Law Commons^™

Inter-Judge Sentencing Disparity After Booker: A First Look, Ryan W. Scott

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A central purpose of the Sentencing Reform Act was to reduce inter-judge sentencing disparity, driven not by legitimate differences between offenders and offense conduct, but by the philosophy, politics, or biases of the sentencing judge. The federal Sentencing Guidelines, despite their well-recognized deficiencies, succeeded in reducing that form of unwarranted disparity. But in a series of decisions from 2005 to 2007, the Supreme Court rendered the Guidelines advisory (Booker), set a highly deferential standard for appellate review (Gall), and explicitly authorized judges to reject the policy judgments of the Sentencing Commission (Kimbrough). Since then, the Commission has received extensive anecdotal …

The Effects Of Booker On Inter-Judge Sentencing Disparity, Ryan W. Scott

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Interrogation And Silence: A Comparative Study, Craig M. Bradley

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article examines interrogation practices in detail in three systems: the American, the English (and Welsh), and the Canadian while also discussing rules from various other countries. It considers when the Miranda-type warnings (required in all three systems) must be given and when suspects will be deemed to have waived their rights. This article further discusses how reliability and voluntariness of confession is assured. Finally, a particular emphasis is placed on the issue of when a suspect's silence during interrogation may be used against him in court. The article concludes that American courts have not done enough to ensure reliability …

When It's So Hard To Relate: Can The Legal System Mitigate The Trauma Of Victim-Offender Relationships?, Jody L. Madeira

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article argues that, in the aftermath of violent crime, a relationship that is both negative and involuntary can form between crime victims and offenders. This relationship fetters the victim to the crime and the criminal, rendering it difficult to recover from the transgression. To illustrate how such a relationship may form and what consequences it may have for victims, this article uses the Oklahoma City bombing as a case study, documenting through the use of original interviews an involuntary relationship in which victims' family members and survivors perceived they were tethered to Timothy McVeigh. This perceived relationship with McVeigh …

Rethinking The Federal Role In State Criminal Justice, Joseph L. Hoffmann, Nancy J. King

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Essay argues that federal habeas review of state criminal cases squanders resources the federal government should be using to help states reform their systems of defense representation. A 2007 empirical study reveals that federal habeas review is inaccessible to most state prisoners convicted of non-capital crimes, and offers no realistic hope of relief for those who reach federal court. As a means of correcting or deterring constitutional error in non-capital cases, habeas is failing and cannot be fixed. Drawing upon these findings as well as the Supreme Court's most recent decision applying the Suspension Clause, the authors propose that …

Domestic Violence And The Workplace: The Explosion Of State Legislation And The Need For A Comprehensive Strategy, Deborah A. Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In recent years, domestic violence legislation has migrated out of its traditional locus in family law and criminal law to include a rapidly growing body of employment law. The new laws respond to a relatively simple problem: Economic security is one of the most important factors in whether a victim of domestic violence will be able to separate from an abusive partner, but domestic violence often interferes with victims' ability to maintain jobs, thus causing job loss that further traps victims in abusive relationships. By providing supports to victims and empowering employers to take direct legal action against perpetrators of …

Envisioning Post-Conviction Review For The Twenty-First Century, Joseph L. Hoffmann, Nancy J. King

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Applying The Lessons Of Gps Monitoring Batterers To Sex Offenders, Pamela Foohey

Articles by Maurer Faculty

GPS monitoring of batterers appears to be an ingenious solution to one of the major flaws of the current domestic violence protective order system. What makes GPS monitoring so attractive in the case of batterers and other criminals should make it equally attractive in the case of sex offenders. Although GPS monitoring has been questioned as potentially unconstitutional as applied to sex offenders, when individually tailored, it may prove to be an effective solution to the problem of monitoring sex offenders. In the future, states and municipalities would do their citizens a service by reflecting on the lessons of GPS …

Blood Relations: Collective Memory, Cultural Trauma, & The Prosecution & Execution Of Timothy Mcveigh, Jody Lynee Madeira

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, processes of reconstruction - remembering victims, caring for family members and survivors, and punishing the perpetrators - began even as debris from the Murrah Federal Building was being cleared. Based on conclusions obtained from intensive interviews with 27 victims' family members and survivors, this article explores how memory of the bombing as a culturally traumatic event was constructed through participation in groups formed after the bombing and participation in the legal proceedings against perpetrators Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. These acts cultivated the formation of various relationships - between family members and …

Killing Globally, Punishing Locally?: The Still-Unmapped Ecology Of Atrocity, Timothy W. Waters

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Governing Through Crime: How The War On Crime Transformed American Democracy And Created A Culture Of Fear By Jonathan Simon, Jeannine Bell

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Hate Thy Neighbor, Jeannine Bell

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article addresses one of the consequences of racial segregation in housing - violence and intimidation directed at minorities who are integrating white neighborhoods. In describing the history and dynamics of this type of anti-integrationist crime, the Article seeks to offer an introduction to the setting of hate crimes in a neighborhood context. The Article provides a critical bridge between hate crime law and housing law, exploring the substantial difficulties when each of these legal remedies is used to combat this type of violence. The Article concludes by offering a series of solutions uniquely crafted to combat the problem of …

Special Issues Raised By Rape Trials, Aviva A. Orenstein

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Rape cases reveal core conflicts in the space where evidence, law, and ethics intersect. Such conflicts include the tension between victim protection and the rights of the accused, the challenges attorneys face trying to negotiate the demands of sensitive and emotionally difficult cases, and the role of the law in counteracting stereotypes and bias.

