Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Death penalty (7)
- Capital punishment (6)
- Criminal law (5)
- Eighth Amendment (5)
- Eighth amendment (3)
-
- Electrocution (3)
- Excessive punishment (3)
- Execution (3)
- Punishment (3)
- Crime (2)
- Criminal justice (2)
- Criminal procedure (2)
- Jury (2)
- ABA (1)
- Absent Declarants (1)
- Amicus Brief (1)
- Baze v. Rees (1)
- Capital Punishment (1)
- Childhood trauma (1)
- Confrontation Clause (1)
- Courts (1)
- Crawford v. Washington (1)
- Criminal (1)
- Criminal Justice (1)
- Criminal Law (1)
- Criminal Procedure (1)
- Criminal history (1)
- Criminal justice system (1)
- Criminal procedure; Thurgood Marshall; jurisprudence; supreme court; Miranda v. Arizona (1)
- Criminal procedure; prosecutors; criminal discovery; Brady v. Maryland (1)
- Publication Year
- Publication
Articles 31 - 40 of 40
Full-Text Articles in Law
Constitutional Right Against Excessive Punishment, The, Youngjae Lee
Constitutional Right Against Excessive Punishment, The, Youngjae Lee
Faculty Scholarship
When is a death sentence, a sentence of imprisonment, or a fine so "excessive" or "disproportionate" in relation to the crime for which it is imposed that it violates the Eighth Amendment? Despite the urgings of various commentators and the Supreme Court's own repeated, albeit uncertain, gestures in the direction of proportionality regulation by the judiciary, the Court's answer to this question within the past few decades is a body of law that is messy and complex, yet largely meaningless as a constraint. In the core of this ineffectual and incoherent proportionality jurisprudence lies a conceptual confusion over the meaning …
A Mind To Blame: New Views On Involuntary Acts, Deborah W. Denno
A Mind To Blame: New Views On Involuntary Acts, Deborah W. Denno
Faculty Scholarship
This article examines the legal implications linked to recent scientific research on human consciousness. The article contends that groundbreaking revelations about consciousness expose the frailties of the criminal law's traditional dual dichotomies of conscious versus unconscious thought processes and voluntary versus involuntary acts. These binary doctrines have no valid scientific foundation and clash with other key criminal law defenses, primarily insanity. As a result, courts may adjudicate like individuals very differently based upon their (often unclear) understanding of these doctrines and the science that underlies them. This article proposes a compromise approach by recommending that the criminal law's concept of …
When Legislatures Delegate Death: The Troubling Paradox Behind State Uses Of Electocution And Lethal Injection And What It Says About Us, Deborah W. Denno
When Legislatures Delegate Death: The Troubling Paradox Behind State Uses Of Electocution And Lethal Injection And What It Says About Us, Deborah W. Denno
Faculty Scholarship
This article discusses the paradoxical motivations and problems behind legislative changes from one method of execution to the next, and particularly moves from electrocution to lethal injection. This article first examines the constitutionality of electrocution, contending that a modern Eighth Amendment analysis of a range of factors, such as legislative trends toward lethal injection, indicates that electrocution is cruel and unusual. It then provides an Eighth Amendment review of lethal injection, demonstrating that injection also involves unnecessary pain, the risk of such pain, and a loss of dignity. The article next presents the author's study of the most current protocols …
Adieu To Electrocution, Deborah W. Denno
Adieu To Electrocution, Deborah W. Denno
Faculty Scholarship
This Article contends that there is no moral or legal reason to retain electrocution, particularly because other execution methods are available. It is clear that at some point soon, electrocution will no longer exist in this country and, as a result, throughout the world. By eliminating this perplexing vestige, the other problems with the death penalty may appear all that more offensive.
When Bad Things Happen To Good Intentions: The Development And Demise Of A Task Force Examining The Drugs-Violence Interrelationship Symposium On Drug Crimes, Deborah W. Denno
When Bad Things Happen To Good Intentions: The Development And Demise Of A Task Force Examining The Drugs-Violence Interrelationship Symposium On Drug Crimes, Deborah W. Denno
Faculty Scholarship
Between 1994-1996, I was one of twenty-eight members of a Drugs-Violence Task Force, created to report to the United States Sentencing Commission specific findings, conclusions, and recommendations concerning the interrelationship (if any) between drugs and violence. Much of the controversy concerning how to approach the drugs-violence problem reflects two conflicting and long-held views of drugs and crime: the criminal justice view, which emphasizes detecting and punishing drug offenders, and the public health view, which advocates treating the drug addiction that leads some individuals to commit crime. Traditionally, the criminal justice view is associated with a “tough on crime” attitude that …
Getting To Death: Are Executions Constitutional?, Deborah W. Denno
Getting To Death: Are Executions Constitutional?, Deborah W. Denno
Faculty Scholarship
This Article addresses the question of when a method of executing a capital defendant amounts to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. This Article contends that execution methods cases, while reaching the right result, fail to provide a sufficiently comprehensive Eighth Amendment standard for determining the constitutionality of any execution method. The Article proposes a test that better comports with the Court's Eighth Amendment case law and more appropriately considers scientific determinations of excessive pain. To apply this test, the Article studies each state's legislative changes in execution methods during the Twentieth Century as well as accounts of …
Testing Penry And Its Progeny , Deborah W. Denno
Testing Penry And Its Progeny , Deborah W. Denno
Faculty Scholarship
In Penry v. Lynaugh, the United States Supreme Court held that the Texas death penalty statute was applied unconstitutionally because the trial court gave no instructions allowing the jury to “consider and give effect to” the defendant's mitigating evidence of organic brain damage, moderate retardation, and disadvantaged background. The Court considered these mitigating factors relevant because of society's steadfast belief in the lesser culpability of defendants whose criminal acts are due to a disadvantaged background, or to emotional and mental disorders. The jury must have full consideration of such evidence in order to give its “reasoned moral response” to the …
Is Electrocution An Unconstitutional Method Of Execution? The Engineering Of Death Over The Century, Deborah W. Denno
Is Electrocution An Unconstitutional Method Of Execution? The Engineering Of Death Over The Century, Deborah W. Denno
Faculty Scholarship
This Article provides the Eighth Amendment analysis of electrocution that the courts thus far have not approached. The analysis has two parts. The first inquires whether, according to available scientific evidence, electrocution amounts to cruel and unusual punishment even if it is administered as planned. The second inquires whether, in light of the frequency with which electrocutions are botched, continuing the practice amounts to cruel and unusual punishment even if the properly administered electrocution would not.
Of Laws And Men: An Essay On Justice Marshall's View Of Criminal Procedure, Bruce A. Green, Daniel C. Richman
Of Laws And Men: An Essay On Justice Marshall's View Of Criminal Procedure, Bruce A. Green, Daniel C. Richman
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
"Death Is Different" And Other Twists Of Fate, Deborah W. Denno
"Death Is Different" And Other Twists Of Fate, Deborah W. Denno
Faculty Scholarship
Professor Welsh White's book, The Death Penalty in the Nineties, reviews those United States Supreme Court decisions and developments that have occurred in the four years since the publication of his earlier book, The Death Penalty in the Eighties. In The Nineties, White claims that these recent developments, which have significantly limited capital defendants' habeas corpus appeals, are likely to increase both the rate and the geographical reach of executions which, in the past, have occurred mostly in the South. After discussing some of the analytical and methodological shortcomings of The Nineties, this review will focus on The Nineties' most …