Law Commons^™

Parental Kidnapping And Domestic Violence: The Need To Reform And Enforce State Action, Anna Ratterman

Georgia Criminal Law Review

When civil family issues intersect with criminal acts, the civil and criminal systems fail to effectuate a complete remedy. Specifically, there are few effective protections for victims of domestic violence during the pendency of domestic relations proceedings. Given the complicated gender dynamics and inequalities that have developed throughout history, it is unsurprising that the criminal and civil systems have failed to prioritize prosecution of crimes against women. Current criminal laws fail to treat domestic violence and parental kidnapping as serious crimes and instead adopt the view that domestic disputes are private issues to be handled within the family. In turn, …

Paying For Prison: Equal Protection Remedies For The United States' Wealth Discrimination Problem, Alexandra Smolyar

Georgia Criminal Law Review

The American dream promises wealth, mobility, and security, yet daily millions of Americans live in abject poverty. What’s more, state and local policies render low-income people uniquely vulnerable to criminalization, further lessening their ability to attain this purported American dream. These effects are not incidental. Rather, they reflect a complexly interwoven system of wealth-based discrimination oftentimes promulgated and perpetuated by government actors. Yet, most constitutional anti-discrimination measures do not reach wealth-based discrimination despite the horrific everyday effects felt by low-income communities nationwide. The criminalization of poverty compounds these problems to create a never-ending cycle of discrimination and collateral consequences whose …

Burning The Candle At Both Ends: A Case For The Right To Counsel At The State Habeas Level, Sierra Stanfield

Georgia Criminal Law Review

Shinn v. Ramirez is the latest in a line of court decisions that place debilitating restrictions on the habeas corpus process, making it more difficult than ever for ineffective assistance of counsel claimants to prevail on a federal habeas claim. Paired with the growing restrictions placed on the criminal appellate process, both by the states and by the Supreme Court, these decisions make it near-impossible for many criminal defendants to challenge their convictions and guarantee their rights.

The decision not to guarantee counsel at the state habeas level is grounded in logic that predated these restrictions. The state habeas hearing …

The Use Of Virtual Technology In Federal Criminal Detention Proceedings During Covid-19, The Honorable Karen Wells Roby

Georgia Criminal Law Review

The COVID Pandemic presented unparalleled challenges to court operations and the administration of pretrial criminal proceedings. The combination of health concerns and constitutional considerations collided in a way requiring unprecedented creativity in court operations. While scholars have given guidance on how the state courts were functioning during the pandemic, researchers have not conducted an empirical analysis on how federal courts conducted pretrial detention hearings during COVID-19.

This analysis reports the results of both qualitative and empirical findings pretrial detention hearings in federal courts during COVID-19. I examined the state of operations of the district court in several the Fourth, Fifth, …

"Hired Guns": Establishing The Scope Of The Proper Cross-Examination And Argument Relating To Expert Witness' Compensation In Criminal Trials, Michael C. Kovac

Georgia Criminal Law Review

The outcomes of criminal cases can turn on the credibility of the parties’ expert witnesses. The compensation such experts receive in exchange for their work on cases can undermine their credibility, as it provides the experts with a financial incentive that might bias them in favor of the parties who retain them. While concerns with such bias have existed for decades, courts have been inconsistent in the defining the permissible scope of cross-examination and argument on the issue. Some courts have unduly curtailed such cross-examination and argument. Courts have also been inconsistent in their views of whether calling such expert …

“[T]Here Appears To Be Intentional Discrimination In The Panel”: The Case For Abolishing Peremptory Challenges In Georgia, Ariane Williams

Georgia Criminal Law Review

In Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), the Supreme Court attempted to prevent peremptory strikes motivated by race. However, evidence and jurisprudence since Batson have indicated that the Court did not succeed. Furthermore, peremptory strikes perpetuate racial imbalance in juries and erode public faith in an unbiased legal system, as seen in reactions to the recent McMichael-Bryant trial in Georgia, in which only one black juror was seated. Given the longstanding and intractable issues with peremptory challenges, the Arizona Supreme Court decided to eliminate them entirely in 2021. This Article argues that Georgia should follow suit and abolish …

Answering The Call From Victims Of Dating Violence: Georgia’S New Dating Violence Law, Sydney K. Parish

Georgia Criminal Law Review

Dating violence is a topic that has garnered increased awareness in recent days, both in the media and in the legal field. Many states have begun to pass legislation in attempt to address this issue and provide relief for victims of dating violence. In the summer of 2021, the state of Georgia passed House Bill 231, what later became known as Georgia’s Dating Violence law. This Article first examines our nation’s history of intimate partner violence to show why dating violence legislation was so desperately needed and how these legislative reforms have attempted to heal a system that for so …

The Death Dignity Demands: The Eighth Amendment Requires Incarcerated People Decide Their Method Of Execution, Kali A. Haney

Georgia Criminal Law Review

Recently, there have been a number of incarcerated people on death-row challenging their method of execution and proposing an alternative: usually, firing squad. Courts are hesitant to grant this request for a number of reasons, including the rare use of the firing squad. But there is substantial evidence this method is the most humane. Additionally, it appears incarcerated people think so, which is why so many in recent years chose—or petitioned for—death by firing squad rather than lethal injection or electrocution. As pharmaceutical companies halt their drugs’ distribution to prisons, prisons are forced to come up with their own—often more …

The Use Of Oral Fluid Samples To Test For Driving Under The Influence Of Marijuana, Ian Wise

Georgia Criminal Law Review

Driving Under the Influence of Drugs (DUID) cases pose unique challenges to the criminal justice system. An evidentiary chemical test is a vital piece of evidence in a DUID prosecution because unlike alcohol, drugs do not cause impairment in a uniform fashion. Breath tests cannot detect drugs, and the intrusiveness of blood and urine tests has been the focus of Court cases over the past half-century with decisions in Missouri v. McNeely and Birchfield v. North Dakota curtailing the government’s ability to obtain this evidence without a warrant.

