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Full-Text Articles in Law
Immigrant Victims, Immigrant Accusers, Michael Kagan
Immigrant Victims, Immigrant Accusers, Michael Kagan
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The U visa program provides immigration status to noncitizen victims of crime, ensuring unauthorized immigrants do not become easy prey because they are too afraid to seek help from the police. But under the federal government’s structuring of the U visa program, a victim must also become an accuser to receive immigration benefits. Thus, the U visa implicates the rights of third parties: accused defendants. These defendants are often immigrants themselves who may be deported when U visa recipients level their accusations. Recent state court decisions have created complications in the program by permitting defendants to cross-examine accusers about their …
A Victimless Sex Crime: The Case For Decriminalizing Consensual Teen Sexting, Joanna R. Lampe
A Victimless Sex Crime: The Case For Decriminalizing Consensual Teen Sexting, Joanna R. Lampe
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
As teenagers' access to cellular phones and the internet has increased over the past two decades, so has their ability to harm themselves and others through misuse of new technology. One risky behavior that has become common among teenagers is "sexting"--the digital sharing of sexually suggestive images. To combat the dangers of teen sexting, many states have criminalized the act. Criminalization does not resolve the issue of teen sexting, however, and in many cases it may cause additional harm. This Note reviews existing state laws related to teen sexting, and critiques these laws on constitutional and policy grounds. It then …
Exploring The First Amendment Rights Of Teens In Relationship To Sexting And Censorship, Julia Halloran Mclaughlin
Exploring The First Amendment Rights Of Teens In Relationship To Sexting And Censorship, Julia Halloran Mclaughlin
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article explores child pornography law in relation to teen sexting conduct. Recently, some teens who engaged in teen sexting have been convicted under child pornography laws and have been required to register as sexual predators. The criminalization of teens for developmentally typical behavior, mimicking the conduct of adults, can result in grave harm to most teens. Furthermore, the application of child pornography laws to teen sexting conduct demonstrates the constitutional overbreadth of the current definition of child pornography. Photographs have an emblematic role in society-capturing and celebrating youth. Moreover, the creation of teen sexting images accompanies a teen's developmental …
Adequate (Non)Provocation And Heat Of Passion As Excuse Not Justification, Reid Griffith Fontaine
Adequate (Non)Provocation And Heat Of Passion As Excuse Not Justification, Reid Griffith Fontaine
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
For a number of reasons, including the complicated psychological makeup of reactive homicide, the heat of passion defense has remained subject to various points of confusion. One persistent issue of disagreement has been the justificatory versus excusatory nature of the defense. In this Article, I highlight and categorize a series of varied American homicide cases in which the applicability of heat of passion was supported although adequate provocation (or significant provocation by the victim) was absent. The cases are organized to illustrate how common law heat of passion may apply in instances in which there is no actual provocation or …
The Values Of Interdisciplinarity In Homicide Law Reform, Robert Weisberg
The Values Of Interdisciplinarity In Homicide Law Reform, Robert Weisberg
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Professor Reid Fontaine's article, Adequate (Non)Provocation and Heat of Passion as Excuse Not Justification, makes a convincing case for treating heat of passion wholly as an excuse not a justification, as the only sensible way to comprehend its various forms. In doing so, Professor Fontaine stimulates further thinking about heat of passion doctrine, along two dimensions.
Unjustified: The Practical Irrelevance Of The Justification/Excuse Distinction, Gabriel J. Chin
Unjustified: The Practical Irrelevance Of The Justification/Excuse Distinction, Gabriel J. Chin
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In recent decades, the distinction between justification and excuse defenses has been a favorite topic of theorists of philosophy and criminal law. Notwithstanding the impressive intellectual efforts devoted to the task, no single scholar or viewpoint appears to be on the verge of generating practical consensus about the concepts of justification and excuse, categorization of the defenses, or categorization of difficult individual cases. This Essay suggests that none of these goals can be usefully advanced through the justification/excuse distinction.
Misunderstanding Provocation, Samuel H. Pillsbury
Misunderstanding Provocation, Samuel H. Pillsbury
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Provocation is and always has been a compromise rule whose success depends on its ability to appeal to all ideological constituencies, and therefore will always-as long as it lasts-resist the final categorization that this question seeks. As long as provocation involves an inquiry into reasonableness, it will include considerations of justification. As long as it provides for mitigation of punishment based on the difficulty of resisting temptations to violence inspired by strong emotion, it will speak to considerations of excuse.
