Law Commons^™

Distorted Burden Shifting & Barred Mitigation: Being A Stubborn 234 Years Old Ironically Hasn’T Helped The Supreme Court Mature, Noah Seabrook

Journal of Law and Health

This Note explores the intricate relationship between emerging adulthood, defined as the transitional phase between youth and adulthood (ages 18-25), and the legal implications of capital punishment. Contrary to a fixed age determining adulthood, research highlights the prolonged nature of the maturation process, especially for individuals impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The Note challenges the current legal framework that deems individuals aged 18 to 25 who experienced ACEs as eligible for capital punishment, highlighting the cognitive impact of ACEs on developmental trajectories. Examining cases like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Billy Joe Wardlow, this Note argues that courts often bypass mitigating …

Legal And Health Risks Of Abortion Criminalization: State Policy Responses In The Immediate Aftermath Of Dobbs, Adrienne R. Ghorashi, Deanna Baumle

Journal of Law and Health

Major changes to the landscape of abortion law and service delivery have rapidly proliferated since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, in some cases overnight. Using legal epidemiology methods, the authors of this Article and a team of researchers created a legal dataset that identifies and tracks state laws impacting abortion access in the months immediately following the Dobbs ruling. This Article explores the dataset's findings, detailing changes in abortion laws including abortion bans and related penalties, interstate shield laws, and data privacy protections, from June 1, 2022 through January 1, 2023. While several states moved quickly to restrict …

Emotional Distress Claims, Dignitary Torts, And The Medical-Legal Fiction Of Reasonable Sensitivity, Alessandra Suuberg

Journal of Law and Health

Can individuals with a highly sensitive temperament recover in tort for intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED)? In 2019, an article in the University of Memphis Law Review raised this question, referring to the "Highly Sensitive Person" (HSP) construct in psychology and asking whether the IIED tort’s 'reasonable person' standard discriminates against highly sensitive plaintiffs. Following up on that discussion, the present article considers how the law of IIED has historically treated plaintiffs with diagnosed psychiatric vulnerabilities that are either known or unknown to the defendant. The article also extends this discussion to the law's treatment of temperaments, such as …

Due Process Junior: Competent (Enough) For The Court, Tigan Woolson

Journal of Law and Health

There are many reports presenting expert policy recommendations, and a substantial volume of research supporting them, that detail what should shape and guide statutes for juvenile competency to stand trial. Ohio has adopted provisions consistent with some of these recommendations, which is better protection than relying on case law and the adult statutes, as some states have done. However, the Ohio statute should be considered a work in progress.

Since appeals courts are unlikely to provide meaningful review for the substance of a juvenile competency determination, the need for procedures for ensuring that the determination is initially made in a …

Insane: James Holmes, Clark V. Arizona, And America's Insanity Defense, Eric Collins

Journal of Law and Health

Insanity is a legal term of art that changes definitions depending on the legal standard in American jurisprudence, which explains why a man who mental health professionals described as having an uncontrollable obsession with killing people can be found not insane and guilty. This Note addresses the current state of the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 and its widespread implementation at the state level. Part II supplies background information on the history of the insanity defense and how it has transformed over the years in American jurisprudence. Part III provides an analysis of the of the insanity defense. Part …

Shifting Our Focus From Retribution To Social Justice: An Alternative Vision For The Treatment Of Pregnant Women Who Harm Their Fetuses, April L. Cherry

Journal of Law and Health

The ways in which society responds to pregnant women whose behavior purportedly harms their fetuses can be explored from a variety of legal vantage points. This article argues that the criminal law model currently used is ineffective. The assignment of criminal liability to pregnant women is often rooted in fetal personhood and maternal deviance discourse. Criminal law solutions fail because they fail to take into account the fact that maternal behavior is often the result of a myriad of the social and economic conditions over which pregnant women have little or no control. The criminal law model, therefore, simply punishes …

Pharmageddon: A Statutory Solution To Curb Ohio's Prescription Abuse Problem, Ed Woodworth

Journal of Law and Health

Prescription abuse in Ohio continues to be a serious and complex issue that should be addressed. Accordingly, Part II of this Note examines the background of prescription drug abuse generally. It identifies the dangers of prescription drug abuse, the cost drug abuse places on society, some reasons for prescription drug abuse, sources of prescription drugs, and discusses the current state and federal laws regarding prescription drug abuse and prescription reporting. Part III discusses the positive and negative aspects of H.B. 93 and Medical Rule 4731-11-11 and then offers proposals to more effectively prevent prescription drug abuse. Part IV discusses various …

Do You Know Where Your Dna Is? The Need For Dna Legislation In Ohio, Elizabeth Collins

