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Full-Text Articles in Law
Algorithmic Risk Assessments And The Double-Edged Sword Of Youth, Megan T. Stevenson, Christopher Slobogin
Algorithmic Risk Assessments And The Double-Edged Sword Of Youth, Megan T. Stevenson, Christopher Slobogin
Christopher Slobogin
Risk assessment algorithms—statistical formulas that predict the likelihood a person will commit crime in the future—are used across the country to help make life-altering decisions in the criminal process, including setting bail, determining sentences, selecting probation conditions, and deciding parole. Yet many of these instruments are “black-box” tools. The algorithms they use are secret, both to the sentencing authorities who rely on them and to the offender whose life is affected. The opaque nature of these tools raises numerous legal and ethical concerns. In this paper we argue that risk assessment algorithms obfuscate how certain factors, usually considered mitigating by …
An Exceptional Case: How Washington Should Amend Its Procedure For Imposing An Exceptional Sentence In Response To Blakely V. Washington, Jason Amala, Jason Laurine
An Exceptional Case: How Washington Should Amend Its Procedure For Imposing An Exceptional Sentence In Response To Blakely V. Washington, Jason Amala, Jason Laurine
Seattle University Law Review
This article reviews the Blakely decision and the Washington Legislature's response in S.B. 5477. Part II discusses the problem that Blakely created for Washington's sentencing guidelines system. Part III analyzes the judicial advisory and bifurcated trial proposals and explains why Washington wisely adopted the bifurcated trial approach. Part IV identifies key issues that are raised by using a bifurcated trial and analyzes how S.B. 5477 addresses, or fails to address, those issues. Finally, Part V concludes by suggesting that the legislature should have provided for the following in its bill responding to the Blakely decision: a provision allowing bifurcation for …
Death Is The Whole Ball Game, Jeffrey A. Fagan, James S. Liebman, Valerie West
Death Is The Whole Ball Game, Jeffrey A. Fagan, James S. Liebman, Valerie West
Faculty Scholarship
In Capital Appeals Revisited and The Meaning of Capital Appeals, Barry Latzer and James N.G. Cauthen argue that a study of capital appeals should focus only on overturned findings of guilt, and complain that in A Broken System we examine all overturned capital verdicts. But the question they want studied cannot provide an accurate evaluation of a system of capital punishment. By proposing to count only "conviction" error and not "sentence" error, Latzer and Cauthen ignore that if a death sentence is overturned, the case is no longer capital and the system of capital punishment has failed to achieve its …