Law Commons^™

Blame Congress, Not Prosecutors, For The Absurdity Of Mandatory Minimums, Wes R. Porter

Publications

Contrary to public perception, prosecutors do not "coerce" or "threaten" otherwise innocent people to plead guilty using mandatory minimum sentences. "Mandatory minimums," as they are called, are minimum terms of imprisonment for specific offenses imposed by statute instead of a judge. Judge John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York joined the chorus of critics in an October 2013 court statement, when he said that "[p]rosecutors routinely threaten ultra-harsh, enhanced mandatory sentences that no one - not even the prosecutors themselves - thinks are appropriate." Of course, some federal prosecutors do act badly - …

Export Controls: A Contemporary History, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides highlights of my recently published book Export Controls: A Contemporary History. Describes the roles played by multiple U.S. Government agencies and congressional oversight committees in this policymaking arena including the Commerce, Defense, State, and Treasury Departments. It also reviews the roles played by international government organizations such as the Missile Technology Control Regime, export oriented businesses, and research intensive universities.

Casual Ostracism: Jury Exclusion On The Basis Of Criminal Convictions, Anna Roberts

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Optimal Warning Strategies: Punishment Ought Not To Be Inflicted Where The Penal Provision Is Not Properly Conveyed, Murat C. Mungan

Scholarly Publications

Law enforcers frequently issue warnings, as opposed to sanctions, when they detect first-time offenders. However, virtually all of the law and economics literature dealing with optimal penalty schemes for repeat offenders suggest that issuing warnings is a sub-optimal practice. Another observed phenomenon is the joint use of warnings and sanctions in law enforcement: person A may receive a sanction, whereas person B is only warned for committing the same offense. This situation can be explained through the use of hybrid warning strategies, a concept not yet formalized in the law enforcement literature, where law enforcers issue warnings to x% …

The Illusory Eighth Amendment, John F. Stinneford

UF Law Faculty Publications

Although there is no obvious doctrinal connection between the Supreme Court’s Miranda jurisprudence and its Eighth Amendment excessive punishments jurisprudence, the two are deeply connected at the level of methodology. In both areas, the Supreme Court has been criticized for creating “prophylactic” rules that invalidate government actions because they create a mere risk of constitutional violation. In reality, however, both sets of rules deny constitutional protection to a far greater number of individuals with plausible claims of unconstitutional treatment than they protect.

This dysfunctional combination of over- and underprotection arises from the Supreme Court’s use of implementation rules as a …

Constitutionally Tailoring Punishment, Richard A. Bierschbach, Stephanos Bibas

All Faculty Scholarship

Since the turn of the century, the Supreme Court has begun to regulate non-capital sentencing under the Sixth Amendment in the Apprendi line of cases (requiring jury findings of fact to justify sentence enhancements) as well as under the Eighth Amendment in the Miller and Graham line of cases (forbidding mandatory life imprisonment for juvenile defendants). Though both lines of authority sound in individual rights, in fact they are fundamentally about the structures of criminal justice. These two seemingly disparate lines of doctrine respond to structural imbalances in non-capital sentencing by promoting morally appropriate punishment judgments that are based on …

Promising Protection: 911 Call Records As Foundation For Family Violence Intervention, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Summary Of Clancy V. State, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 89, Jim Hoffman

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

A three-judge panel of the Court considered three questions: (1) whether NRS 484E.010-030 require actual knowledge that an accident has occurred, or whether constructive knowledge is sufficient; (2) whether the definition of “involved in an accident” in the same statute is unconstitutionally vague or ambiguous; and (3) whether the evidence in this case was sufficient to support the guilty verdict handed down in the lower court.

Summary Of Clay V. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 91, Joseph Peacock

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined one issue: whether NRS 62H.170(2)(c) or NRS 62H.170(3) permits the State to inspect a defendant’s sealed juvenile record to obtain information for use against that defendant in a subsequent criminal prosecution.

Summary Of Watters V. State, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 94, Brian Vasek

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined whether the prosecution’s use of a PowerPoint slide during opening statement with the defendant’s booking photo and the word “guilty” superimposed across the photo was improper advocacy and undermined the defendant’s presumption of innocence.

