Law Commons^™

Estate To State: Pay-To-Stay Statutes And The Problematic Seizure Of Inherited Property, Brittany L. Deitch

University of Colorado Law Review

Pay-to-stay statutes allow states to recover their incarceration-related expenditures from those who are currently or have formerly been incarcerated. Mass incarceration is expensive, and states have aimed to shift this financial burden from their taxpayers and government coffers to the individuals who experience incarceration. Although pay-to-stay laws take many forms, in general, they authorize the government to seek recompense for an individual’s incarceration costs from the currently or formerly incarcerated person’s assets and income. Many states permit the seizure of inherited property to satisfy this legal financial obligation. Pay-to-stay laws have survived constitutional challenges thus far, but some state legislatures …

Facing The Music: How The Face Act Harms, Rather Than Helps, The Post-Dobbs Abortion Movement, Kyriaki "Kiki" Council

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Visible Trial: Judicial Assessment As Adjudication, Tracey E. George, Albert H. Yoon

University of Colorado Law Review

Only a small fraction of lawsuits ends in trial—a phenomenon termed the “vanishing trial.” Critics of the declining trial rate see a remote, increasingly regressive judicial system. Defenders see a system that allows parties to resolve disputes independently. Analyzing criminal and civil filings in federal district court for the forty-year period from 1980 to 2019, we confirm a steady decline in the absolute and relative number of trials. We find, however, this emphasis on trial rate obscures courts’ vital role and ignores parties’ goals. Judges adjudicate disputes directly by ruling or effectively through other assessments of the parties’ cases. Even …

Women's Votes, Women's Voices, And The Limits Of Criminal Justice Reform, 1911-1950, Carolyn B. Ramsey

University of Colorado Law Review

Deriving its vigor from the work of grassroots organizations at the state and local levels, the League of Women Voters (LWV) sought, in the first half of the twentieth century, to provide newly enfranchised women with a political education to strengthen their voice in public affairs. Local branches like the San Francisco Center learned from experience-through practical involvement in a variety of social welfare and criminal justice initiatives. This Article, written for a symposium commemorating the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, assesses the role of LWV leaders in California and especially San Francisco in reforming three aspects of the criminal …

Affirmative Action And The Criminal Law, Paul Butler

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law In Crisis, Benjamin Levin

University of Colorado Law Review Forum

In this Essay, I offer a brief account of how the COVID-19 pandemic lays bare the realities and structural flaws of the carceral state. I provide two primary examples or illustrations, but they are not meant to serve as an exhaustive list. Rather, by highlighting these issues, problems, or (perhaps) features, I mean to suggest that this moment of crisis should serve not just as an opportunity to marshal resources to address the pandemic, but also as a chance to address the harsh realities of the U.S. criminal system. Further, my claim isn’t that criminal law is in some way …

Drug Conspiracy Sentencing And Social Injustice, Emilie Kurth

University of Colorado Law Review

The D.C. Circuit in United States v. Stoddard confronted a landmine of criminal and socioeconomic justice issues when it held that mandatory minimum sentences for drug conspiracy offenses should be imposed based on the amount of drugs attributable to the individual defendant (the individualized approach) as opposed to the amount of drugs attributable to the conspiracy as a whole (the conspiracy-wide approach). This decision reflects a nationwide circuit split implicating the courts and lawmakers' ideological balancing of the issues of justice, liberty, public safety, and equity. This Comment discusses Stoddard as well as the circuit split in its current form …

From Aspirational To Prescriptive Capacity Building: Post-Conflict States, Rule Of Law, And Hybrid International Justice, Daimeon Dean Shanks

University of Colorado Law Review

Mass-atrocity crimes present unique accountability challenges, challenges that are often exacerbated by the social and political conditions that facilitated the commitment of the crimes in the first place. International accountability mechanisms were developed to address these obstacles by providing a means of holding individuals accountable for international crimes when their host states were incapable of doing so or unwilling to do so. The first iteration of these tribunals, the international military tribunals, gained prominence following World War II, and a second-generation of non-military international tribunals were created in response to the mass atrocities committed in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. …

Truth, Lies, And The Confrontation Clause, Mark Spottswood

University of Colorado Law Review

This Article examines and critiques the recent revival of the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause as a means of improving the quality of criminal trials. The Clause is best interpreted as a tool that aims to reduce the likelihood of wrongful convictions by limiting the ability of prosecutors and witnesses to concoct believable but false stories without fear of their deception being uncovered through crossexamination. Unfortunately, modern doctrine has come unmoored from this foundation. Requiring confrontation of available prosecution fact witnesses serves a useful (if narrow) evidentiary function in that it provides a check against an unethical prosecutor who might otherwise …