Journal of Law and Health

This Note examines the several privacy and safety issues stemming from DNA theft. Part II discusses constitutional and common law regarding the abandonment of property, particularly under the Fourth Amendment, and explains how the Fourth Amendment does not protect individuals from DNA theft. Part III details the many consequences resulting from DNA theft. These risks, among countless others, include employment and insurance discrimination, family turmoil caused by paternity testing which is often inaccurate and conducted without consent, genetic stalking, security risks, and the unauthorized publication of personal medical information and ancestral information. Part IV examines DNA theft legislation adopted by …

Proving Medical Child Abuse: The Time Is Now For Ohio To Focus On The Victim And Not The Abuser, Tiffany S. Allison

Journal of Law and Health

Part I of this Note will discuss the history of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy and how the medical community is trying to make the general public aware of medical child abuse. Part II provides a history of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy and medical child abuse. It also highlights the differences in how litigation was previously handled under the nomenclature of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy and how litigation should be handled in the future under the nomenclature of medical child abuse. Part III identifies Ohio's current statutes and federal legislation that have an effect on child abuse. Part III also identifies …

Our Backyard Slave Trade: The Result Of Ohio’S Failure To Enact Comprehensive State-Level Human-Sex-Trafficking Legislation, Priscila A. Rocha

Journal of Law and Health

This Note examines the shortcomings of Ohio’s current anti-trafficking legislation and argues that additional victim-focused legislation must be enacted at the state level to prevent human trafficking and to protect victims. Part II provides a broad overview of the human-sex-trafficking epidemic, its magnitude at an international level, and the United Nations’ response. Part III discusses the scope of human trafficking within the United States. It also examines federal level anti-trafficking initiatives, including the Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), its reauthorizations, and its effectiveness in preventing domestic human trafficking and in protecting victims. Part IV addresses the urgent …

Ohio's Aggressive Attack On Medical Identity Theft, Stanley C. Ball

Journal of Law and Health

This note explains the severity of medical identity theft and the state and federal legislative reactions to the problem. Specifically, the note discusses data breach notification statutes that require healthcare providers to notify consumers when the systems holding customer personal information are breached. The note concludes that Ohio’s data breach notification statute, which does not expressly cover healthcare providers, should be amended to protect residents from medical identity theft and provide redress when healthcare providers violate state law.

Capital Punishment, Psychiatrists And The Potential Bottleneck Of Competence , Jacob M. Appel

Journal of Law and Health

The purpose of this paper is to merge two largely separate bodies of writing on the subject of psychiatric participation in capital punishment. Much has already been written from the perspective of legal academics regarding the rights of prisoners to be free from unwanted medical care if the purpose of providing such care is to render them fit for execution. Medical ethicists have also written much on the degree to which physicians, and specifically psychiatrists, may participate in facilitating the death penalty before they become so complicit as to violate accepted standards of professional ethics. Surprisingly, these two fields of …

Off The Roads & Out Of The Courts: Enter A Technology Fix For Drunk Driving, Nora J. Pasman-Green

Journal of Law and Health

For years, scholars, scientists, policymakers, and public advocacy groups have been exploring and debating whether AIIDs (alcohol ignition interlock devices) would effectively prevent someone from driving drunk. AIIDs measure blood alcohol content (BAC), which is the underlying scientific evidence of driving impairment. Indeed, the technology supporting AIIDs has steadily improved. Progress toward a consensus that identifies and ranks the potential goals that can be achieved with the AIID technology is slowly crystallizing. AIIDs have their found into way into legislation, both nationally and internationally, particularly legislation aimed at repeat offenders. And, installing AIIDs as standard equipment on vehicles has, indeed, …

Through A Scanner Darkly: The Use Of Fmri As Evidence Of Mens Rea, Teneille Brown, Emily R. Murphy

Journal of Law and Health

Tonight we are pleased to host an event exploring fMRI and its legal significance. Although [neuroimaging] is still an emerging technology, it has proven to be very consequential in at least one situation. In September 2008, the New York Times reported that a court in India allowed the use of brain scan images in a criminal case, which ultimately led to the conviction of an Indian woman accused of poisoning her fiance. To this day, the Indian woman maintains her innocence. Hank Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford Law School and a colleague of our speakers, commented on the verdict, [characterizing …

Assessing Legal Responses To Prenatal Drug Use: Can Therapeutic Responses Produce More Positive Outcomes Than Punitive Responses, Elizabeth E. Coleman, Monica K. Miller

Journal of Law and Health

Expressing a growing concern for fetal well being, the 2006 Idaho Senate passed legislation that permits criminal charges to be brought against women who abuse illegal drugs while pregnant. This bill allows for the potential incarceration of violators for up to five years, as well as a possible $50,000 fine. In some locations, women have the option of choosing to go to drug court instead of serving time in jail or prison. These drug courts provide drug treatment, case management, drug testing, and supervision, while requiring women who abuse illegal drugs to regularly report to scheduled status hearings before a …