Implementing The Prison Rape Elimination Act: A Toolkit For Jails, Brenda V. Smith, Dr. Gary Dennis, Susan W. Mccampbell, Michael S. Mccampbell, Elizabeth Price Layman, Caleb Asbridge, Rachel Bosley, Andie Moss, Jeff Shorba, Shaina Vanek, Jaime Yarussi, American Jail Association, National Institute Of Corrections' Large Jail Network, Nationa Sheriff's Association, American Correctional Association, Larry Cook, Dr. Robert Decomo, Jim Dennis, Nancy Deferrari, John Delaney, Timothy Fay, Diahann Frazier, David Gaspar, Quandara Grant, Dee Halley, Jamey Kessinger, Calvin King, Shawn Laughlin, Andrew Nunnally, Debra Oliver-Hammons, Steven Pizzala, Lisa Plowman, Gayle Ray, Larry Reynolds, Gwyn Smith-Ingley, Chris Sweney, Wynnie Testamark-Samuels, Janie Vergakis, Gregory Winston, Berry Zeeman

Presentations

Minor edits. “The goal of this Toolkit is to provide jails of all sizes, political divisions, and geographic locations with a step-by-step guide for preventing, detecting, and eliminating sexual abuse of inmates in their custody – and for responding effectively to abuse when it occurs. Prison rape includes all forms of inmate sexual abuse within a correctional facility, including state and federal prisons, county and municipal jails, police lock-ups, holding facilities, inmate transportation vehicles, juvenile detention facilities, and community corrections facilities. Protecting arrestees, detainees, and inmates from sexual violence is part of a jail’s core mission. This toolkit will help …

Rios Montt Edges Closer To Escaping Accountability For Genocide, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Talk Is Cheap, But Texting While Driving Shouldn’T Be, Kristina Maalouf

GGU Law Review Blog

No abstract provided.

Dirty Silver Platters: The Enduring Challenge Of Intergovernmental Investigative Illegality, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

This Essay addresses a longstanding concern in American criminal justice: that law enforcement agents of different governments will work together to evade a legal limit imposed by one of the governments. In the past, with the U.S. Supreme Court in the lead, courts were prone to closely scrutinize intergovernmental investigative efforts, on vigilant guard against what the Court called improper “working arrangements.” Judicial vigilance, however, has long since waned, a problematic development that has assumed added significance over time as investigations have become increasingly multijurisdictional and technologically sophisticated in nature.

The Essay offers the first comprehensive examination of this phenomenon …

Jeremy Horder's Homicide And The Politics Of Law Reform, Guyora Binder

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

Policing The Immigration Police: Ice Prosecutorial Discretion And The Fourth Amendment, Jason A. Cade

Scholarly Works

A persistent puzzle in immigration law is how the removal adjudication system should respond to the increasing prevalence of violations of noncitizens’ constitutional rights by arresting officers. Scholarship in this area has focused on judicial suppression of unconstitutionally obtained evidence, typically by arguing that the Supreme Court should overrule its 1984 decision in INS v. Lopez-Mendoza not to enforce the exclusionary rule in civil immigration court. This Essay, in contrast, considers the role of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attorneys in upholding the Fourth Amendment, taking as a launching point the recent exercise of prosecutorial discretion by ICE attorneys in …

Summary Of State V. Lloyd, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 79, Jim Hoffman

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court considers an appeal from a district court order granting the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence based on a warrantless automobile search. The Court considers one issue: whether Article I, Section 18 of the Nevada Constitution imposes an exigency requirement on officers conducting warrantless vehicle searches, or whether officers need only have probable cause.

Sex Trafficking In Massage Parlors: Working Out The Knots In The San Francisco Health Code, Joanne Badua

GGU Law Review Blog

No abstract provided.

Summary Of In Re Steven Daniel P., 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 73, Geordan G. Logan

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined two issues: (1) whether the juvenile court has authority under NRS 62C.230(1)(a) to dismiss a delinquency petition and refer a juvenile for informal supervision pursuant to NRS 62C.200 without the written approval of the district attorney; and (2) whether the juvenile court's discretion in overseeing a juvenile matter is limited by the authority granted under the Nevada Revised Statutes.

When Poverty Is The Worst Crime Of All: A Film Review Of Gideon’S Army (2013), Jessica S Henry

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This review of the Sundance Award-winning documentary film, Gideon’s Army, examines the disparate impact of the criminal justice system on the poor and, particularly, poor people of color.

Summary Of Paley V. Second Judicial District Court, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 74, Alexandria K. Mendonca

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined whether it should consider petitioner’s writ of mandamus against a direct contempt order under an exception to the mootness doctrine.