Bail Reform In Colorado: A Presumption Of Release, Joshua J. Luna

University of Colorado Law Review

Interest in bail reform has ebbed and flowed in the United States since the 1960s. Recently, a condemning look at bail administration and pretrial detention across various jurisdictions has pushed bail reform to the policy forefront at both the national and state levels. In 2013, Colorado's General Assembly reformed its bail statute to decrease reliance on monetary bail and promote pretrial services programs in an attempt to prevent unnecessary pretrial detention of low-income defendants who present low risks for flight and threat to community safety. This reform was a much-needed step in the right direction. But the new bail statute …

Colorado's About Face: Mechanics, Progress, And Challenges Facing Veterans Trauma Courts In Colorado, Karthik A. Venkatraj

University of Colorado Law Review

The nature of asymmetrical warfare-defined by improvised explosive devices, indirect fire attacks, and suicide attackshas significantly altered the patterns of post-service challenges faced by veterans. Dealing with the unseen wounds of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) that result from this type of combat has been one of the most difficult leadership challenges of my career as a young officer.

Although our nation's medical response to PTSD and TBI is well documented, the judicial challenges are not as apparent. Most recently, our nation has responded to this challenge with an alternative court, the Veterans Trauma Court (VTC), …

Fighting Fines & Fees: Borrowing From Consumer Law To Combat Criminal Justice Debt Abuses, Neil L. Sobol

University of Colorado Law Review

Although media and academic sources often describe mass incarceration as the primary challenge facing the American criminal justice system, the imposition of criminal justice debt may be a more pervasive problem. On March 14, 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) requested that state chief justices forward a letter to all judges in their jurisdictions describing the constitutional violations associated with the illegal assessment and enforcement of fines and fees. The DOJ's concerns include the incarceration of indigent individuals without determining whether the failure to pay is willful and the use of bail practices that result in impoverished defendants remaining in …

Finding Safe Harbor: Eliminating The Gap In Colorado's Human Trafficking Laws, Jessica A. Pingleton

University of Colorado Law Review

In March 2014, the Colorado Court of Appeals acquitted Dallas Cardenas of all human trafficking charges. The court determined that under the 2014 version of Colorado's human trafficking statute, a defendant who sold the sexual services of a minor, as opposed to selling a minor for sex, did not commit the crime of human trafficking. Following the Cardenas decision, the state legislature passed House Bill 1273, which broadened the language of the statute and eliminated all possible affirmative defenses, including minor consent. Under the new law, a defendant can no longer argue that a minor consented to commercial sex. However, …

Complicity And Strict Liability: A Logical Inconsistency?, Michael Bohan

University of Colorado Law Review

"[T]o make a complete crime, cognizable by human laws, there must be both a will and an act.., an unwarrantable act without a vicious will is no crime at all. "I The term "vicious will" illustrates the relationship between blameworthiness and punishment; the foundation of all criminal law, and the justification for the doctrine of complicity liability. The Colorado Supreme Court recently granted certiorari review of People v. Childress, a case in which the Court of Appeals held that one cannot be complicit in a strict liability crime. This holding is difficult to reconcile with Colorado's application of the complicity …

Murder, Minority, Victims, And Mercy, Aya Gruber

University of Colorado Law Review

Should the jury have acquitted George Zimmerman of Trayvon Martin's murder? Should enraged husbands receive a pass for killing their cheating wives? Should the law treat a homosexual advance as adequate provocation for killing? Criminal law scholars generally answer these questions with a resounding "no." Theorists argue that criminal laws should not reflect bigoted perceptions of African Americans, women, and gays by permitting judges and jurors to treat those who kill racial and gender minorities with undue mercy. According to this view, murder defenses like provocation should be restricted to ensure that those who kill minority victims receive the harshest …

The Special Problem Of Banks And Crime, Gregory M. Gilchrist

University of Colorado Law Review

Federal prosecutors face increasing criticism for their failure to indict large banks and bankers for serious criminal conduct, including allowing violent drug cartels to launder hundreds of millions of dollars, willfully conducting business with rogue nations and terrorists, and manipulating the LIBOR to defraud investors. This Article argues that the non-prosecution of banks is often justified by proper consideration of externalities and that the nonprosecution of bankers is often explained by lack of evidence or the difficulty of white-collar prosecutions generally. Nevertheless, the result is that extremely serious criminal conduct is penalized by mere fines and negotiated terms of probation, …

Jury Instructions As Constitutional Education, Andrew Guthrie Ferguson

University of Colorado Law Review

Juries are central to the constitutional structure of America. This Article articulates a theory of the jury as a "constitutional teaching moment," establishing a historical and theoretical basis for reclaiming the educative value of jury service. This Article addresses the fundamental question of why, despite an unquestioned acceptance of a constitutional role of the jury, our criminal justice system does not explain this role to jurors on jury duty. This Article seeks to answer the question of how we can educate jurors about the jury's constitutional role, while at the same time exploring the larger theoretical concerns with using the …

