Law Commons^™

Advising The Pro Se Defendant: The Trial Court's Duties Under Faretta, Myron Moskovitz

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In Faretta v. California, the United States Supreme Court held that a defendant in a criminal trial has a constitutional right to represent himself-to act "pro se." "The Sixth Amendment does not provide merely that a defense shall be made for the accused; it grants to the accused personally the right to make his defense.

If a defendant chooses to represent himself, what, if anything, must the trial court do to assist him? Must the trial court advise him of his right to exercise peremptory challenges? To make evidentiary objections? To cross-examine prosecution witnesses? To subpoena his own witnesses? To …

The Battle To Establish An Adversarial Trial System In Italy, William T. Pizzi, Mariangela Montagna

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No abstract provided.

A Different Kind Of Labor Law: Vagrancy Law And The Regulation Of Harvest Labor, 1913-1924, Ahmed A. White

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No abstract provided.

Righting Victim Wrongs: Responding To Philosophical Criticisms Of The Nonspecific Victim Liability Defense, Aya Gruber

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Modern criminal law is intensely one-sided in its treatment of victims and defendants. Crime victims and criminal defendants do not enter the trial process on an equal moral footing. Rather, from the beginning victims are assumed blameless, truthful, and even beyond doubt, while defendants are guilty, not worthy of credence, and immoral. This one-sided view of victims, however, is a fiction. As any other people, victims differ in their characterizations. Some are indeed trustworthy, truthful, blameless and ultimately innocent. Others, however, are bad actors themselves, have memory failures, falsely identify, provoke, and even lie. Some victims are in fact, and …

Tips From An Appellate Lawyer, Myron Moskovitz

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No abstract provided.

"Death Is Different" - Is Money Different? Criminal Punishments, Forfeitures, And Punitive Damages - Shifting Constitutional Paradigms For Assessing Proportionality, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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Part I of this Article reviews the case law regarding judicial review of both terms of imprisonment and imposition of the death penalty. In this section, I argue for consistency within this area of the law. Some jurisprudence suggests that, because "death is different," proportionality review is appropriate only in the death penalty context, and is either not required or only applies in an extremely narrow example, such as life imprisonment for a parking ticket. Part II examines Supreme Court precedent that analyzes the question of proportionality of forfeitures and punitive damages awards. In the context of forfeitures, the debate …

Victim Wrongs: The Case For A General Criminal Defense Based On Wrongful Victim Behavior In An Era Of Victims' Rights, Aya Gruber

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Criminal law scholarship is rife with analysis of the victims' rights movement. Many articles identify with the outrage of victims harmed by deviant criminal elements. Other scholarly pieces criticize the movement's denuding of defendants' constitutional trial rights. The point upon which proponents and opponents of the movement tend to agree, however, is that the victim should never be blamed for the crime. The helpless, harmed, innocent victim is someone with whom we can all identify and someone to whom we can all express sympathy. Victim blaming, by all accounts, is an act of legal heresy to feminists, victim advocates, and …

Homicide On Holiday: Prosecutorial Discretion, Popular Culture, And The Boundaries Of The Criminal Law, Carolyn B. Ramsey

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This article discusses prosecutors' discretion to press criminal charges against individuals who cause death during recreational activities. Based on newspaper sources, published opinions, and unpublished materials from cases that resulted in plea bargains, Homicide on Holiday continues the author's exploration of the relationship between the American public, criminal prosecutors, and the nature of the prosecutors' public role. It shows that, despite popular culture's glorification of risk and a nationwide trend in tort law toward sheltering sports co-participants from civil negligence liability, an exhilarating trip down a ski slope is increasingly likely to land a skier in jail if he collides …

A Moving Violation? Hypercriminalized Spaces And Fortuitous Presence In Drug Free School Zones, L. Buckner Inniss

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No abstract provided.

In Defence Of The Right To Trial By Jury: A Solution To The Ailing Czech Justice System?, Susan Rutberg

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According to the pollsters, public confidence in the Czech justice system is very low. 65% of Czechs do not trust their judges. Certainly, there is a connection between this mistrust and the fact that approximately 40% of the CR's 2500 current judges have been on the bench since before 1989. To an outsider, it seems surprising that the post-communist governments did not make changes to a system that had been controlled by the Communist party. The institution of trial by jury may be one way to promote public confidence in the Czech justice system.

