Law Commons^™

The Significance Of Private Burdens And Lost Benefits For A Fair-Play Analysis Of Punishment, Shawn J. Bayern

Scholarly Publications

This article considers the relevance of several kinds of post-offense events for the justice of punishment under a fair-play account of retributivism. If the justice of punishment depends on something like an offender-centered tally of benefits and burdens, it may be difficult to explain why offenders should be punished by a criminal justice system in situations where they have been punished privately or have lost the relevant benefits they may have received from their offenses. My fault is past.

But, O, what form of prayer

Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder?

That cannot be; since I am …

Criminal Justice Federalism And National Sex Offender Policy, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

This paper, part of a symposium, examines the federal government's sustained effort to recast state policies regarding sex offender registration and community notification laws. While commentators have typically focused on federal Commerce Clause-based incursions on state criminal justice authority, with registration and notification the U.S. has invoked the Spending Clause, a less controversial yet more invasive strategy, driving outcomes nationwide, not merely within the federal system alone. As a result, borrowing from Justice Harlan, the U.S. has "fasten[ed] on the States federal notions of criminal justice" in a major way.

After providing an overview of the historic reluctance of the …

The Right Ones For The Job: Divining The Correct Standard Of Review For Curtilage Determinations In The Aftermath Of Ornelas V. United States, Jake Linford

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Confronting Evil: Victims' Rights In An Age Of Terror, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

This Article examines a unique facet of the victims' rights movement: the use of victim impact evidence in the prosecution of individuals accused of mass killings. The Article provides the first detailed analysis of victim impact evidence employed in the capital trials of those responsible for the bombings in Oklahoma City (168 deaths) and the U.S. Embassy in Kenya (213 deaths), as well as the events of September 11 (almost 3000 deaths), and explores the many difficulties its use presents. These difficulties, the Article argues, warrant attention not only with respect to future U.S. mass killing trials in civilian courts, …

Telling Differences: Observational Equivalence, Externalities, And Wrongful Convictions, Manuel A. Utset

Scholarly Publications

We must begin with the mistake and transform it into what is true. That is, we must uncover the sources of error; otherwise hearing what is true won’t help us. It cannot penetrate when something is taking its place. To convince someone of what is true, it is not enough to state it; we must find the road from error to truth.

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Remarks on Frazier's Golden Bough 1e (Rush Rhees ed., A.C. Miles trans., 1979 (emphasis in original).

Sex Offender Registration And Community Notification Policy: Past, Present, And Future, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Based on a keynote address delivered in conjunction with the Journal's annual symposium, this paper examines several of the major legal and policy issues associated with sex offender registration and community notification laws. Particular attention is dedicated to the Adam Walsh Act, a federal law enacted in July 2006 that continues efforts by Congress to foster changes in state registration and notification regimes as a result of its Spending Clause authority. In addition to discussing the federalism implications of the AWA, the paper examines several of its most significant provisions, including those calling for empirical assessment of registration and community …

Sex Offender Registration And Community Notification Policy: Past, Present, And Future, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

It’s a great honor to be with you here today and to provide the keynote address in this wonderful symposium examining issues relating to probation and parole. The panels have been remarkably rich and informative. That they should occur here in Massachusetts, where probation in particular originated in 1841, makes the proceedings today especially fitting.

Probation and parole, of course, are the epitome of state-indeed, community-based criminal justice. As recognized since the founding era, and repeatedly acknowledged by the U.S. Supreme Court, criminal justice in our federal union is mainly an undertaking of state and local governments, which process the …

Colombia's Incursion Into Ecuadorian Territory: Justified Hot Pursuit Or Pugnacious Error?, Luz E. Nagle

Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Hyperbolic Criminals And Repeated Time-Inconsistent Misconduct, Manuel A. Utset

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

State Criminal Justice And The Challenge Of Ex-Offender Mobility, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

United States Implementation Of The International Criminal Court: Toward The Federalism Of Free Nations, Lauren Fielder Redman

Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

A Balancing Act: The Introduction Of Restorative Justice In The International Criminal Court's Case Of The Prosecutor V. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Mary Will

Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Victims And Prison Release: A Modest Proposal, Erin O'Hara O'Connor

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Collectivism And Ex-Offender Residence Exclusion Laws, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

The U.S. has often been imperiled by the competing interests of individual states, and while past threats have most frequently assumed economic or political form, this article addresses a different threat: state efforts to limit where ex-offenders (those convicted of sex crimes in particular) can live. The laws have thus far withstood constitutional challenge, with courts deferring to the police power of states. This deference, however, ignores the negative externalities created when states jettison their human dross, and defies Justice Cardozo's oft-repeated constitutional tenet that the “the peoples of the several states must sink or swim together.” The article discusses …

Victim Impact Evidence In Federal Capital Trials, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Fifteen years ago, in Payne v. Tennessee, the Supreme Court lifted its prohibition on the admission of victim impact evidence (VIE) in the penalty phase of capital trials. According to the Court, admitting evidence on the personal traits of individual murder victims and the toll associated with their killings at once properly allowed the government to show the “uniqueness” of victims, thus counterbalancing defendants’ largely unfettered right to adduce mitigation evidence, and permitted the sentencing authority to under-stand the “specific harm” caused by the murder. In the wake of Payne, Congress authorized use of VIE as a nonstatutory …

Crime, Criminals And Competitive Crime Control, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Given the negative consequences of crime, it should come as no surprise that states will endeavor to make their dominions less hospitable to potential criminal actors. This predisposition, when played out on a national stage, would appear ripe for a dynamic in which states will seek to "out-tough" one another, leading to a spiral of detrimental competitiveness.