Neurocops: The Politics Of Prohibition And The Future Of Enforcing Social Policy From Inside The Body , Richard Glen Boire

Journal of Law and Health

Over the next decade an increasing number of new "pharmacotherapy" medications will become available with the potential to tremendously impact the use and abuse of illegal drugs and the overall direction of national and international drug policy. These pharmacotherapy medications are designed to block or significantly reduce the "highs" elicited by illegal drugs. Used as part of a drug treatment program, pharmacotherapy medications may provide valuable assistance for people voluntarily seeking a chemical aid in limiting or eliminating the problem drug use. However, the tremendously politicized nature of the "drug war" raises substantial concerns that, in addition to those who …

Pregnant Women Inmates: Evaluating Their Rights And Identifying Opportunities For Improvements In Their Treatment, Kelly Parker

Journal of Law and Health

Pregnant women incarcerated at the time of our nation's founding faced the prospect of giving birth in their cells alone and a considerable likelihood that their infants would die. This is somewhat unsurprising. At this time infant mortality rates were high. Given the pace of advances in the treatment of pregnant women since that time, one might expect that the experience of pregnant women incarcerated in today's correctional facilities would have improved as it has for their peers on the outside. That, however, would be an unrealistic assumption. In addition to facing decidedly substandard environments in some facilities - inappropriate …

Ohio's Sex Offender Residency Restriction Law: Does It Protect The Health And Safety Of The State's Children Or Falsely Make People Believe So, Margaret Troia

Journal of Law and Health

The fact of the matter is that residency laws often force all registered sex offenders to pay the price for a few high-profile cases and the public's fear and beliefs regarding sex offenders is often misguided and not well-founded. Sex offender residency laws may actually increase recidivism rates while placing unjustified burdens on sex offenders and their family members. Furthermore, because these laws target stranger perpetrators, they do not prevent the majority of sex crimes committed by acquaintances or family members of the victim. This results in parents being lulled into a false sense of security that their children are …

The Mentally Ill Offender: A Brighter Tomorrow Through The Eyes Of The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment And Crime Reduction Act Of 2004, Ralph M. Rivera

Journal of Law and Health

Beginning in the early 1950s and '60s, states began to close their public mental health hospitals. This process was known as "deinstitutionalization." In recent years, following the massive wave of deinstitutionalization, a substantial number of institutionalized persons with mental disabilities were relocated from civil mental hospitals into jails and prisons, Despite this shift in population, correctional facilities remain ill-equipped to handle and deal with offenders with mental disabilities. One study found that approximately 6.5-10% of inmates suffered from a serious mental illness, while another 15-40% suffered from a moderate mental illness. Another study done by the Bureau of Justice Statistics …

How Ohio V. Talty Provided For Future Bans On Procreation And The Consequences That Action Brings: Ohio V. Talty: Hiding In The Shadow Of The Supreme Court Of Wisconsin, Evelyn Holmer

Journal of Law and Health

This Note discusses the constitutionality of antireproduction restrictions as they relate to the purposes and goals of probation, in the context of the Talty, Oakley, and Tramnell decisions. This Note addresses the ramifications and implications of these restrictions in relation to the deadbeat parent crisis, and it proposes more adequate means to accomplish the competing goals of child welfare and adherence to constitutional doctrine. Section II introduces and dissects the fundamental right to procreate as it is found under two concepts: the right itself and the right to privacy. Section III discusses the purposes of probation, generally, and articulates two …

A Healer Or An Executioner - The Proper Role Of A Psychiatrist In A Criminal Justice System, Gregory Dolin

Journal of Law and Health

This article argues that despite the benefits of ridding the criminal justice system of some uncertainty and ignorance with respect to mental health issues, the very close involvement of psychiatrists in the criminal justice system as practiced in the United States is not only illogical and bad policy, but also unethical from the viewpoint of medical ethics. Part II of this article will lay the groundwork for the argument by discussing the history of the insanity defense, and of science's involvement with criminal justice; while Part III, will look into the association of science and the administration of justice in …

Death By Any Other Name: The Federal Government's Inconsistent Treatment Of Drugs Used In Lethal Injections And Physician-Assisted Suicide, Colin Miller

Journal of Law and Health

While the FDA is under no legal obligation to regulate the drugs used in executions, these recent developments certainly create a moral imperative requiring review. This paper will argue that the federal government cannot consistently refrain from regulating lethal injection drugs while arguing for prosecution of those prescribing drugs to be used by patients in assisted suicide. Part II will look at the opinions in Chaney and the factors behind the FDA's decision not to regulate the drugs used in executions. Part III will look at Oregon's Death with Dignity Act and its authorization by the Supreme Court. Parts IV-VI …

