Law Commons^™

Brett Kavanaugh Vs. The Exonerated Central Park Five: Exposing The President's "Presumption Of Innocence" Double Standard, Sofia Yakren

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

In the service of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the United States Supreme Court, the President of the United States (and Republican Senators) both misappropriated and further eroded the already compromised concepts of due process and presumption of innocence. This Essay uses the prominent “Central Park Five” case in which five teenagers of color were wrongly convicted of a white woman’s widely-publicized beating and rape to expose the President’s disparate use of the presumption along race and status lines. This narrative is consistent with larger systemic inequities that leave poor black and brown criminal defendants less likely to benefit …

International Prison Standards And Transnational Criminal Justice, Dirk Van Zyl Smit

UC Irvine Journal of International, Transnational, and Comparative Law

Prison standards are an important element of transnational criminal

justice. This Article shows how legal standards governing prison conditions

emerged at the international and regional levels and considers how,

increasingly, they have gained legitimacy. It then describes how these

standards are applied in a way that contributes to a recognizable

transnational legal order in respect of prison conditions, which has real

impact at the national level. The Article pays close attention to the transfer

of prisoners between states, as a mechanism that operates transnationally

and, in the process, enhances the importance of international prison

standards. It concludes that the benefits …

Small Crimes, Big Injustices, Stephanos Bibas

Michigan Law Review

Review of Alexandra Natapoff's Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal.