Law Commons^™

Overcriminalization, Discretion, Waiver: A Survey Of Possible Exit Strategies, Donald A. Dripps

University of San Diego Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series

In both the constitutional law of American criminal justice and the scholarly literature that law has generated, substance and procedure receive radically different treatment. The Supreme Court, even in this conservative political period, continues to require costly procedural safeguards that go beyond what elected legislatures have provided by statute. The Court, however, has shown great deference to the choices these same legislatures have made about what conduct may be made criminal and how severely it may be punished.

The distinction between substance and procedure pervades academic thinking all the way down to its foundations. Substantive criminal law still holds its …

Pursuing Justice For The Mentally Disabled, Grant H. Morris

University of San Diego Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series

This article considers whether lawyers act as zealous advocates when they represent mentally disordered, involuntarily committed patients who wish to assert their right to refuse treatment with psychotropic medication. After discussing a study that clearly demonstrates that lawyers do not do so, the article explores the reasons for this inappropriate behavior. Michael Perlin characterizes the problem as “sanism,” which he describes as an irrational prejudice against mentally disabled persons of the same quality and character as other irrational prejudices that cause and are reflected in prevailing social attitudes of racism, sexism, homophobia, and ethnic bigotry. The article critiques Perlin’s characterization …

Securing A Journalist's Testimonial Privilege In The International Criminal Court, Anastasia Heeger

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article argues that given the unique and significant contribution of journalists to uncovering and documenting war crimes, the ICC should amend its evidentiary rules to recognize a qualified journalist's privilege. In doing so, the ICC should clearly identify who may benefit from such a privilege, clarify a procedure for balancing the need of reportorial testimony against prosecution and defense interests, and, lastly provide for mandatory consultations between the court and affected news organizations or journalists before allowing the issuance of a subpoena. Such clarity will benefit not only journalists working in war zones and the ICC, but will provide …

Mental Disorder And The Civil/Criminal Distinction, Grant H. Morris

University of San Diego Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series

This essay, written as part of a symposium issue to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the University of San Diego Law School, discusses the evaporating distinction between sentence-serving convicts and mentally disordered nonconvicts who are involved in, or who were involved in, the criminal process–people we label as both bad and mad. By examining one Supreme Court case from each of the decades that follow the opening of the University of San Diego School of Law, the essay demonstrates how the promise that nonconvict mentally disordered persons would be treated equally with other civilly committed mental patients was made and …

Reluctant Participants In Restorative Justice? Youthful Offenders And Their Parents, David R. Karp Phd, Gordon Bazemore

School of Leadership and Education Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

This paper examines offender and parental involvement in the Vermont Juvenile Restorative Panels Program. In this program, juvenile offenders on probation appear before citizen-run boards to negotiate the terms of their probation, which may include apologies, community service, restitution, and competency development tasks. Victims and parents of the offender also participate. This study reports findings from a qualitative analysis of 22 cases, including observations of panel meetings and interviews with program coordinators, offenders, parents, and victims. We find that offenders vary in the level of participation as well as in their willingness to take responsibility. Parents do not understand the …

Obstructing Justice: The Rise And Fall Of The Aedpa

San Diego Law Review

From 1994 through as late as August 2001, the United States intelligence community1

received information that terrorists had seriously contemplated using airplanes as instruments for carrying out international terrorist attacks.2

This method of attack was clearly “discussed in terrorist circles,” yet community analysts demonstrated little effort to strategically counter such terrorist groups. Moreover, in 1998, U.S. intelligence received specific information that “a group of unidentified Arabs planned to fly an explosive-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center.” In July 2001, senior government officials were warned of “a significant terrorist attack against U.S. and/or Israeli interests in …

Responsibility In Capital Sentencing, Steven Semeraro

San Diego Law Review

Although modem doctrine is worth preserving, it could be improved significantly by focusing explicitly on heightening individual responsibility. Two concrete ways to improve it would be to (1) explain the sentencer' s role in the narrative voice, a way of speaking that, at least in American society, appears to be associated with the assignment of responsibility; and (2) require heightened scrutiny of death sentences by state appellate courts, bringing the responsibility of state appellate judges in capital cases in line with the responsibility they bear in constitutional cases dealing with analogous mixed questions of fact and law under the First, …

Balancing The Anonymity Of Threatened Witnesses Versus A Defendant’S Right Of Confrontation: The Waiver Doctrine After Alvarado, Joan Comparet-Cassani

San Diego Law Review

As this Article will show, the Alvarado holding is very narrow, requiring disclosure only when a witness is crucial to the prosecution and when the witness’s credibility is at issue.

The interesting issue left unresolved by Alvarado is whether the identity of a crucial witness whose credibility is not at issue must be disclosed to the defense at trial when the witness has been threatened and attacked by the defendant or at the defendant’s behest. Or, whether because of that intimidation, the defendant has waived his right of confrontation as to the witness’s identity. This question is ripe for exploration …

Punishing The Causer As The Principal: Mens Rea And The Interstate Transportation Element Of The National Stolen Property Act

San Diego Law Review

Transporting goods worth over five thousand dollars, which are known to be stolen, in interstate commerce is a violation of the Federal National Stolen Property Act (NSPA).' The congressional intent behind the NSPA is to aid the states in punishing those who commit theft, fraud, or counterfeiting in violation of state law, but elude punishment by utilizing the channels of interstate commerce.2 Congress included an interstate transportation element in this statute, which is otherwise parallel to a typical state stolen property statute, merely to supply a constitutional basis for the exertion of federal power.' Thus, Congress enacted the NSPA as …

Pretrial Detention In The Ninth Circuit, Thomas Bak

San Diego Law Review

In 1992, the Judicial Conference of the United States ("JCUS") adopted a resolution encouraging the examination of bias based on race, ethnicity, gender, age and disability in the federal judiciary. The Ninth Circuit responded to the JCUS resolution with a study of gender bias, completed in 1993.2 Subsequently, the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference authorized a second study, establishing the Task Force on Racial, Religious, and Ethnic Fairness in 1993.' This study of pretrial detention in the Ninth Circuit was undertaken as part of the research commissioned by the Task Force.

Reflections On O.J. And The Gas Chamber, J. Michael Echevarria

San Diego Law Review

This Article discusses the traditional justifications advanced in support of the death penalty and compares them with current empirical data. The justifications are then applied to the O.J. Simpson case. The Article examines the data and reasons for the incidence of error in convicting innocent defendants in capital cases. The type of representation available to O.J. Simpson is contrasted with the quality of representation accorded to most capital defendants. After comparing the empirical data with the ideological justifications for capital punishment, the Author concludes that capital punishment is not necessary.

People V. Hicks: Sentencing Laws And Sex Offenses - A Disingenuous Approach By The California Supreme Court, Michael A. Barmettler

San Diego Law Review

This Casenote questions the holding in People v. Hicks, a California Supreme Court decision in December 1993, which held that sex offenders are subject to multiple full-term consecutive sentences for both non-sex and sex offenses. The author argues that this decision exceeds the interpretive limits of the sex offender sentencing statutes in California. Based on a potentially applicable statutory prohibition regarding multiple punishments, this holding is criticized for abusing the court's interpretive authority. In addition, this decision is argued to open the door to a potential dramatic increase in sentences that the legislature never intended.

True Blue? Whether Police Should Be Allowed To Use Trickery And Deception To Extract Confessions, Laure Hoffman Roppe

San Diego Law Review

This Comment addresses whether or not, and if so, to what extent, police should be allowed to use trickery and deception to extract confessions from criminal suspects. It surveys the deceitful interrogation tactics included in the term "trickery" and summarizes the psychology of confessions. Major developments in the law regarding coerced confessions are analyzed and the author explores the policy arguments for and against the use of deception in police interrogations. The author recommends the prohibition of specific forms of trickery and offers an analytical approach as to whether a confession is admissible.

