Law Commons^™

Plea Bargaining And Collateral Consequences: An Experimental Analysis, Carlie Malone

Vanderbilt Law Review

The overwhelming majority of convictions in the United States are obtained through guilty pleas. Many of these guilty pleas are a product of plea bargaining, where a defendant enters a guilty plea in exchange for some form of official concessions. Despite its prominence, plea bargaining is subject to limited regulation. One consequence of this limited regulation is that courts generally only require the direct consequences of a guilty plea to be communicated to a defendant. Thus, when a defendant is deciding whether to plead guilty, he is often operating with incomplete information about the costly collateral consequences that may attach …

Sex Offenders, Custody And Habeas, Wendy R. Calaway

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Article focuses on habeas petitioners under a conviction from state court seeking federal habeas review. First, Part I will discuss the historical context of the writ of habeas corpus and the development of its purpose and scope. Part I also examines the current status of habeas corpus law, recent legislative efforts to limit its reach, and, specifically, the idea of custody as a prerequisite to habeas relief. Part II explores the evolution of the custody requirement both at the Supreme Court and in lower federal courts. In particular, this section looks at how the meaning of custody has …

Unmarked? Criminal Record Clearing And Employment Outcomes, Jeffrey Selbin, Justin Mccrary, Joshua Epstein

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

An estimated one in three American adults has a criminal record. While some records are for serious offenses, most are for arrests or relatively lowlevel misdemeanors. In an era of heightened security concerns, easily available data, and increased criminal background checks, these records act as a substantial barrier to gainful employment and other opportunities. Harvard sociologist Devah Pager describes people with criminal records as “marked” with a negative job credential. In response to this problem, lawyers have launched unmarking programs to help people take advantage of legal record clearing remedies. We studied a random sample of participants in one such …

Employment Discrimination On The Basis Of Criminal History: Why An Anti-Discrimination Statute Is A Necessary Remedy, Elizabeth Westrope

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

The harms of mass incarceration do not end when an individual is released from prison. Instead, criminal records haunt approximately 70 million people throughout the United States today. Criminal histories follow persons convicted of crimes for the rest of their lives, creating collateral consequences that make it difficult for these individuals to get back on their feet and re-integrate into society. Gaining employment is one of the most crucial steps for returning citizens to take in order to regain stability in their lives. Yet, it remains one of the biggest obstacles. Employers are often wary of hiring persons with criminal …

Humanizing The Corporation While Dehumanizing The Individual: The Misuse Of Deferred-Prosecution Agreements In The United States, Andrea Amulic

Michigan Law Review

American prosecutors routinely offer deferred-prosecution and nonprosecution agreements to corporate defendants, but not to noncorporate defendants. The drafters of the Speedy Trial Act expressly contemplated such agreements, as originally developed for use in cases involving low-level, nonviolent, noncorporate defendants. This Note posits that the almost exclusive use of deferrals in corporate cases is inconsistent with the goal that these agreements initially sought to serve. The Note further argues that this exclusivity can be attributed to prosecutors’ tendency to only consider collateral consequences in corporate cases and not in noncorporate cases. Ultimately, this Note recommends that prosecutors evaluate collateral fallout when …

Legal Aid's Once And Future Role For Impacting The Criminalization Of Poverty And The War On The Poor, Aneel L. Chablani

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Recent media coverage and advocacy efforts on behalf of individuals subjected to criminal sanctions as a result of their poverty status has resulted in increased attention on this nation’s troubled history of oppression and control of the poor and people of color. At the federal, state, and local levels, a growing number of policies create criminal sanctions for poverty-related circumstances. These, in turn, result in collateral consequences that unfairly affect those who lack the means to afford their criminal justice experience (i.e., processing costs, fees, and fines), or affect their ability to access employment, housing, or other basic services. These …

Criminal Court, New York County, People V. Dejesus, Justin Goldberg

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Teaching The Carceral Crisis: An Ethical And Pedagogical Imperative, Taja-Nia Y. Henderson

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

"Teaching the Carceral Crisis: An Ethical and Pedagogical Imperative," demonstrates that although mass incarceration and mass conviction has increased in the United States, law school curricula has continued to lack any substantive discussion on these issues. The article highlights the need for law schools to improve their current curricula in order to prevent further stigmatization of criminal offenders and the continued increase of incarceration rates.

Conference Report: New York City's Criminal Courts Are We Achieving Justice?, Martha Rayner

Fordham Urban Law Journal

On October 18, 2003, more than one hundred professionals from the five boroughs of New York City came together to identify, evaluate, and begin to solve some of the complex problems embedded in the culture, operations, and practice in New York City's Criminal Courts. The conference planners focused on five problems that have undermined the pursuit of justice in New York City’s Criminal Court system for decades. The first group, Arraignment Norms, Practices and Culture, targeted professionalism and justice at the first and often last court appearance for people arrested and charged with misdemeanor crimes in New York City. The …

Broadening The Holistic Mindset: Incorporating Collateral Consequences And Reenty Into Criminal Defense Lawyering, Michael Pinard

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Over the past two decades, public defender offices across the country have broadened the range of defense services provided to indigent clients. These expanded services, some of which involve representing clients on related non-criminal matters such as housing and public benefits, are included in what is now commonly referred to as "holistic representation."' This form of representation strives to encompass the various underlying issues that often lead to clients’ experiences with the criminal justice system, with the aim of addressing those circumstances and preventing future criminal involvement. Holistic representation signals a paradigmatic shift in defense philosophy and ideology and has …

Starting Over With A Clean Slate: In Praise Of A Forgotten Section Of The Model Penal Code, Margaret Colgate Love

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Convicted felons have no realistic hope of full reintegration into society when jurisdictions do not provide for eventual removal of collateral penalties and when relief mechanisms are insufficient or ineffective. Because Americans are uncomfortable with such an unforgiving system and states are considering the economic burdens of such a system, jurisdictions should take steps to limit the scope and duration of these collateral consequences. This Article proposes a legal framework aimed to fully reintegrate an offender into society post incarceration. It urges a return to the reforms of the 1960s and 70s, the ABA Standards on Collateral Sanctions, and Section …