Informal Collateral Consequences, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

This essay fills an important gap in the national discussion now taking place with regard to collateral consequences, the broad array of non-penal disabilities attaching to criminal convictions. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, efforts are now underway to inventory collateral consequences imposed by state, local, and federal law. Only when the full gamut of such consequences is known, law reformers urge, can criminal defendants understand the actual impact of their decision to plead guilty.

The increased concern over collateral consequences, while surely welcome and important, has however been lacking in …

Targeting And The Concept Of Intent, Jens David Ohlin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

International law generally prohibits military forces from intentionally targeting civilians; this is the principle of distinction. In contrast, unintended collateral damage is permissible unless the anticipated civilian deaths outweigh the expected military advantage of the strike; this is the principle of proportionality. These cardinal targeting rules of international humanitarian law are generally assumed by military lawyers to be relatively well settled. However, recent international tribunals applying this law in a string of little-noticed decisions have completely upended this understanding. Armed with criminal law principles from their own domestic systems, often civil law jurisdictions, prosecutors, judges and even scholars have progressively …

Symposium Foreword: Bombshell Or Baby Step? The Ramifications Of Miller V. Alabama For Sentencing Law And Juvenile Crime Policy, Paul J. Litton

Faculty Publications

This short essay, which serves as the Symposium Foreword, argues that the rationale of Miller is incoherent insofar as it permits juvenile LWOP sentences and that the Court misidentifies the foundational principle of Roper. First, in banning mandatory juvenile LWOP sentences, the Court invokes Woodson, which bans mandatory death sentences. The Court maintains that Woodson, from its capital jurisprudence, applies because juvenile LWOP is “akin to the death penalty” for juveniles. But if the Court’s capital jurisprudence is binding based on that equivalence, Roper should imply that juvenile LWOP, like the death penalty, is unconstitutional for juveniles. This essay briefly …

Shirking, Opportunism, Self-Delusion And More: The Agency Problem Today, Jayne W. Barnard

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Ounce Of Pretrial Prevention Is Worth More Than A Pound Of Post-Conviction Cure: Untethering Federal Pretrial Criminal Procedure From Due Process Standards Of Review, Jordan Gross

Faculty Law Review Articles

Some Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure cover purely technical matters. Some Rules, however, cover procedures with constitutional dimensions. When a federal court is interpreting a Rule that has a companion constitutional doctrine, an issue arises as to whether the Rule’s requirements are co-extensive with the constitutional protections defined by federal case law, or whether the Rule provides federal defendants a higher level of pretrial procedural protection than a post-conviction due process standard. Federal courts have been inconsistent in identifying and resolving this question of constitutional equivalency. In interpreting some pretrial Criminal Rules, federal courts make a clear distinction between the …

Reclaiming The Equitable Heritage Of Habeas, Erica J. Hashimoto

Scholarly Works

Equity runs through the law of habeas corpus. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, prisoners in England sought the Great Writ primarily from a common law court — the Court of King’s Bench — but that court’s exercise of power to issue the writ was built around equitable principles. Against this backdrop, it is hardly surprising that modern-day habeas law draws deeply on traditional equitable considerations. Criticism of current habeas doctrine centers on the risk that its rules — and particularly the five gatekeeping doctrines that preclude consideration of claims — produce unfair results. But in fact four of these …

Youth Matters: Miller V. Alabama And The Future Of Juvenile Sentencing, John F. Stinneford

UF Law Faculty Publications

In the Supreme Court's latest Eighth Amendment decision, Miller v. Alabama, the Court held that statutes authorizing mandatory sentences of life in prison with no possibility of parole are unconstitutional as applied to offenders who were under eighteen when they committed their crimes. This short essay examines several themes presented in Miller, including the constitutional significance of youth and science, the legitimacy of mandatory life sentences and juvenile transfer statutes, and the conflict between “evolving standards of decency” and the Supreme Court’s “independent judgment.”

This essay also introduces important articles by Richard Frase, Carol Steiker and Jordan Steiker, …

Section 6: Criminal Law, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

The One Or The Many, Jens David Ohlin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The following Review Essay, inspired by Tracy Isaacs’ new book, Moral Responsibility in Collective Contexts, connects the philosophical literature on group agency with recent trends in international criminal law. Part I of the Essay sketches out the relevant philosophical positions, including collectivist and individualist accounts of group agency. Particular attention is paid to Kornhauser and Sager’s development of the doctrinal paradox, Philip Pettit’s deployment of the paradox towards a general argument for group rationality, and Michael Bratman’s account of shared or joint intentions. Part II then analyzes, with cautious support, Isaacs’ two-level solution, which entails both individual and collective …