The need for a less intrusive alternative is driven by the doubling …

Protecting Our Nation’S Children In The Technological Age: Arguing For An Interpretation Of “Sexual Activity” In 18 U.S.C. § 2422(B) That Does Not Require Physical Contact, Allison Fine

Georgia Criminal Law Review

Our Nation’s justice system values “equal protection under the law.” This represents the belief that all individuals should be treated equally under the law regardless of personal characteristics. Traditionally, we think about this in a context of things like race, gender, or ethnicity. However, this also encompasses the general idea that individuals nationwide should be accountable to and protected by the same laws. As it relates to criminal law, this notion highlights the importance of uniformity in a criminal justice system. Without consistent application and execution, a criminal justice system will never be fair or “equal.”

The federal child enticement …

Purpose’S Purposes: Culpability, Liberty, Legal Wrongs, And Accomplice Mens Rea, Kevin Cole

Georgia Criminal Law Review

The federal mens rea for accomplice liability—important in its own right and also as an example to the states—is unsettled. Three cases from the just completed Supreme Court term hint (somewhat surprisingly) at various directions the justices might take. This essay examines the cases with a particular focus on the alternative explanations that might be given for the traditional requirement of purposeful facilitation for accomplice liability. The purpose requirement is contestable so long as it is justified in terms of a narrow conception of culpability. It is better understood as serving a liberty-enhancing function. The liberty focus clarifies difficult questions …

Reexamining The Consent Definition Under Article 213: Sexual Assault And Related Offenses Of The Model Penal Code And Its Troubling Influence On Affirmative Consent Definition States, Samantha Newman

Georgia Criminal Law Review

In the past decade, and in response to criticism surrounding Article 213 Sexual Assault and Related Offenses of the 1962 Model Penal Code (MPC), the American Law Institute (ALI) sought to re-examine these specific provisions. In doing so, the ALI attempted to incorporate a more modern standard of sexual behavior and consent, without making the model code too punitive. Recently in 2022, the ALI approved revisions to Article 213 MPC, referred to in this Article as the “Revised Code,” including the rejection of an affirmative consent definition. This Article argues that despite the noble intentions of revising an outdated code, …

To Hemp In A Handbasket: The Meaning Of “Controlled Substance” Under The Career Offender Enhancement, Jacob Friedman

Georgia Criminal Law Review

Sentencing enhancements can drastically impact prison sentences for people convicted of federal crimes. The career offender enhancement is particularly harmful to a federal criminal defendant because it automatically raises their minimum offense level and criminal history score under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which, although no longer mandatory, are almost always followed by judges in determining actual prison sentences. Since 2016, the career offender enhancement has been applied to almost 8,000 criminal defendants who, at the time of their convictions, had accrued a total of two or more predicate felony convictions, for either a drug offense or a crime of violence …

Punitive Instead Of Rehabilitative: The Role Of Restitution In The Juvenile Justice System And The Need For Reconstruction, Sydney Ford

Georgia Criminal Law Review

The juvenile justice system was founded on the premise of giving specific attention to the needs of youth and rehabilitating them. Over the years, the juvenile justice system evolved to include more rights and protections for youth while still maintaining that their goal was to rehabilitate justice-involved youth. Restitution, one method of disposition, began as a way to continue this rehabilitation-based mission and provide an alternative to incarceration. However, rehabilitation’s disproportionate and punitive application, with a lack of consistency across state lines, does not coincide with rehabilitation anymore. This article argues that restitution does not align with rehabilitation, the core …

Legalize For Legal Highs: How Georgia Can Address Racial Disparities In The Criminal Legal System By Legalizing Recreational Cannabis, Nneka Ewulonu

Georgia Criminal Law Review

Cannabis prohibition is a policy failure that nevertheless continues to impact more than half of Americans, including Georgians. Remaining true to its roots in racism and xenophobia, cannabis criminalization has disparate impacts, with Black Americans being more likely to be arrested or incarcerated for a cannabis related offense. Furthermore, cannabis criminalization results in tens of millions of missed tax dollars for the state. This article argues for a clear policy solution; it is time for Georgia to legalize cannabis. As demonstrated by the 21 states that have legalized recreational cannabis as of Fall 2022, legalizing recreational cannabis creates both economic …

Progressive Prosecution, Sherry Boston, Rachel Foran, Deborah Gonzalez

Georgia Criminal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Juvenile Sentencing In Georgia, Randee Waldman, Emily Boness, Kaitlyn Barnes, Aakeem Woodard

Georgia Criminal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Carl Vinson Institute Presentation, Holly Lynde

Georgia Criminal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Event Overview, Georgia Criminal Law Review Editors

Georgia Criminal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Georgia Criminal Law Review Editors

Georgia Criminal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Georgia Criminal Law Review Editors

Georgia Criminal Law Review

No abstract provided.