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Full-Text Articles in Law
Getting Jurors To Awesome, Cortney E. Lollar
Getting Jurors To Awesome, Cortney E. Lollar
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
A 2011 American Bar Association report on the death penalty in Kentucky revealed that a shocking two-thirds of the 78 people sentenced to death in Kentucky since reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 have had their sentences overturned on appeal. Kentucky’s reversal rate is more than twice the national average, with a 31% reversal rate in capital cases and almost four times the 17% national reversal rate in all other case types. With a sentence as irreversible as death, troubling does not begin to describe the depth of concern many experience when viewing such a startling statistic.
A closer …
Life And Death In Kentucky: Past, Present, And Future, Roberta M. Harding
Life And Death In Kentucky: Past, Present, And Future, Roberta M. Harding
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This article provides a historical survey of capital punishment in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, paying particular attention to gender and race. The author concludes that given the lack of recent executions that it is perhaps time to make legislative changes to the Commonwealth’s death penalty practice.
Kentucky Criminal Law Experts Call For Reform, Cortney E. Lollar
Kentucky Criminal Law Experts Call For Reform, Cortney E. Lollar
Law Faculty Popular Media
In this article for Bench & Bar Magazine (the Kentucky Bar Association's magazine), Professor Cortney Lollar discusses the Second Annual Forum on Criminal Law in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Drug Law Reform—Retreating From An Incarceration Addiction, Robert G. Lawson
Drug Law Reform—Retreating From An Incarceration Addiction, Robert G. Lawson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Now, thirty years into the "war on drugs," views about the law's reliance on punishment to fix the drug problem are less conciliatory and more absolute: "[t]he notion that 'the drug war is a failure' has become the common wisdom in academic ... circles." Those who have most closely studied the results of the "war" believe that it has "accomplished little more than incarcerating hundreds of thousands of individuals whose only crime was the possession of drugs." More importantly, they believe that it has had little if any effect on the drug problem: "Despite the fact that the number of …
Performing Discretion Or Performing Discrimination: An Analysis Of Race And Ritual In Batson Decisions In Capital Jury Selection, Melynda J. Price
Performing Discretion Or Performing Discrimination: An Analysis Of Race And Ritual In Batson Decisions In Capital Jury Selection, Melynda J. Price
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Research shows the mere presence of Blacks on capital juries--on the rare occasions they are seated--can mean the difference between life and death. Peremptory challenges are the primary method to remove these pivotal participants. Batson v. Kentucky developed hearings as an immediate remedy for the unconstitutional removal of jurors through racially motivated peremptory challenges. These proceedings have become rituals that sanction continued bias in the jury selection process and ultimately affect the outcome of capital trials. This Article deconstructs the role of the Batson ritual in legitimating the removal of African American jurors. These perfunctory hearings fail to meaningfully interrogate …
Pfo Law Reform, A Crucial First Step Towards Sentencing Sanity In Kentucky, Robert G. Lawson
Pfo Law Reform, A Crucial First Step Towards Sentencing Sanity In Kentucky, Robert G. Lawson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The purpose of this article is to engage in some analysis and discussion of the part of this sentencing law that cries out loudest for reform (the state's persistent felony offender law), reform that in short order would begin to deflate the population that has our prisons and jails grossly overcrowded. In this analysis and discussion, there is some brief consideration of the justifications used to support repeat offender laws (Part I), a segment on the history and evolution of Kentucky's law (Part II), an examination of a selection of repeat offender laws from other states (Part III), a report …
The Sad, Sad Story Of Lula Viers, Richard H. Underwood, Sharon Ray
The Sad, Sad Story Of Lula Viers, Richard H. Underwood, Sharon Ray
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
In this article, Professor Richard H. Underwood explores the murder ballad entitled Lula Viers. Lula Viers was from the Appalachia region of Kentucky.
Stella Kenney: A Little Problem In Evidence, Richard H. Underwood
Stella Kenney: A Little Problem In Evidence, Richard H. Underwood
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
In this article, Professor Richard H. Underwood explores the murder ballad entitled Stella Kenney. Stella Kenney (whose real name was Kinney) was from Carter County, Kentucky.
Turning Jails Into Prisons—Collateral Damage From Kentucky's War On Crime, Robert G. Lawson
Turning Jails Into Prisons—Collateral Damage From Kentucky's War On Crime, Robert G. Lawson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The primary purpose of this article is to scrutinize Kentucky's ever-increasing reliance on local jails for the incarceration of state prisoners. This objective cannot be achieved without an examination of the problems that compel counties and cities to allow (and even encourage) the state to capture their jails for this use. The first half of the article (Parts I-IV) provides general information about jails (including some pertinent history), contains a detailed description of jail functions (including some that have descended upon jails by default), and concludes with a discussion of what the state has done over two decades to convert …
Difficult Times In Kentucky Corrections—Aftershocks Of A "Tough On Crime" Philosophy, Robert G. Lawson
Difficult Times In Kentucky Corrections—Aftershocks Of A "Tough On Crime" Philosophy, Robert G. Lawson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The objective of this article is to cast some light on corrections system problems brought on by elevated (and possibly unnecessary) levels of incarceration, and especially on problems that trouble the Kentucky corrections system and threaten to undermine the effectiveness of the state's justice system. Part II describes how the country came to embrace sentencing policies and practices capable of producing "a penal system of a severity unmatched in the Western world.” Part III describes Kentucky's embrace of equally harsh sentencing policies and practices and the inmate population explosion that has occurred as a direct result of those policies and …
Prosecutorial Misconduct In Capital Cases In The Commonwealth Of Kentucky: A Research Study 1976-2000, Roberta M. Harding, Bankole Thompson
Prosecutorial Misconduct In Capital Cases In The Commonwealth Of Kentucky: A Research Study 1976-2000, Roberta M. Harding, Bankole Thompson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The prosecutor wields tremendous power within the American criminal justice system. When that power is misused-particularly in capital cases-tremendous injustices are perpetrated. Yet, occurrences of prosecutorial misconduct seem to occur with distressing regularity. An exhaustive study covering appeals from 1973-95 revealed that two-thirds of overturned death penalties in the United States resulted from overzealous police and prosecutors who withheld exculpatory evidence. Our study covered 55 Kentucky cases from 1976-2000 and found evidence of prosecutorial misconduct in nearly one-half of them, often with several instances per case.