The Political Economy Of Application Fees For Indigent Criminal Defense, Wayne A. Logan, Ronald F. Wright

Scholarly Publications

In this article, we trace the origin and spread of state laws designed to make indigent criminal defendants pay, up-front, a portion of the costs of their state-appointed counsel. These co-pays, which can range from $10 to over $200, are part of the increasingly popular pay-as-you-go movement, requiring criminal defendants to defray the system costs of their prosecution and punishment.

On their face, such laws would appear to be a natural target of vigorous resistance by the defense bar. This turns out to be only half true, however, for it is often the leaders of public defense organizations, faced with …

Creating A "Hydra In Government": Federal Recourse To State Law In Crime Fighting, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Traditionally, U.S.-state criminal justice relations have been conceived in two-dimensional terms, with concern primarily dedicated to U.S. usurpations of state authority. As this Article makes clear, however, U.S.-state relations are in significant measure also multi-dimensional and synergistic: rather than being solely engaged in a zero-sum power competition with states, the U.S. in actuality often defers to state laws and outcomes, despite the highly variegated normative positions they embody. As a consequence of this deference, the U.S. at once increases the scope, content and effect of its own criminal justice enterprise, and elevates (not reduces) the sovereign authority of states. The …

The Best Kept Secret In The Law: How To Get Paid To Live On A Tropical Island, Michael J. Keyser

Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Horizontal Federalism In An Age Of Criminal Justice Interconnectedness, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Despite their status as independent sovereigns, states increasingly exhibit a willingness to interact when it comes to crime control matters. This Article examines the two foremost examples of this phenomenon: criminal recidivist enhancement laws and sex offender registration laws. Both types of laws have been around for decades and have evolved to accommodate ex-offenders, who, consistent with constitutional freedom of movement, can (and often do) change state residences. This effort at accommodation, however, puts states in the unusual position of having to interpret and apply the criminal laws and outcomes of their fellow sovereigns. As the Article makes clear, recidivist …

Model Of Time-Inconsistent Misconduct: The Case Of Lawyer Misconduct, Manuel A. Utset

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Civil And Criminal Recidivists: Extraterritoriality In Tort And Crime, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Historically, punitive damage awards and criminal sentences have shared the common justifications of punishment and deterrence, with the culpability of tortfeasors and criminals alike being enhanced as a result of repeat misconduct. The Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in State Farm v. Campbell suggests, however, that the parallels now in effect stop at the state line. The extraterritorial misconduct of tortfeasors is permitted to play a very limited role, if any, in the assessment of punitive damage awards. Meanwhile, such misconduct continues to be used by courts to significantly enhance the sentences of criminal defendants, an asymmetry accentuated by California v. …

Victim Participation In The Criminal Process, Erin O'Hara O'Connor

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Time-Inconsistent Management & The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Manuel A. Utset

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

"Democratic Despotism" And Constitutional Constraint: An Empirical Analysis Of Ex Post Facto Claims In State Courts, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

This Article explores the history of the Ex Post Facto Clause, including the Supreme Court's seminal 1798 decision in Calder v. Bull, and analyzes the results of a survey of ex post facto claims decided in state courts from 1992-2002, the first study to catalog the types of claims generated among the states, and the institutional response of state courts to them. The author provides an overview of the claims resolved in state courts, examining the nature of the laws challenged, how the challenges fared, and the rationales used by courts in their dispositions. Discussion focuses on two abiding …

To Catch A Killer: Roadblocks And The Fourth Amendment, Michael T. Morley

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law Sanctuaries, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

The paper explores the existence of various social institutions that have resisted the reach of criminal law enforcement authority over time. Focusing on the response of the Catholic Church to widespread clergy sexual abuse, which in many respects reflects the practice of sanctuary in the European middle ages, as well as the historic resistance of families and corporations to criminal law authority, the paper discusses the reasons underlying the phenomenon of sanctuaries, and offers insights into how criminal wrongdoing might best be addressed therein.

Jacob's Legacy: Sex Offender Registration And Community Notification Laws, Practice And Procedure In Minnesota, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Triggered in significant part by the October, 1989, abduction of eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling in rural St. Joseph, Minnesota, Americans during the 1990s were beset by a "moral panic" over convicted sex offenders living in their midst. To be sure, this panic in itself was not unprecedented in American history. At regular intervals throughout the twentieth century, heinous sexual victimizations, of women and children in particular, preoccupied the nation, often after receiving intense media attention. The 1990s panic, however, was unique in its force and scope, taking tangible form in what has been aptly called a "'legislative' panic." As a result …

The Importance Of Purpose In Probation Decision Making, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Articulation of purpose is, and should be, an important feature of any governmental activity. Since 1962, and the publication of the Model Penal Code, governments have increasingly seen fit to identify the purposes of punishment. To the extent such purposes have been expressly identified, however, they have primarily related to imprisonment, informing the duration inquiry. Governments have been far less dedicated to the articulation of the purposes of probation, a disposition that today easily accounts for the majority of penal outcomes in U.S. courts. This paper explores the role of purpose in probation decision making. It begins with a historical …

Substantive Due Process And The Involuntary Confinement Of Sexually Violent Predators, Wayne A. Logan, Eric S. Janus

Scholarly Publications

Over the past fifty years the Supreme Court has been repeatedly asked to address the constitutionality of civil commitment laws, including laws specifically targeting sexually violent predators (SVPs). The SVP laws have withstood challenge, in each instance redeemed by their putative civil purpose. Today, however, roughly 13 years after the first modern SVP law was enacted by the State of Washington, serious concern exists over whether the laws are fulfilling their civil purpose, or are merely serving as vehicles for impermissible preventive detention.

This Article addresses this question, in the process exploring the viability of the major remaining constitutional basis …