Law Commons^™

The Georgia Death Penalty Habeas Corpus Reform Act Of 1995, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Scholarly Works

On April 10, 1995, Gov. Zell Miller signed into law Georgia's Death Penalty Habeas Corpus Reform Act of 1995. The Act is premised upon the following findings and determinations of the General Assembly: that through direct appeal, sentence review, and habeas corpus the state now provides persons sentenced to death "adequate opportunities" to assert their constitutional rights; that habeas corpus proceedings should not be used by persons sentenced to death "solely as a delaying tactic under the guise of asserting rights;" and that "strict compliance" with habeas corpus procedures "will prevent the waste of limited resources and will eliminate unnecessary …

Child Sexual Abuse Prosecutions: Admitting Out-Of-Court Statements Of Child Victims And Witnesses In Louisana, Charles W. Ehrhardt, Ryon M. Mccabe

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

How Juries Decide Death: The Contributions Of The Capital Jury Project, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In 1988 I concluded a review of what was then known about capital jury decision-making with the following observations: “[T]he penalty phase presents significant incongruities. The jurors are charged with representing the community's judgment, yet the voir dire and challenge processes have eliminated significant segments of the public from the jury. Jurors have been influenced by preceding events during voir dire questioning and the trial in pivotal ways, yet they are instructed to focus only on aggravating and mitigating evidence. They are told to ignore their emotions in perhaps one of the most emotionally charged decisions they will ever make, …

The "Burden" Of Proof In Federal Habeas Litigation, J. Thomas Sullivan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

No Magic Formula: A New Approach For Calculating The Ten Year Time Period For Admission Of Prior Conviction Evidence, Amy E. Sloan

All Faculty Scholarship

Federal Rule of Evidence (FRE) 609 governs admission of prior conviction evidence. Under this rule, it is easier to admit evidence of a prior conviction that is less than ten years old than to admit evidence of older convictions. The ten year period is measured from the later of either the date of conviction or the date of release from confinement.

Calculating the ten year period is fairly straightforward in most cases but becomes confusing when the witness has been confined for violating the terms of probation, parole, or some other period of conditional release. Does the confinement for violation …

The Federal Rules Of Evidence--Past, Present, And Future: A Twenty-Year Perspective, Faust Rossi

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Essay surveys three major transformations in state and federal rules of evidence since the introduction of the Federal Rules of Evidence. The Rules have not only inspired a movement toward codification in the states, they have also liberalized the admission of expert testimony and hearsay. This partially explains thirteen states' reluctance to codify. Judges have furthered this trend by admitting far more discretionary hearsay evidence than Congress intended. Professor Rossi doubts this expansion of the hearsay exceptions would have occurred without the adoption of the FRE and suggests that the newly formed Advisory Committee will produce greater substantive changes …

The Tenth Circuit: Playing By The Rules, Keith M. Harrison

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "In 1994, the Tenth Circuit published more than four dozen opinions construing the guidelines and joined the majority of circuits in adopting the "One- Book" rule. The Court continued to refrain from interfering with the exercise of discretion by district judges, but made clear that it does not give district courts carte blanche.

Four issues in decisions covered in this review are the retroactive application of amendments to the guidelines; the standards used in characterizing a defendant as a major or minor player for purposes of increasing or decreasing the sentence; the impact of post-arrest efforts at rehabilitation on …

On The 'Fruits' Of Miranda Violations, Coerced Confessions, And Compelled Testimony, Yale Kamisar

Articles

Professor Akhil Reed Amar and Ms. Renee B. Lettow have written a lively, provocative article that will keep many of us who teach constitutional-criminal procedure busy for years to come. They present a reconception of the "first principles" of the Fifth Amendment, and they suggest a dramatic reconstruction of criminal procedure. As a part of that reconstruction, they propose, inter alia, that at a pretrial hearing presided over by a judicial officer, the government should be empowered to compel a suspect, under penalty of contempt, to provide links in the chain of evidence needed to convict him.

Epilogue: Making Reconceptualization Of Violence Against Women Real, Elizabeth M. Schneider

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Feminism And The False Dichotomy Of Victimization And Agency, Elizabeth M. Schneider

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Fourth Amendment Protection Against Unreasonable Searches And Seizures And The French Experience, Florence Sophie Boreil

LLM Theses and Essays

Under the American approach to criminal justice, freedom of the individual is of the utmost importance. The American criminal justice system reflects a distrust of abuse of power and an emphasis on protection of personal freedom. However, the French take a contrary approach; under French law, freedom is achieved through the State. This paper examines the protection of individuals’ rights in American and French criminal procedure. Focus will be given to tracking the police investigatory powers in each country through searches and seizures, and the impact that those powers have on individuals’ rights. This paper will assert that the police …