Self-Defense In Kentucky: A Need For Clarification Or Revision, Robert G. Lawson, William S. Cooper
Self-Defense In Kentucky: A Need For Clarification Or Revision, Robert G. Lawson, William S. Cooper
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Recent prosecutions have pushed Kentucky’s concept of self-defense beyond the limits of tolerance for complexity and confusion. There is little doubt that there exists a critical need to clarify or to revise the Kentucky law of self-defense. A demonstration of this need and a description of its nature are the principal objectives of this article. To accomplish these objectives, it is necessary to provide some information about the recent history of homicide and self-defense in Kentucky and to describe some important recent interpretations of this law by the Supreme Court of Kentucky.
Presuming Lawyers Competent To Protect Fundamental Rights: Is It An Affordable Fiction?, Robert G. Lawson
Presuming Lawyers Competent To Protect Fundamental Rights: Is It An Affordable Fiction?, Robert G. Lawson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This article explores the ramifications of Wainwright v. Sykes, a case decided before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1977. The broad question before the Court in Sykes concerned the extent to which state prisoners should have access to federal court by use of the writ of habeas corpus. The narrow issue before the Court concerned the impact on a prisoner's claim for habeas relief of procedural defaults (such as a failure to object to evidence, a failure to perfect an appeal, etc.) that occur in the state proceeding under attack. In considering these important issues Justice …
Kentucky Penal Code: The Culpable Mental States And Related Matters, Robert G. Lawson
Kentucky Penal Code: The Culpable Mental States And Related Matters, Robert G. Lawson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
All efforts to improve the criminal law of this commonwealth prior to 1972 were directed toward relatively narrow problems. Legislative changes in the law had been made from time to time, almost always without conscious regard for the manner in which related principles were affected. Defects of considerable importance resulted. The criminal law became substantially disjointed and difficult of administration. Unjust and inequitable treatment of offenders was more prominent than its opposite. In some instances sanctions were clearly inadequate for the type of behavior sought to be controlled. In others they were grossly disproportionate to the social harms used to …
Criminal Law Revision In Kentucky: Part Ii—Inchoate Crimes, Robert G. Lawson
Criminal Law Revision In Kentucky: Part Ii—Inchoate Crimes, Robert G. Lawson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Kentucky, like other jurisdictions, imposes criminal sanctions for conduct that is designed to achieve a criminal result but fails for some reason to accomplish its anti-social objective. Such conduct is punishable, if at all, as criminal attempt, criminal conspiracy, or criminal solicitation. In looking toward revision, attention should be focused initially upon the objectives to be promoted by classifying unsuccessful, anti-social conduct as criminal behavior.
First: There is obviously need for a firm basis for the intervention of law enforcement agencies to prevent a person dedicated to the commission of a crime from consummating it. In determining that basis, attention …
Criminal Law Revision In Kentucky: Part I—Homicide And Assault, Robert G. Lawson
Criminal Law Revision In Kentucky: Part I—Homicide And Assault, Robert G. Lawson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
At the present time the Kentucky Commission on Law Enforcement and Crime Prevention and the Legislative Research Commission are jointly engaged in a project designed to revise the state's substantive criminal law. This effort is justifiable only if the existing law is defective and the "revision will result in significant improvement in [criminal law] administration." A cursory examination of the criminal statutes, with no reference to case law, leaves not the slightest doubt as to the need for revision. Until now no major attempt at revision has ever been undertaken in this state. As a consequence, the statutes are devoid …
Sentencing: The Good, The Bad, And The Enlightened, Rutheford B. Campbell Jr., Bill Cunningham
Sentencing: The Good, The Bad, And The Enlightened, Rutheford B. Campbell Jr., Bill Cunningham
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
In June, 1968 the Kentucky Crime Commission, in keeping with legislative instruction, made certain recommendations for a change in Kentucky's current treatment of crime and punishment. Within its report was a suggestion that sentencing in all non-capital criminal cases be rendered by the judge instead of the jury. Thus, it must be emphasized that this discussion is confined only to sentencing in noncapital cases.
The authors have arrived at a definite recommendation which is offered at the conclusion of the paper. It is our opinion that the suggestion outlined is not only the most efficient and proper but also the …
The Law Of Presumptions: A Look At Confusion, Kentucky Style, Robert G. Lawson
The Law Of Presumptions: A Look At Confusion, Kentucky Style, Robert G. Lawson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Over the years the term “presumption” has been used by virtually all courts to “designate what are more accurately termed inferences or substantive rules of law.” It has also been used as a “loose synonym for presumption of fact, presumption of law, rebuttable presumption, and irrebuttable presumption.” To this list the Kentucky Court of Appeals had added mandatory presumption, presumptive evidence, and prima facie case. Perhaps of more significance than the indiscriminate use of terminology is the extent to which courts have used “presumptions” to describe judicial reasoning of various kinds and to perform chores more appropriate to unrelated procedural …