Deference, Tolerance, And Numbers: A Response To Professor Wright's View Of The Sentencing Commission, Kevin Cole

San Diego Law Review

The United States Sentencing Commission promulgates the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which greatly constrain judicial discretion in choosing the sentence for federal crimes. One commentator, Professor Ronald Wright, has argued that the willingness of the courts and Congress to defer to a guideline promulgated by the Commission should depend on whether the Commission has justified the guideline by reference to empirical evidence. This Article explores the theoretical and practical difficulties of giving such effect to empirical justifications.

The Exhaustion Doctrine: State Prisoners Caught Between Civil Rights Actions And Writs Of Habeas Corpus, Linda Marie Bell

San Diego Law Review

This Comment explores the conflict between two federal laws when prisoners challenging their confinement seek damages or declaratory relief. On one hand, the exhaustion doctrine requires state prisoners to exhaust their state remedies before filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court when they contest their confinement. On the other hand, prisoners challenging their civil rights may file in federal court without exhausting all state remedies. This Comment addresses how federal courts should determine which rule to apply when a prisoner brings an action contesting confinement, but seeks only declaratory relief or damages. The author proposes …

Juvenile Justice - Unlawful Extrajudicial Confession Excluded Under Miranda - Testimonial In-Court Confession "Impelled" By The Admission Of The Invalid Confession Into Evidence. In Re Teters. (Cal. 1958), Edward J. Pulaski Jr.

San Diego Law Review

This recent case discusses In re Teters. (Cal. 1958).

Federal Procedure: Proposed Solutions To The Problem Of Proliferation Of Petitions For The Writ Of Habeas Corpus And 28 U.S.C. 2255 Proceedings In The Federal Courts, David Pitkin, Ray Shollenbarger

San Diego Law Review

The Writ of Habeas Corpus is a limit on arbitrary government. The proliferation of this writ has created a problem in the federal courts. The proliferation problem is due to the application of the Bill of Rights to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, the changes in procedural rules involving hearing habeas petitions, and the fact that the doctrine of res judicata does not apply to habeas proceedings. Two U.S. Supreme Court cases dealt the final blow to this proliferation problem by requiring evidentiary hearings when a substantive constitutional question or § 2255 was presented. This Article proposes possible solutions …

Evidence - Hearsay Statement In The Nature Of A Declaration Against A Penal Interest Admissible In Evidence Even Though The Unavailability Of The Dedarant Is Not Established. People V. Spriggs (Cal. 1964), Robert E. Madruga

San Diego Law Review

This recent case discusses People v. Spriggs (Cal. 1964)

In Search Of Criminology. By Leon Radzinowicz, William B. Enright

San Diego Law Review

At the 1963 California State Bar Convention, Chief Justice Phil S. Gibson, in the course of an address to the profession, stated: "History will judge the quality of a civilization by the manner in which it enforces its criminal laws." This remark by the Chief Justice indicates the larger problem to which the author of the new book In Search of Criminology has addressed himself.

Felony-Murder - Surviving Co-Felons Are Punishable For First Degree Murder Under California Penal Code Section 189 For The Killing Of A Confederate By The Owner Of The Store Which They Were Robbing (People V. Hand, Cal. 1963), Robert C. Baxley

San Diego Law Review

In the process of executing a planned robbery of a store, one of four robbers was killed by the owner. The store had been previously robbed and the owner was waiting for such a recurrence. Held, on demurrer to the indictment, the surviving felons were punishable for first degree murder because the legislature intended this fact situation to be within the purview of section 189 and because of a strong public policy as a deterrent to violent felonies. People v. Hand, Crim. No. 5471, Super. Ct., San Diego (July 22, 1963).