Waiver Of The Right To Appeal, Robert K. Calhoun

Publications

This Article explores the legal and constitutional issues raised by appeal waivers. Section I analyzes the current state of the case law. Section II explores the due process challenge to appeal waivers, and concludes that such a challenge would be difficult to sustain given the current state of due process law. It, nonetheless, goes on to suggest that a key premise of due process theory as it relates to plea bargaining- the presumed equality of bargaining power between the prosecution and the defense-may be ripe for challenge. Section ill discusses the public policy arguments for and against appeal waivers, and …

In Defense Of Three-Strikes: Analyzing The Impact Of California's 1994 Anti-Crime Measures, Republican Office Of Asdsembly Research

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

Lessons From Reforming Inquisitorial Systems, William T. Pizzi

Publications

No abstract provided.

Youth Justice In A Unified Court: Response To Critics Of Juvenile Court Abolition, Janet Ainsworth

Faculty Articles

In this article, Professor Ainsworth argues that a unified criminal justice system is preferable to our present two-tiered adult-juvenile court system. In fact, she contends that the cultural and ideological assumptions that underpin the current two-tiered justice system not only engender many of the serious shortcomings of the juvenile justice system, but also serve to exacerbate the very policies and practices of the adult criminal justice system that make it so abhorrent to defenders of the juvenile court. Critics of juvenile court abolitionists thus miss the point when they argue that juveniles would be worse off than they are at …

Psychiatric Defenses In Arkansas Criminal Trials, J. Thomas Sullivan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Romance Of Revenge: An Alternative History Of Jeffrey Dahmer's Trial, Samuel R. Gross

Articles

On Feb. 17, 1992, Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to fifteen consecutive terms of life imprisonment for killing and dismembering fifteen young men and boys. Dahmer had been arrested six months earlier, on July 22, 1991. On Jan. 13 he pled guilty to the fifteen murder counts against him, leaving open only the issue of his sanity. Jury selection began two weeks later, and the trial proper started on Jan. 30. The jury heard two weeks of horrifying testimony about murder, mutilation and necrophilia; they deliberated for five hours before finding that Dahmer was sane when he committed thos crimes. After …

Guilt, Reasonable Doubt And The Reasonable Woman, Rory K. Little

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Definition Of Hearsay: To Each Its Own, Roger C. Park

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Crime Bill Of 1994 And The Law Of Character Evidence: Congress Was Right About Consent Defense Cases, Roger C. Park

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Probability And Proof In State V. Skipper: An Internet Exchange, Roger C. Park, Ronald J. Allen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Let's Try A Small Claims Calendar For The U.S. Courts, William W. Schwarzer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Taking It To The Streets: Putting Discourse Analysis To The Service Of A Public Defender's Office, Clark D. Cunningham, Bonnie S. Mcelhinny

Faculty Publications By Year

No abstract provided.

A Rape Law Pedagogy, Kate Bloch

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Mary Kay Kane

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Myths And Principles Of Federalization, Rory K. Little

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

When Juries Meet The Press: Rethinking The Jury's Representative Function In Highly Publicized Cases, Kenneth B. Nunn

UF Law Faculty Publications

This article explores questions related to the emergence of the jury's new representative function. Section II examines traditional notions of jury representativeness by demonstrating how the jury came to be viewed as a means of providing community input into the criminal justice process. Section II also describes how a broadly representative jury can aid in fact-finding and provide legitimacy for the verdict. Finally, section II explains how a jury system, closed to public exploitation, was traditionally seen as a way to protect the jury's ability to reach independent judgments.

Section III reviews selected cases which reveal judicial recognition of the …

Of Policy, Politics, And Parliament: The Legislative Rewriting Of The British Right To Silence, Mark Berger

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The Resurrection Of Trial By Jury In Russia, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article traces the genesis of the Russian jury law of July 16, 1993, and places it in the context of the criminal justice reform movement that began during the perestroika period. This article analyzes and evaluates the Jury Law on the basis of the first Russian jury trials. The purpose of this article is to isolate certain problem areas and pose questions, which must be answered in the future.

Much of the material for this paper results from the author’s personal observation of eleven of the first fourteen jury trials and parts of four more trials. The author also …

Trial By Jury And The Constitutional Rights Of The Accused In Russia, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the Russian criminal justice system’s transformation from the unjust Soviet system and the introduction of trial by jury. It specifically addresses the role of supplementary investigations in the new adversary procedure and the newly introduced privilege against self-incrimination. The author concludes that even though reforms have improved the Russian criminal justice system, elements of the Soviet system, such as supplementary investigations, remain, undermining the purpose of the new system.