Law Commons^™

"Immigrants Are Not Criminals": Respectability, Immigration Reform, And Hyperincarceration, Rebecca Sharpless

Rebecca Sharpless

Rethinking Criminal Law Theory: New Canadian Perspectives In The Philosophy Of Domestic, Transnational, And International Criminal Law, François Tanguay-Renaud, James Stribopoulos

François Tanguay-Renaud

In the last two decades, the philosophy of criminal law has undergone a vibrant revival in Canada. The adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has given the Supreme Court of Canada unprecedented latitude to engage with principles of legal, moral, and political philosophy when elaborating its criminal law jurisprudence. Canadian scholars have followed suit by paying increased attention to the philosophical foundations of domestic criminal law. Because of Canada's leadership in international criminal law, both at the level of the International Criminal Court and of specific war crimes tribunals, they have also begun to turn their attention to …

Unsettled Legacy: Thirty Years Of Criminal Justice Under The Charter, Benjamin Berger, James Stribopoulos

Benjamin L Berger

After thirty years, what effect has the Charter had on the justness of the Canadian criminal justice system? This thought-provoking collection of essays by a group of leading criminal law scholars explores that very question, critically examining the ways in which the Charter has shaped Canadian criminal law and its administration. Edited by Professors Benjamin L. Berger and James Stribopoulos of Osgoode Hall Law School, these essays offer insight into every facet of the Charter's influence over how crimes are defined, investigated and prosecuted. The result is an invaluable resource for scholars, practitioners and judges interested in criminal justice in …

Rate Of False Conviction Of Criminal Defendants Who Are Sentenced To Death, Samuel Gross, Barbara O'Brien, Chen Hu, Edward Kennedy

Edward H. Kennedy

The rate of erroneous conviction of innocent criminal defendants is often described as not merely unknown but unknowable. There is no systematic method to determine the accuracy of a criminal conviction; if there were, these errors would not occur in the first place. As a result, very few false convictions are ever discovered, and those that are discovered are not representative of the group as a whole. In the United States, however, a high proportion of false convictions that do come to light and produce exonerations are concentrated among the tiny minority of cases in which defendants are sentenced to …

One Hundred Years Later: Wrongful Convictions After A Century Of Research, Richard Leo

Richard A. Leo

In this article the authors analyze a century of research on the causes and consequences of wrongful convictions in the American criminal justice system while explaining the many lessons of this body of work. This article chronicles the range of research that has been conducted on wrongful convictions; examines the common sources of error in the criminal justice system and their effects; suggests where additional research and attention are needed; and discusses methodological strategies for improving the quality of research on wrongful convictions. The authors argue that traditional sources of error (eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, perjured testimony, forensic error, tunnel …

A Comparative Examination Of The Purpose Of The Criminal Justice System, James Diehm

James W. Diehm

A recent Gallup poll found that only 20% of Americans have a substantial amount of confidence in our criminal justice system, a 14% decline from only four years ago. Since the legitimacy of our criminal justice system depends upon the public’s confidence in that system, this is matter of great concern. As a result of my acquaintance with both our system and the inquisitorial system used in Europe and elsewhere, I am aware of the specific areas that lead the American public to distrust our process and the way in which those areas are dealt with in the inquisitorial system. …