How Not To Argue That Reasonable Provocation Is Not An Excuse, Peter K. Westen
How Not To Argue That Reasonable Provocation Is Not An Excuse, Peter K. Westen
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Reid Fontaine draws two conclusions regarding the partial defense to murder of reasonable provocation-one regarding its substantive content, the other regarding its formal classification…. I agree with both of Fontaine's two conclusions, and, indeed, I have previously written to that effect. Unfortunately, while I agree with Fontaine's conclusions, I do not think he adequately supports them.
On Passion's Potential To Undermine Rationality: A Reply, Reid Griffith Fontaine
On Passion's Potential To Undermine Rationality: A Reply, Reid Griffith Fontaine
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Reply is organized into several sections. Following the Introduction, I respond to my six distinguished commentators. In Section II, I consider Professor Chin's concern that the distinction between justification and excuse bears no practical relevance for the criminal law. In Section III, I respond to Professor Baron's argument that reasonable mistake of fact is consistent with justification-a view, she observes, that is generally reflected in the criminal law. Building on the discussion of whether mistake and justification are compatible, Section IV addresses Professor Pillsbury's treatment of heat of passion as a hybrid defense that uniquely incorporates components of both …
The Provocation Defense And The Nature Of Justification, Marcia Baron
The Provocation Defense And The Nature Of Justification, Marcia Baron
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In this Essay, I evaluate the evidence of "adequate nonprovocation” that Fontaine puts forward to show that the heat of passion defense is decidedly an excuse (more precisely, a partial excuse). I will be focusing my remarks on the traditional heat of passion defense.
The Irreducibly Normative Nature Of Provocation/Passion, Stephen J. Morse
The Irreducibly Normative Nature Of Provocation/Passion, Stephen J. Morse
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
I agree with Professor Fontaine that provocation/passion is best interpreted as a partial excuse, but the ground for my conclusion is normative and not analytic. Indeed, I fear that he has not made the analytic case in large part because he begs a question about failed justifications that has only a normative and not an analytic answer. This Essay first briefly provides my own understanding of provocation/ passion. In the course of doing so, I address Professor Fontaine's argument that provocation/passion should also be applied to people with provocation interpretational bias. I then turn to why Fontaine's case for …
State Legislation And Human Trafficking: Helpful Or Harmful?, Stephanie Richard
State Legislation And Human Trafficking: Helpful Or Harmful?, Stephanie Richard
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Human trafficking is the modern day form of slavery. Despite the fact that thousands of people are trafficked into the United Sates each year, the majority of U.S. citizens are not aware of the nature and extent of this problem. In 2000, the U.S. government passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA) to combat this grave human rights abuse. This federal legislation takes a comprehensive approach to addressing the problem of human trafficking in the United States by acknowledging that effective prosecution cannot occur without safeguards and benefits for trafficking victims. To this end, the VTVPA enumerates …
Rape Shield Laws--Is It Time For Reinforcement?, Catherine L. Kello
Rape Shield Laws--Is It Time For Reinforcement?, Catherine L. Kello
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note takes a critical look at civil suits arising from allegations of rape, particularly from the perspective of how these actions run counter to the spirit of rape reform and rape shield legislation. The analysis begins with a brief history of the Rape Shield Law and its intended purposes. Part II then utilizes two cases to outline the current dilemma posed by civil suits that are filed during a pending criminal sexual conduct prosecution. After presenting these cases, Part III considers whether a legislative remedy is required and determines that it is. Part IV then proposes a Model Statute. …
Parent-Child Incest: Proof At Trial Without Testimony In Court By The Victim, Dustin P. Ordway
Parent-Child Incest: Proof At Trial Without Testimony In Court By The Victim, Dustin P. Ordway
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note argues that the incest victim should not testify personally at trial. Rather, the child's testimony should be replaced with tape-recorded pretrial examinations of the victim by an expert, supplemented by the in-court testimony of the examining expert. Part I discusses how the present system of requiring in-court testimony by the victim harms the child, fails to correct the incest problem, and produces unreliable evidence. Part II outlines and discusses the merits of the proposed reform. Part ill examines the proposed reform in light of the defendant's constitutional rights to due process and to confront witnesses against him. The …