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Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Law
A Civil Shame: The Failure To Protect Due Process In Discretionary Immigration Bond Hearings, Stacy L. Brustin
A Civil Shame: The Failure To Protect Due Process In Discretionary Immigration Bond Hearings, Stacy L. Brustin
Brooklyn Law Review
Over the last four years, the US Supreme Court has granted certiorari in four immigration bond review cases. The sheer number of cases the Court has recently considered underscores the significance of this area of immigration law. Each case centers on whether the Immigration and Nationality Act or the Constitution mandates a bond review hearing after prolonged detention. Yet these cases leave unresolved the issue of whether initial bond hearings themselves meet the due process threshold required of civil confinement proceedings. Federal circuit and district courts have addressed aspects of this question and found procedural due process violations. However, most …
Foreword: The Role Of The “Victim” In The Criminal Legal System, Kate Mogulescu
Foreword: The Role Of The “Victim” In The Criminal Legal System, Kate Mogulescu
Brooklyn Law Review
On September 24, 2021, the Brooklyn Law Review brought together scholars looking at the role of the “victim” in the criminal legal system. Of consideration were the following questions: Who is labeled a victim and how does that impact outcomes and process? Where does the issue of victimization emerge, how is it received and what should the system’s response be? Who gets a voice? And when? Does the existing victim-offender binary further exacerbate a criminal legal system build on misogyny, xenophobia, and white supremacy? The series of articles and essays that make up this issue reflect the symposium’s multidimensional discussion …
Should Victims’ Views Influence Prosecutors’ Decisions?, Bruce A. Green, Brandon P. Ruben
Should Victims’ Views Influence Prosecutors’ Decisions?, Bruce A. Green, Brandon P. Ruben
Brooklyn Law Review
This article seeks to promote a conversation about how prosecutors, particularly in misdemeanor cases with identifiable victims, should take account of what victims want, including what they regard as the just result. The criminal law assumes that victims want retribution, which means incarcerating offenders, and prosecutors’ offices largely accept that premise. We argue that in a process that generally is weighted toward punishment and excessive use of state power, prosecutors should ascertain victims’ actual views and take them into account as a counterweight. That is, when prosecutors would otherwise pursue a misdemeanor prosecution, they should generally defer to victims’ informed …
Blame The Victim: How Mistreatment By The State Is Used To Legitimize Police Violence, Tamara Rice Lave
Blame The Victim: How Mistreatment By The State Is Used To Legitimize Police Violence, Tamara Rice Lave
Brooklyn Law Review
The surprising thing about George Floyd is not that he was killed by the police. What is remarkable is that the officer who killed him was charged, convicted, and sentenced to more than twenty-two years in prison. This article examines the institutional mechanisms that support police violence against Black people. In the process, it illuminates the insidious ways in which state actors exploit structural social, economic, and health mistreatment to legitimize police violence. After exploring these issues, this article provides suggestions to reform our institutions in a manner that will bring about meaningful and lasting change.
Parole, Victim Impact Evidence, And Race, Alexis Karteron
Parole, Victim Impact Evidence, And Race, Alexis Karteron
Brooklyn Law Review
Parole offers the possibility of release for a substantial number of incarcerated people in the United States, the world’s largest jailer, but is seriously understudied. In particular, the role of victims and race in the parole decision-making process deserves attention. Decades of research has shown that the “race-of-victim effect” leads to more punitive sentences when white victimhood is at issue. In the parole context, the ubiquity of victim impact statements and the emotional responses they trigger raise the likelihood that the “race-of-victim effect” plagues parole decision-making as well. This essay calls for greater data collection and scrutiny into the role …
Rotten Social Background And Mass Incarceration: Who Is A Victim?, Steven Zeidman
Rotten Social Background And Mass Incarceration: Who Is A Victim?, Steven Zeidman
Brooklyn Law Review
Despite the theoretical right to be heard at different junctures in the criminal legal system, in practice, the right is unsecured for many accused and convicted of various offenses. Criminal defendants are rarely heard at trial, upon sentencing, or at parole board interviews to determine eligibility for release. Consequently, these individuals are not able to offer explanations for their behavior. This is particularly harmful given the role that “severe environmental deprivation” or, sometimes controversially referred to as “rotten social background,” plays in criminal behavior. Research now indicates that societal shortcomings, including a lack of healthcare, education, and employment opportunities, combined …
