juries to consider victim impact statements, statements taken from the family of a victim of violent crime relating to the family's loss, during the sentencing phase of criminal trials. In 1994, the Missouri Supreme Court followed this trend in State v. Wise by approving the use of victim impact statements, and allowing the statements to be presented to the jury at the sentencing stage of a capital punishment trial. Despite the constitutionality of the introduction of a victim's family's statements, the statements have been severely criticized for: (1) rendering the sentencing of a criminal …

Putting Women First, Mary Coombs

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Gender, Crime, and Punishment by Kathleen Daly

The Romance Of Revenge: An Alternative History Of Jeffrey Dahmer's Trial, Samuel R. Gross

Articles

On Feb. 17, 1992, Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to fifteen consecutive terms of life imprisonment for killing and dismembering fifteen young men and boys. Dahmer had been arrested six months earlier, on July 22, 1991. On Jan. 13 he pled guilty to the fifteen murder counts against him, leaving open only the issue of his sanity. Jury selection began two weeks later, and the trial proper started on Jan. 30. The jury heard two weeks of horrifying testimony about murder, mutilation and necrophilia; they deliberated for five hours before finding that Dahmer was sane when he committed thos crimes. After …

Appellate Determinacy: The Sentencing Philosophy Of The United States Court Of Appeals For The Third Circuit, Gary S. Gildin

Faculty Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Age Of Criminal Responsibility In An Era Of Violence: Has Great Britain Set A New International Standard?, Stephanie J. Millet

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

With the alarming rise of juvenile crime and violence during the past decade, policymakers across the international community have struggled to develop effective juvenile criminal justice systems apart from the existing systems tailored to adults. The wide variations in methods and philosophies utilized in different states indicate that there is no consensus on the proper treatment of young offenders. Using the recent Bulger case as a focus, this Note examines two competing paradigms of juvenile justice found within the British juvenile justice system, with particular emphasis on the age of criminal responsibility. After discussing recent developments in Great Britain's juvenile …

Proportionality As A Guiding Principle In Young Offender Dispositions, Paul Riley

Dalhousie Law Journal

Sentencing is traditionally regarded as one of the most difficult and challenging functions of the criminal justice system. In arriving at the appropriate sanction to be imposed upon an offender, a court must reconcile the principles and objectives of the criminal law with the criminal act committed, the circumstances surrounding its commission, and the character of the offender who committed it. The court must, with the guidance of a few abstract, broadly philosophical, and often contradictory principles of sentencing, decide upon a sanction which is appropriate in the very concrete and factually specific case within which it is presented. This …

Testing Trial Advocacy: A Law Professor's Brief Life As A Public Defender, Gary S. Gildin

Faculty Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Go And Sin No More: Rationality And Release Decisions By Parole Boards, Victoria Palacios

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sotto Voce: The Supreme Court's Low Key But Not Insignificant Criminal Law Rulings During The 1992 Term, William E. Hellerstein

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Capital Punishment's Future, Welsh S. White

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Capital Punishment in America by Raymond Paternoster

Alaska Justice Forum ; Vol. 9, No. 4 (Winter 1993), A. B. Dellinger, N. E. Schafer, N/A Bureau Of Justice Statistics, John E. Angell, Roger C. Miller

Vols 01-10 (1977-1994)

The Winter 1993 issue of the Alaska Justice Forum examines evidence from the discontinued Alaska Pretrial Intervention Program (PTI), as a basis for discussing new alternatives to incarceration in a time of crowded prisons and a runaway corrections budget. The Bureau of Justice Statistics describes drug enforcement and treatment methods being used in federal and state prisons in the U.S. Community policing as an alternative to traditional urban policing methods is examined.

Maiming The Soul: Judges, Sentencing And The Myth Of The Nonviolent Rapist, Lynn Hecht Schafran

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Rape, by definition and in sentencing, is a crime that is predicated on a male-defined concept of violence. The lack of knowledge about rape trauma produces erroneous assessments or rape and erroneous sentences for rapists. The inability to recognize the damage cause by a "nonviolent" rape trivializes the seriousness of the crime and devalues the individual victim. Judges and attorneys must expand their definitions of violence to include injury to the victim's psyche.

