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Criminal Law

Washington and Lee Law Review

Criminal law

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Appointed Counsel And Jury Trial: The Rights That Undermine The Other Rights, Russell L. Christopher Apr 2018

Appointed Counsel And Jury Trial: The Rights That Undermine The Other Rights, Russell L. Christopher

Washington and Lee Law Review

Do the Sixth Amendment rights to appointed counsel and jury trial unconstitutionally conflict with defendants’ other constitutional rights? For indigents charged with felonies, Gideon v. Wainwright guarantees the right to appointed counsel; for misdemeanors, Scott v. Illinois limits the right to indigents receiving the most severe authorized punishment—imprisonment.Duncan v. Illinois limits the right to jury trial to defendants charged with serious offenses. Consequently, the greater the jeopardy faced by defendants, the greater the eligibility for appointed counsel and jury trial. But defendants’ other constitutional rights generally facilitate just the opposite— minimizing jeopardy by reducing charges, lessening the likelihood of …


Constitutional Clause Aggregation And The Marijuana Crimes, Scott W. Howe Apr 2018

Constitutional Clause Aggregation And The Marijuana Crimes, Scott W. Howe

Washington and Lee Law Review

An important question for our time concerns whether the Constitution could establish a right to engage in certain marijuana-related activities. Several states have now legalized cannabis, within strict limits, for recreational purposes, and that number will grow. Yet, some states will not promptly legalize but, instead, continue to criminalize, or only “decriminalize” in minor ways, and the federal criminalization statutes also will likely survive for a time. There currently is no recognized right under the Constitution to possess, use, cultivate, or distribute cannabis for recreational purposes, even in small amounts, and traditional, single-clause arguments for such a right are weak. …


Deconstructing The Epistemic Challenges To Mass Atrocity Prosecutions, Nancy Amoury Combs Jan 2018

Deconstructing The Epistemic Challenges To Mass Atrocity Prosecutions, Nancy Amoury Combs

Washington and Lee Law Review

Mass atrocity prosecutions are credited with advancing a host of praiseworthy objectives. They are believed to impose much-needed retribution, deter future atrocities, and affirm the rule of law in previously lawless societies. However, mass atrocity prosecutions will accomplish none of these laudable ends unless they are able to find accurate facts. Convicting the appropriate individuals of the appropriate crimes is a necessary and foundational condition for the success of mass atrocity prosecutions. But it is a condition that is frequently difficult to meet, as mass atrocity prosecutions are often bedeviled by pervasive and invidious obstacles to accurate fact-finding. This Article …


Criminal Adjudication, Error Correction, And Hindsight Blind Spots, Lisa Kern Griffin Jan 2016

Criminal Adjudication, Error Correction, And Hindsight Blind Spots, Lisa Kern Griffin

Washington and Lee Law Review

Concerns about hindsight in the law typically arise with regard to the bias that outcome knowledge can produce. But a more difficult problem than the clear view that hindsight appears to provide is the blind spot that it actually has. Because of the conventional wisdom about error review, there is a missed opportunity to ensure meaningful scrutiny. Beyond the confirmation biases that make convictions seem inevitable lies the question whether courts can see what they are meant to assess when they do look closely for error. Standards that require a retrospective showing of materiality, prejudice, or harm turn on what …


Two Models Of Pre-Plea Discovery In Criminal Cases: An Empirical Comparison, Jenia I. Turner, Allison D. Redlich George Mason University Jan 2016

Two Models Of Pre-Plea Discovery In Criminal Cases: An Empirical Comparison, Jenia I. Turner, Allison D. Redlich George Mason University

Washington and Lee Law Review

Our criminal justice system resolves most of its cases through plea bargains. Yet the U.S. Supreme Court has not required that any evidence, even exculpatory or impeachment evidence, be provided to the defense before a guilty plea. As a result, state rules on pre-plea discovery differ widely. While some jurisdictions follow an “open-file” model, imposing relatively broad discovery obligations on prosecutors early in the criminal process, others follow a more restrictive, “closed-file” model and allow the prosecution to avoid production of critical evidence either entirely or until very near the time of trial. Though the advantages and disadvantages of both …