The Victim/Offender Overlap And Criminal System Reform, Cynthia Godsoe
The Victim/Offender Overlap And Criminal System Reform, Cynthia Godsoe
Brooklyn Law Review
Victimization makes people more likely to harm others, and vice versa. In short, “hurt people hurt people.” This victim/offender overlap is especially pronounced in sexual and violent offenses. Unfortunately, the criminal law continues to imagine victims and offenders in two different and mutually exclusive categories, each rigidly defined and morally laden. I first encountered this phenomenon while representing teenagers termed “crossover youth” due to their being both in the foster care system and the juvenile criminal system, and was surprised to find so little on this topic in the criminal law literature. Beginning to fill this gap is an important …
What Are Victim Impact Statements For?, Susan A. Bandes
What Are Victim Impact Statements For?, Susan A. Bandes
Brooklyn Law Review
In Payne v. Tennessee, the US Supreme Court upheld the admission of victim impact statements (VIS) on the ground that they provide valuable information to the sentencer. In the three decades since, two additional rationales for VIS have become ascendant: most prominently, a therapeutic rationale, and more recently, a public education rationale. In this article, I expand upon my critiques of the informational and therapeutic rationales in light of a growing body of empirical evidence about how VIS affect both sentencers and crime victims. Focusing on the powerful and viral VIS delivered at the Larry Nassar guilty plea hearings and …
Giving Meaning To The Apostrophe In Victim[’]S Rights, Margaret Garvin
Giving Meaning To The Apostrophe In Victim[’]S Rights, Margaret Garvin
Brooklyn Law Review
There is a lack of consistency in how courts interpret the use or placement of an apostrophe on “victim.” While this may seem like a minor grammatical or typological error, it has a tremendous effect on victim’s rights, as it virtually erases the victim due to the confusion over the ownership of said rights. This essay analyzes how the placement of the apostrophe, in cases dealing with subpoenas duces tecum, have led courts to interpret victim rights in multiple ways, but all with the same outcome—excluding the actual victim from consideration. This causes the actual victims, even when the court …
Defense Counsel’S Cross Purposes: Prior Conviction Impeachment Of Prosecution Witnesses, Anna Roberts
Defense Counsel’S Cross Purposes: Prior Conviction Impeachment Of Prosecution Witnesses, Anna Roberts
Brooklyn Law Review
A broad scholarly coalition supports the prohibition or diminution of the impeachment of criminal defendants with their convictions. Yet scholars should pay more attention to the flipside arrangement: impeachment of prosecution witnesses by defense counsel. First, because those engaged in reform efforts need to resolve the competing interests: constitutional arguments on behalf of the defense, but, on the other hand, concerns about a tool that (regardless of the nature of the witness) risks reinforcing biases and stereotypes. Second, because the impossibility of adequate resolution is itself important to note. Whether one considers the conflicting values of rule-makers deciding whether to …
Protecting The Constitution While Protecting Victims: Challenges To Pro Se Cross-Examination, Katharine L. Manning
Protecting The Constitution While Protecting Victims: Challenges To Pro Se Cross-Examination, Katharine L. Manning
Brooklyn Law Review
Defendants have constitutional rights to cross-examine witnesses and to represent themselves. But when these rights are combined, they can have devastating effects on crime victims. All too often, defendants use the rights in a last-ditch effort to harass, bully, and intimidate the crime’s victims, sometimes leading to a dismissal of charges altogether, as victims withdraw their testimony to avoid personal cross-examination by the defendant. It does not have to be this way. Numerous courts have allowed standby counsel to conduct cross-examination of the victim within constitutional constraints. This article explores the limitations courts have imposed on pro se cross-examination to …
Keeping Guns In The Hands Of Abusive Partners: Prosecutorial And Judicial Subversion Of Federal Firearms Laws, Bonnie Carlson
Keeping Guns In The Hands Of Abusive Partners: Prosecutorial And Judicial Subversion Of Federal Firearms Laws, Bonnie Carlson
Brooklyn Law Review
State actors are imbued with the power of the government to enforce and apply the law. When they use that power to instead inhibit a law’s enforcement, they are engaging in subversion. Subversion is problematic on its face: it frustrates legislative intent, creates confusion, and destabilizes the separation of powers foundational to our democracy. But subversion is particularly insidious when it is done to the detriment of vulnerable individuals. That is the case when state prosecutors and judges purposefully undermine federal law intended to keep firearms out of the hands of abusive partners. Guns and domestic violence can be a …