Jails And Prisons -- Reservoirs Of Tb Disease: Should Defendants With Hiv Infection (Who Cannot Swim) Be Thrown Into The Reservoir?, Faith Colangelo, Mariana Hogan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The resurgence of tuberculosis (TB) in urban areas has direct and alarming consequences within the criminal justice system. Lock-up facilities, jails and prisons are TB breeding grounds. TB strikes with vengeance in populations with physical vulnerabilities caused by alcoholism, drug addiction, malnutrition, and HIV/AIDS and other immune-suppressing conditions. This Essay argues that it is time for New York State to reevaluate the mandatory sentencing laws and restrictions on plea bargaining. The interaction of HIV disease and TB offers a striking example of why justice is not served by binding the judiciary's hands. This Essay provides a medical overview of HIV …

The Romance Of Revenge: Capital Punishment In America, Samuel R. Gross

Articles

On February 17, 1992, Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to 15 consecutive terms of life imprisonment for killing and dismembering 15 young men and boys (Associated Press 1992a). Dahmer had been arrested six months earlier, on July 22, 1991. On January 13 he pled guilty to the fifteen murder counts against him, leaving open only the issue of his sanity. Jury selection began two weeks later, and the trial proper started on January 30. The jury heard two weeks of testimony about murder, mutilation and necrophilia; they deliberated for 5 hours before finding that Dahmer was sane when he committed these …

Some Worries About Sentencing Guidelines, William T. Pizzi

Publications

No abstract provided.

Alaska Justice Forum ; Vol. 8, No. 4 (Winter 1992), Lawrence C. Trostle, Darren Mcshea, Russell Perras, N/A Bureau Of Justice Statistics, N. E. Schafer, Michael P. Tubbs, Lisa Rieger

Vols 01-10 (1977-1994)

The Winter 1992 issue of the Alaska Justice Forum features findings from a study on the nonenforcement role of Village Public Safety Officers (VPSOs), figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics on crime victimization experienced by students aged 12 to 19 in U.S. schools, an analysis of residents of a community corrections center in Anchorage, and a summary of findings from the Alaska Sentencing Commissions 1991 annual report.

Bright Lines, Dark Deeds: Counting Convictions Under The Armed Career Criminal Act, James E. Hooper

Michigan Law Review

The Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984 (ACCA) enables the federal government to help state authorities more effectively prosecute "career criminals.'' The ACCA imposes a mandatory sentence of at least fifteen years, and up to life imprisonment, for illegal possession of a firearm by anyone who has three prior convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses "committed on occasions different from one another."

To apply the ACCA, judges must determine first whether the defendant's prior convictions meet the definitions of "violent felony or serious drug offense," and secondly whether the offenses were committed on different occasions so that they …

Alaska Justice Forum ; Vol. 7, No. 4 (Winter 1991), Rieger N/A, N/A Bureau Of Justice Statistics, Nella Lee

Vols 01-10 (1977-1994)

The Winter 1991 issue of the Alaska Justice Forum discusses the first year of work by the Alaska Sentencing Commission, which was created by an act of the Alaska Legislature to evaluate the effect of sentencing laws and practices on Alaska's criminal justice system and to recommend improvements in criminal sentencing practices. The Bureau of Justice Statistics presents a detailed examination of data on rape from the National Crime Survey for 1973 to 1987. Crime statistics for sixteen predominately Yup'ik villages in the Bethel area of Alaska for 1983–1987 are presented.

Criminal Law 1991 Legislative Update, Philip A. Cherner, H. Patrick Furman

Publications

No abstract provided.

After The Fall: The Criminal Law Enforcement Response To The S&L Crisis, Bruce A. Green

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Alaska Justice Forum ; Vol. 7, No. 3 (Fall 1990), Trostle C. N/A, N/A Bureau Of Justice Statistics, Lisa Rieger

Vols 01-10 (1977-1994)

The Fall 1990 issue of the Alaska Justice Forum presents findings from a report on the progress of Los Angeles Police Department in actively recruiting women and minorities in response to a 1980 federal consent decree mandating changes in its recruitment, selection, training, and employment practices. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports statistics on criminal victimization for 1989 from the National Crime Survey, which measures personal and household offenses, including crimes not reported to police. The Alaska Sentencing Commission, created to evaluate Alaska’s sentencing laws and practices and to recommend improvements, begins its work.