Death Eligibility In Colorado: Many Are Called, Few Are Chosen, Justin Marceau, Sam Kamin, Wanda Foglia

University of Colorado Law Review

This Article reports the conclusions of an empirical study of every murder conviction in Colorado between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2010. Our goal was to determine: (1) what percentage of first-degree murderers in Colorado were eligible for the death penalty; and (2) how often the death penalty was sought against these killers. More importantly, our broader purpose was to determine whether Colorado's statutory aggravating factors meaningfully narrow the class of death-eligible offenders as required by the Constitution. We discovered that while the death penalty was an option in over 90% of all first-degree murders, it was sought by …

The Hidden Costs Of Habeas Delay, Marc D. Falkoff

University of Colorado Law Review

Because habeas petitioners seek a court order for liberty rather than compensation, judges have a duty to decide habeas petitions promptly. But increasingly, the federal courts have fallen behind on their heavy habeas dockets, and many petitions-some of which are meritorious-remain undecided for years. First, this Article makes the normative and historical argument that speed must be, and always has been, central to the function of habeas. Second, it analyzes newly compiled Administrative Office of the United States Courts data on more than 200,000 habeas petitions and demonstrates empirically for the first time that there is a widespread and growing …

Administering Justice: Removing Statutory Barriers To Reentry, Joy Radice

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fine-Labor: The Symbiosis Between Monetary And Work Sanctions, Martin H. Pritikin

University of Colorado Law Review

Monetary sanctions (fines and restitution) and work sanctions are theoretically superior to incarceration: they can deliver deterrence more cheaply, benefit victims tangibly, and promote offender rehabilitation. Yet incarceration remains the dominant punishment in America, even where incapacitation concerns are secondary. This is due in large part to practical drawbacks to the alternatives: monetary sanctions are difficult to enforce and do not seem punitive enough, and unions have successfully lobbied against the competitive threat of convict labor. In a hybrid "fine-labor" system, in which offenders are made to work to pay fines and restitution, the work component could remedy the flaws …

Beyond The Davis Dictum: Reforming Nontestimonial Identification Evidence Rules And Statutes, Jennifer M. Dilalla

University of Colorado Law Review

In the 1970s, Colorado and five other states built on Justice Brennan's famous dictum in Davis v. Mississippi to create "nontestimonial identification evidence" statutes and rules of criminal procedure. These statutes and rules enable police to gather physical evidence such as fingerprints, hair samples, and bodily fluids from individuals reasonably suspected of having committed a felony. While the states followed the Davis dictum in requiring a court order for this evidencegathering, they also followed the dictum's suggestion that nontestimonial identification procedures might be constitutionally acceptable even in the absence of probable cause to arrest. Thus, although they provide the states …

Attempt, Reckless Homicide, And The Design Of Criminal Law, Michael T. Cahill

University of Colorado Law Review

Most American criminal codes create an offense for recklessly killing another person, and nearly all contain a general provision covering any attempt to commit an offense. This article explores the relation between reckless homicide and attempt, which proves more complex than it appears and also turns out to provide a useful starting point for examination of several broader issues in attempt law and criminal law generally. The idea of "attempted reckless homicide" ("ARH") is largely disfavored by legal scholars and almost, but not quite, universally rejected in American law. Part I of the article questions that hostility. The theoretical arguments …

Discovering Discovery: Non-Party Access To Pretrial Information In The Federal Courts, 1938-2006, Seymour Moskowitz

University of Colorado Law Review

In the modern era, the pretrial process is critical to the disposition of almost all litigation. The vast majority of cases never go to trial. Those which are contested at trial and upon appeal are often decided upon the results of the information gather before trial. This is true in both private litigation and in public interest cases where "private attorneys general" may only function effectively with courtenforced discovery. Despite the significance of the Article III courts to our society, transparency in their processes for resolving civil disputes has been severely compromised. Threats to openness emanate from multiple sources. This …

Intimate Homicide: Gender And Crime Control, 1880-1920, Carolyn B. Ramsey

University of Colorado Law Review

The received wisdom, among feminists and others, is that historically the criminal justice system tolerated male violence against women. This article dramatically revises feminist understanding of the legal history of public responses to intimate homicide by showing that, in both the eastern and the western United States, men accused of killing their intimates often received stern punishment, including the death penalty, whereas women charged with similar crimes were treated leniently. Although no formal "battered woman's defense" existed in the late 1800s and early 1900s, courts and juries implicitly recognized one-and even extended it to abandoned women who killed their unfaithful …

The Dilemma Of Expressive Punishment, William Deford

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Enron, Fraud, And Securities Reform; An Enron Prosecutor's Perspective, John R. Kroger

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.