Law Commons^™

Death After Life: The Future Of New York's Mandatory Death Penalty For Murders Committed By Life-Term Prisoners, Andrea Galbo

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Note analyzes the relevant Supreme Court death penalty decisions from 1972 to 1985 in order to compare New York's mandatory death statute for life-term prisoners who murder with other state death penalty statutes that have been reviewed by the Supreme Court. After considering both the legal and nonlegal arguments, this Note concludes that there can not and should not be a mandatory death penalty for life-term prisoners who murder in New York. This Note recommends that the New York legislature draft a discretionary death penalty statute for life-term prisoners who murder. A discretionary death penalty statute, which provides for …

Reflections Of An Octogenarian On Criminal Law And Criminology, Jerome Hall

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Civil Rico: A Call For A Uniform Statute Of Limitations, Michael J. Lane

Fordham Urban Law Journal

RICO is a statute, originally developed to thwart organized crime. When read broadly, the statute, however, has been applied to non-organized crime activities. Thus, courts have now started applying four substantive requirements for use of the RICO statute: (1) requiring that the plaintiff must allege that the defendant has connection to organized crime, (2) limiting standing to a particular type of injury, (3) requiring the plaintiff to allege an enterprise distinct from the pattern of racketeering or from the defendant, and (4) permitting only civil RICO claims in instances where the defendant has been previously convicted of the predicate acts …

Executing Youthful Offenders: The Unanswered Question In Eddings V. Oklahoma, Rona L. Just

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The juvenile justice system was created to "treat" and to "rehabilitate" the juvenile offender. But transfers to the adult criminal system allows for juvenile offenders to receive the death penalty for capital crimes. This Note examines the theories of punishment underlying the death penalty, briefly discusses the creation of the juvenile court system and the mechanism of juvenile transfer. This Note then discusses the development of the death penalty by examining Supreme Court cases which have considered state laws challenged under the eighth amendment as forms of cruel and unusual punishment. Supreme Court decisions which have extended constitutional guarantees to …

Black Innocence And The White Jury, Sheri Lynn Johnson

Michigan Law Review

Racial prejudice has come under increasingly close scrutiny during the past thirty years, yet its influence on the decisionmaking of criminal juries remains largely hidden from judicial and critical examination. In this Article, Professor Johnson takes a close look at this neglected area. She first sets forth a large body of social science research that reveals a widespread tendency among whites to convict black defendants in instances in which white defendants would be acquitted. Next, she argues that none of the existing techniques for eliminating the influence of racial bias on criminal trials adequately protects minority-race defendants. She contends that …

The Insanity Defense In Fact And Fiction: A Review Essay Of Norval Morris's Madness And The Criminal Law, Susan Herman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1985: Implications For International Criminal Law, Sharon A. Williams

Articles & Book Chapters

The new criminal law amendment act 1985 was proclaimed into force on December 4, 1985. It has far-reaching goals. It seeks to take Canada's criminal justice system into the realm of contemporary criminal activities, and includes a wide range of crimes from domestic offences such as impaired driving and boating and computer crime to international concerns such as hostage-taking and offences against nuclear material. The Act is mammoth, comprising 212 sections and five annexes. The aim of this short analysis is to discuss only the main provisions that concern international criminal law, notably the offence of hostage-taking and offences against …

Compelling Disclosure By A Non-Party Litigant In Violation Of Foreign Bank Secrecy Laws: Recent Developments In Canada-United States Relations, Jean-Gabriel Castel

Articles & Book Chapters

The question whether Canadian or American courts should enforce their laws in a manner that respects the laws of friendly sovereign states has recently been examined by the Supreme Court of Canada and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Their decisions will be the object of this note in the light of recent developments in Canada-United States relations in the area of legal assistance in civil and criminal matters.

Often our courts are asked to compel a person not a party to the litigation or investigation to produce documents or give evidence in Canada when to …

Criminal Law: Sufficiency Of The Evidence: The Search For A Constitutional Test In Oklahoma, C. Kevin Morrison

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Societal Versus Official Law, Morris S. Arnold

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Voluntary Manslaughter After Patterson: An Analysis Of Ohio Law, Margaret M. Higgins

Cleveland State Law Review

Ohio courts have struggled to divine the constitutional mandate of the reasonable doubt standard while simultaneously attempting to give a viable interpretation to the state's relatively new manslaughter law. Their approach has resulted in an unusual definition of manslaughter which has proven particularly unworkable. In addition, several other problems have developed as a result of the enactment of the manslaughter law. First, the policy espoused by the Supreme Court in its decisions has been abrogated under Ohio law. Second, Ohio law nearly abandons the distinction between murder and manslaughter. This is especially dangerous in light of the presumption of criminal …

The Competition Of Technologies In Markets For Ideas: Copyright And Fair Use In Evolutionary Perspective (With Steven Peretz), Richard Adelstein

Richard Adelstein

A theory of intellectual goods as distinct from public or private goods, and the rationale for copyright that flows from it.