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Full-Text Articles in Law

23andeveryone: Privacy Concerns With Law Enforcement’S Use Of Genealogy Databases To Implicate Relatives In Criminal Investigations, Shanni Davidowitz Dec 2019

23andeveryone: Privacy Concerns With Law Enforcement’S Use Of Genealogy Databases To Implicate Relatives In Criminal Investigations, Shanni Davidowitz

Brooklyn Law Review

The discovery of DNA typing in the 1980s transformed law enforcement’s ability to exonerate innocent suspects, while implicating those who are guilty, with “the power of a silent biological witness at the crime scene.” This transformation, coupled with the new trend of law enforcement’s use of genealogy databases, has created legal issues that police officers, prosecutors, genealogy companies, and policy makers are all currently trying to navigate. The technological advancement comes with serious ethical and privacy concerns, including fear of the establishment of a “genetic panopticon.” General concern exists that if a “genetic panopticon” comes to fruition, the government can …


Where Are You, Congress?: Silence Rings In Congress As Juvenile Offenders Remain In Prison For Life, Megan R. Pollastro Dec 2019

Where Are You, Congress?: Silence Rings In Congress As Juvenile Offenders Remain In Prison For Life, Megan R. Pollastro

Brooklyn Law Review

Over the last decade, Supreme Court precedent has changed the way courts have sentenced juveniles in the United States. It has failed, however, to clearly establish the proper handling of cases in which juveniles are sentenced to extended periods of time in prison that equate to a de facto sentence of life in prison without parole. Congress has also remained noticeably silent on the issue. Children are not considered mature enough to vote, to drink alcohol, to serve on a jury, and yet, courts treat juvenile offenders as mature enough to pay for their crimes for the remainder of their …


Introducing Disruptive Technology To Criminal Sanctions: Punishment By Computer Monitoring To Enhance Sentencing Fairness And Efficiency, Mirko Bagaric, Dan Hunter Jun 2019

Introducing Disruptive Technology To Criminal Sanctions: Punishment By Computer Monitoring To Enhance Sentencing Fairness And Efficiency, Mirko Bagaric, Dan Hunter

Brooklyn Law Review

The United States criminal justice system is the most punitive on earth. The total correctional population is nearly seven million, equating to a staggering one in thirty-eight adults. Most of the correctional population comprises offenders who are on parole or probation, and a high portion of these defendants who are on parole or probation reoffend during the sanction period. There has been a growing consensus among lawmakers and the wider community that reforms need to be implemented to reduce the cost of criminal sanctions and to improve their effectiveness. For example, the United States Sentencing Commission has recently proposed an …


Assuring Financial Stability For Survivors Of Domestic Violence: A Judicial Remedy For Coerced Debt In New York’S Family Courts, Megan E. Adams Jun 2019

Assuring Financial Stability For Survivors Of Domestic Violence: A Judicial Remedy For Coerced Debt In New York’S Family Courts, Megan E. Adams

Brooklyn Law Review

Domestic violence is a national crisis impacting more than one in three women and one in four men. Abuse is often experienced in nonviolent forms, including emotional, verbal and economic abuse. This note focuses on the harms of economic abuse and, specifically, coerced debt. As society’s understanding of the nuances of domestic violence deepens, many states, including New York, have recognized economic abuse as a unique harm and have empowered family courts to adjudicate such abuse. While promising, many states have yet to devise a suitable remedy for such harm. This critical gap leaves far too many survivors of abuse …


Give Me Liberty Or Give Me . . . Alternatives?: Ending Cash Bail And Its Impact On Pretrial Incarceration, Muhammad B. Sardar Jun 2019

Give Me Liberty Or Give Me . . . Alternatives?: Ending Cash Bail And Its Impact On Pretrial Incarceration, Muhammad B. Sardar

Brooklyn Law Review

Every day in the United States, thousands of pretrial defendants are imprisoned due to their inability to afford bail. These individuals have not been convicted of an offense, yet are incarcerated for the crime of being poor. Pretrial incarceration wreaks havoc both on the individual detainee and society at large. Pretrial detainees are more likely to plead guilty, receive higher sentences, and face grave future economic prospects. The cash bail system in particular disproportionately affects racial minorities, furthering the already racially disparate outcomes inherent in the U.S. criminal justice system. From a societal perspective, the increased rate of incarceration due …


The Problem Of The Terror Non-State: Rescuing International Law From Isis And Boko Haram, Darin E.W. Johnson Jan 2019

The Problem Of The Terror Non-State: Rescuing International Law From Isis And Boko Haram, Darin E.W. Johnson

Brooklyn Law Review

This article examines how terror non-states, such as ISIS and Boko Haram, blur the distinctions between non-state actors and states under international law. Terror non-states’ confounding of this dichotomy undermines the efficacy of international human rights law in the territories that they control, complicates responsive foreign military intervention, and confuses the appropriate legal framework that governs armed conflicts in which they are involved. This article assesses these challenges and makes recommendations from a perspective that gives primacy to the protection and liberation of vulnerable populations. The article recommends that the United Nations Security Council pass a resolution that mandates that …


A Safe Harbor In The Opioid Crisis: How The Federal Government Should Allow States To Legislate For Safe Injection Facilities In Light Of The Opioid Public Health Emergency, Amber A. Leary Jan 2019

A Safe Harbor In The Opioid Crisis: How The Federal Government Should Allow States To Legislate For Safe Injection Facilities In Light Of The Opioid Public Health Emergency, Amber A. Leary

Brooklyn Law Review

Opioid addiction is wreaking havoc across the United States, leading to a shocking number of overdoses and deaths. This epidemic has prompted the Trump Administration to declare opioid abuse a public health emergency and to call for increases in evidence-based treatment for those addicted to harmful opioids. To combat this epidemic, some cities have embraced one such evidence-based treatment plan—safe injection facilities—which are infirmaries where drug users can inject pre-obtained drugs under the supervision of nurses or overdose reversal specialists who can respond in real time to prevent overdose and death. Though safe injection facilities outside the United States have …