The purpose of this article is …

The Party Line, Myron Moskovitz

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No abstract provided.

The Party Line, Myron Moskovitz

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No abstract provided.

The Discretionary Power Of "Public" Prosecutors In Historical Perspective, Carolyn B. Ramsey

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Norms urging prosecutors to seek justice by playing a quasi-judicial role and striving for fairness to defendants are often assumed to have deep historical roots. Yet, in fact, such a conception of the prosecutor's role is relatively new. Based on archival research on the papers of the New York County District Attorney's Office, "The Discretionary Power of 'Public' Prosecutors in Historical Perspective" explores the meaning of the word "public" as it applied to prosecutors in the nineteenth century. This article shows that, in the early days of public prosecution, district attorneys were expected to maximize convictions and leave defendants' rights …

When The State Is Silent: An Analysis Of Aedpa's Adjudication Requirement, Brittany Glidden

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Note on Bell v. Jarvis (Bell II), 236 F.3d 149 (4th Cir. 2000) (en banc), cert. denied sub nom., Bell v. Beck, 122 S. Ct. 74 (2001).

Op-Ed Piece By Dean Peter Keane, Peter Keane

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No abstract provided.

Confessions And The Right To Counsel: Reflections On Recent Changes In Turkish Criminal Procedure, Robert K. Calhoun

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No abstract provided.

The Role Of United States Federal Courts In Extradition Matters: The Rule Of Non-Inquiry, Preventive Detention And Comparative Legal Analysis, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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This paper argues that applying the rule of non-inquiry to the issue of whether the requested person has been charged is analytically incorrect where the relevant treaty defines as extraditable persons who have been charged or convicted of certain offenses, thus requiring a judicial determination as to whether the person requested has been charged as part of the initial inquiry into extraditability. By contrast, the rule of non-inquiry is typically used to reject arguments of persons who are otherwise extraditable. This issue has not received much analysis perhaps because federal courts are reluctant to look beyond an arrest warrant issued …

Victims' Rights: Rethinking Our "Adversary System", William T. Pizzi

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No abstract provided.

Victims' Rights, Rule Of Law, And The Threat To Liberal Jurisprudence, Ahmed A. White

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No abstract provided.

California's Sexually Violent Predator Act: The Role Of Psychiatrists, Courts, And Medical Determinations In Confining Sex Offenders, Carolyn B. Ramsey

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No abstract provided.

What I Did On Sabbatical: Returning After 15 Years To My Old Haunts At The Hall Of Justice, Susan Rutberg

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No abstract provided.

Criminal Law, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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There is no single theme emerging from the variety of cases decided by the Fifth Circuit during this survey period. Nonetheless, the interpretational issues following both the Bailey and Lopez Supreme Court cases illustrate the extent to which some confusion still remains. In addition, it will be interesting to observe whether the inconsistencies in the Branch opinion, discussed in Part I of this article, impact future cases involving more than one defendant.

Sex And The Social Order: The Selective Enforcement Of Colonial American Adultery Laws In The English Context, Carolyn B. Ramsey

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No abstract provided.

An Offer You Can't Refuse? Punishment Without Trial In Italy And The United States: The Search For Truth And An Efficient Criminal Justice System, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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This Article compares the steps taken by Italy and the United States to reconcile the need for an efficient criminal justice system on the one hand, and the desire to achieve justice or discover the truth on the other. Plea bargaining in the United States has a significant history and has generated a substantial amount of literature critical of the device as violative of a criminal defendant's constitutional rights, particularly the right to be tried by a jury of one's peers. In addition, scholars have criticized the distortive effect of plea bargaining on the roles of the prosecutor, judge, and …

Is Your Best Woman Really A Man? Nurturing A New Image Of Women Criminal Defenders, Susan Rutberg

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No abstract provided.

Race And Criminal Justice, Richard B. Collins

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No abstract provided.

Pink Elephants In The Rape Trial: The Problem Of Tort-Type Defenses In The Criminal Law Of Rape, Aya Gruber

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No abstract provided.

Recent Developments, An Appeal By Any Other Name: Congress's Empty Victory Over Habeas Rights--Felker V. Turpin, 116 S. Ct. 2333 (1996), Scott Moss

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No abstract provided.

The Color Of Money, Paul F. Campos

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No abstract provided.

Introduction: O.J. Simpson And The Criminal Justice System On Trial, Christopher B. Mueller

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No abstract provided.