A Jurisprudential Analysis Of Government Intervention And Prenatal Drug Abuse, Susan Fortney

Journal of Law and Health

This article takes a different approach in considering the problem of prenatal drug abuse. After briefly discussing government intervention and constitutional issues, this article will consider the concept of duty and correlative rights. This discussion of duty and correlative rights suggests that the government can take measures to curb prenatal drug use without recognizing fetal rights. The article concludes with a discussion of the utility of criminal legislation as compared to public health legislation that treats drug addiction as a disease requiring treatment. As formulated, the proposal for public health legislation is not based on any concept of fetal rights. …

Defining Willful Remuneration: How Bryan V. United States Affects The Scienter Requirement Of The Medicare/Medicaid Anti-Kickback Statute, Robb Degraw

Journal of Law and Health

At the forefront of the debate over the anti-kickback statute, and the topic of this Note, is the mens rea, or mental state, that is required for a violation of the law. According to the statute, an individual must "knowingly and willfully" solicit or receive, or offer to pay, remuneration in order to induce business reimbursed under any federal health care program. The interpretation of these terms by the federal courts has varied wildly, as have the underlying Supreme Court cases cited as precedent for such interpretations. However, in June of 1998, the Supreme Court defined the meaning of "willfully" …

Standards And Procedures For Determining Whether A Defendant Is Competent To Make The Ultimate Choice - Death; Ohio's New Precedent For Death Row Volunteers, Matthew T. Norman

Journal of Law and Health

Despite the fact that many states will allow a death row defendant to waive his legal appeals in order to hasten his execution date, there are inadequate standards and procedures for determining whether the "volunteer" is first competent to make this ultimate decision of life versus death. To provide background for this issue, this Note will discuss the events initially leading up to the nation's first death row "volunteer", then it will introduce subsequent volunteers of the present day. This Note then will look at what the United States Supreme Court has said about the standards and procedures that are …

Hiv-Specific Crime Legislation: Targetting An Epidemic For Criminal Prosecution, Erin M. O'Toole

Journal of Law and Health

A growing number of state legislatures have drafted HIV specific crime statutes which criminalize the intentional transmission of the HIV virus to another. This discussion will focus on the impact of HIV-specific crime statutes on the following issues: confidentiality, the right to privacy, the decision to submit to HIV testing, and how the statutes may or may not succeed in containing the spread of HIV.

The Existing Confidentiality Privileges As Applied To Rape Victims, Bridget M. Mccafferty

Journal of Law and Health

It is evident that when this type of questioning occurs, the victim must overcome the presumption that she is at fault. As it exists, the prosecution of the rapist also results in the prosecution of the victim. However, it is undeniable that the defendant in a rape case is presumed innocent until a judicial determination states otherwise. A dilemma arises when the court attempts to balance the victim's right to bring the accused to trial and the defendant's right to prove his innocence. Currently, the judicial system favors the presumption of the defendant's innocence, presupposing that the victim has falsely …

A New Twist In The War On Drugs: The Constitutional Right Of A Mentally Ill Criminal Defendant To Refuse Antipsychotic Medication That Would Make Him Competent To Stand Trial, Brian Domb

Journal of Law and Health

The purpose of this Note is to analyze what right, if any exists for a mentally ill criminal defendant to refuse the administration of antipsychotic drugs to gain competence to stand trial. Focusing mainly on the trial context of the right to refuse is not to suggest that there is not overlap between the right of a criminal defendant to refuse and the right of a civilly committed patient to refuse. Indeed, it is often unclear why an individual is brought to the emergency room of a general hospital and eventually committed, rather than being arrested and booked and later …

Executive Order 12,564: Toward A Drug-Free Federal Workforce, Robert M. Kruger

Journal of Law and Health

For all of these reasons, the President issued an Executive Order on September 15, 1986, designed to achieve a drug-free federal workplace. Consistent with the President's views, it focuses on helping, not punishing, drug users. Time does not permit me to go into each of the Order's provisions in great detail. I would, however, like to offer an overview of the major provisions of the Order. In deference to the occasion, I will concentrate on the provisions of the Order which authorize the use of drug testing to achieve that objective. The Executive Order calls upon "agency heads," the chief …

Should The Insanity Defense Be Abolished - An Introduction To The Debate, Norval Morris, Richard Bonnie, Joel J. Finer

Journal of Law and Health

As the plans for the debate began to unfold I was concerned about the possibility that the subject matter might already be jaded, or in any event no longer would be a "hot topic" for our potential audience. Being quite familiar with the writings of our Advocates and therefore particularly susceptible to the reader-listener rehash syndrome, I was nonetheless hopeful that what had the potential for being old-hat would instead be new and interesting to those members of the audience not professionally committed to intimate familiarity with the subject matter. While I had expected that these issues, aired in the …