In this essay, I will begin by presenting the cultural milieu surrounding rape allegations, briefly reviewing attitudes towards perpetrators and victims. Next, I will attempt to capture the legal zeitgeist concerning rape, focusing on two recent phenomena: the reversal of false rape convictions based on DNA …

Anti-Racketeering Legislation In America, Craig M. Bradley

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

"Reasonably Predictable:" The Reluctance To Embrace Judicial Discretion For Substantial Assistance Procedures, India Geronimo Thusi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Comment focuses on the nuances of post-Booker cooperation departures and sentence variances. Section 5K1.1 of the Guidelines governs the provision of cooperation, or substantial assistance, departures. This provision was the primary method for defendants to receive cooperation departures prior to Booker. The section 5K1.1 provision allowed substantial assistance departures where the prosecution actually benefited from the defendant’s cooperation.

First, Part I.A of this Comment will provide an overview of the original goals of the Sentencing Commission and the section 5K1.1 substantial assistance provision. Part I.B of the Comment summarizes United States v. Booker and its impact on cooperation departures. …

The Reasonable Policeman: Police Intent In Criminal Procedure, Craig M. Bradley

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Deviance, Due Process, And The False Promise Of Federal Rule Of Evidence 403, Aviva A. Orenstein

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In a significant break with traditional evidence rules and policies, Federal Rules of Evidence 413 and 414 (concerning rape and child abuse, respectively) allow jurors to use the accused's prior sexual misconduct as evidence of character and propensity. Courts have rejected due process challenges to the new rules, holding that Federal Rule of Evidence 403 serves as a check on any fairness concerns. However, courts' application of Rule 403 in cases involving these sexual propensity rules is troubling. Relying on the legislative history of the new rules and announcing a presumption of admissibility, courts have forsaken the traditional operation of …

Protecting The Innocent: The Massachusetts Governor's Council Report, Joseph L. Hoffmann

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Beyond Imminence: Evolving International Law And Battered Women's Right To Self-Defense, Shana Wallace

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

O Say, Can You See: Free Expression By The Light Of Fiery Crosses, Jeannine Bell

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article presents a comprehensive, context-based theory which both places cross burning in its proper doctrinal framework and recognizes the history of cross burning as one of Ku Klux Klan-inspired terrorism directed at African Americans. The author prefaces critical commentary on the Supreme Court's decision in Virginia v. Black with analysis of the full landscape of cross burning cases including another issue to which others have paid little attention - the ways in which state courts have negotiated First Amendment challenges to cross burning statutes. Thoroughly examining cross burning from each of these perspectives, the Article argues that cross burning …

Federalism And The Federal Criminal Law, Craig M. Bradley

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of Crime And The Threat To Judicial Independence, Jeannine Bell

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Community Supervision Of Sex Offenders -- Integrating Probation And Clinical Treatment, Michael J. Jenuwine, Ronald Simmons, Edward Swies

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Revenge Or Mercy? Some Thoughts About Survivor Opinion Evidence In Death Penalty Cases, Joseph L. Hoffmann

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Unexploded Bomb: Voice, Silence And Consequence At The Hague Tribunals -- A Legal And Rhetorical Critique, Timothy W. Waters

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article examines the decision by the ICTY Prosecutor not to investigate NATO's bombing campaign during the Kosovo war - and the Prosecutor's unusual decision to publish an Inquiry explaining its reasons. Many scholars have examined the Inquiry, but all have focused on its substantive legal analysis. This Article takes a different approach: It focuses on how the Prosecution reached the conclusion not to investigate. Using rhetorical analysis, it examines the Prosecution's decision-making mindset to see what that indicates about the shape of future international prosecutorial decision-making, including at the ICC.

There is no evidence that the Prosecution succumbed to …

The Middle Class Fourth Amendment, Craig M. Bradley

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

To Err Is Human: The Judicial Conundrum Of Curing Apprendi Error, Joshua Fairfield

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Deciding When Hate Is A Crime: The First Amendment, Police Detectives, And The Identification Of Hate Crime, Jeannine Bell

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article adds to the debate a story of how hate crime law is enforced, based on the experiences of the police detectives who are required to enforce hate crime law. Part I of this Article provides a brief description of hate crime laws and argues that the police play an important role in the determination of how hate crime law is enforced and ultimately, whether defendants’ First Amendment rights will be respected. Part II describes critics’ concerns about defendants’ First Amendment rights and the narrow constitutional line that enforcers of hate crime law must walk between enforcing hate crime …

Plea Bargaining In The Shadow Of Death, Joseph L. Hoffmann, Marcy L. Kahn, Steven W. Fisher

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Hate Crimes: Criminal Law And Identity Politics By James Jacobs And Kimberly Potter, Jeannine Bell

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.