The Admissibility Of Trueallele: A Computerized Dna Interpretation System, Katherine L. Moss Mar 2015

The Admissibility Of Trueallele: A Computerized Dna Interpretation System, Katherine L. Moss

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Irrelevance Of Prisoner Fault For Excessively Delayed Executions, Russell L. Christopher Jan 2015

The Irrelevance Of Prisoner Fault For Excessively Delayed Executions, Russell L. Christopher

Washington and Lee Law Review

Are decades-long delays between sentencing and execution immune from Eighth Amendment violation because they are self-inflicted by prisoners, or is such prisoner fault for delays simply irrelevant to whether a state-imposed punishment is cruel and unusual? Typically finding delay to be the state’s responsibility, Justices Breyer and Stevens argue that execution following upwards of forty years of death row incarceration is unconstitutional. Nearly every lower court disagrees, reasoning that prisoners have the choice of pursuing appellate and collateral review (with the delay that entails) or crafting the perfect remedy to any delay by submitting, as Justice Thomas has invited complaining …


Comment On The Prior Convictions Exception: Examining The Continuing Viability Of Almendarez-Torres Under Alleyne, Kevin Flynn Jan 2015

Comment On The Prior Convictions Exception: Examining The Continuing Viability Of Almendarez-Torres Under Alleyne, Kevin Flynn

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Prior Convictions Exception—A Comment, Matthew Engle Jan 2015

The Prior Convictions Exception—A Comment, Matthew Engle

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Prior Convictions Exception: Examining The Continuing Viability Of Almendarez-Torres Under Alleyne, Meg E. Sawyer Jan 2015

The Prior Convictions Exception: Examining The Continuing Viability Of Almendarez-Torres Under Alleyne, Meg E. Sawyer

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


For The Criminal Practitioner Review Of Fourth Circuit Opinions In Criminal Cases Decided In Calendar Year 1992, Carl Horn Jan 1993

For The Criminal Practitioner Review Of Fourth Circuit Opinions In Criminal Cases Decided In Calendar Year 1992, Carl Horn

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Booth V. Maryland, Insights Into The Contemporary Challenges To Judging, Joan M. Shaughnessy Mar 1992

Booth V. Maryland, Insights Into The Contemporary Challenges To Judging, Joan M. Shaughnessy

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Presence Requirement And The "Police-Team" Rule In Arrest For Misdemeanors Mar 1969

The Presence Requirement And The "Police-Team" Rule In Arrest For Misdemeanors

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Operating A Motor Vehicle While Under The Influence Sep 1963

Operating A Motor Vehicle While Under The Influence

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Criminal Culpability For Defense Of Third Persons Mar 1963

Criminal Culpability For Defense Of Third Persons

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Invitee And Retreat Rule In Criminal Law Mar 1963

Invitee And Retreat Rule In Criminal Law

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Remarks About Appeal As Prejudicial In Criminal Cases Sep 1962

Remarks About Appeal As Prejudicial In Criminal Cases

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Burden Of Proof As To Perpetrators Of Crimes Sep 1962

Burden Of Proof As To Perpetrators Of Crimes

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Three Modern Problems In Criminal Law, E. Barrett Prettyman Sep 1961

Three Modern Problems In Criminal Law, E. Barrett Prettyman

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Criminally Enforceable Duty To Act Sep 1961

Criminally Enforceable Duty To Act

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Federal Assistance In The Enforcement Of State Criminal Law Mar 1960

Federal Assistance In The Enforcement Of State Criminal Law

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Felony Murder, Transferred Intent, And The Palsgraf Doctrine In The Criminal Law, Wilfred J. Ritz Sep 1959

Felony Murder, Transferred Intent, And The Palsgraf Doctrine In The Criminal Law, Wilfred J. Ritz

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Federal Assimilative Crimes Act: How Much State Law? Mar 1959

Federal Assimilative Crimes Act: How Much State Law?

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Entrapment Re-Examined By United States Supreme Court Mar 1959

Entrapment Re-Examined By United States Supreme Court

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.