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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Pandemic Juror, Melanie D. Wilson
The Pandemic Juror, Melanie D. Wilson
Washington and Lee Law Review Online
While the deadly and highly contagious COVID-19 virus lingers and spreads across the country, courts are resuming criminal jury trials. In moving forward, judges reference case backlogs, speedy trial rights, and other concerns for the rights of the accused. Overlooked in this calculus is the importance of jurors and their safety. The Sixth Amendment guarantees “the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury.” Without jurors, there is no justice.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the justice system sometimes took advantage of juror vulnerability, treating jurors callously, if not rudely, during voir dire by asking them intensely …
Emergency Parole Release For Older Parole-Eligible Doc Inmates, David I. Bruck
Emergency Parole Release For Older Parole-Eligible Doc Inmates, David I. Bruck
Scholarly Articles
Professor Bruck writes to Secretary Moran and Chairwoman Bennett to urge them to protect elderly Virginia prison inmates from the risk of death from COVID-19 by granting immediate parole release to as many over-60 parole-eligible prisoners as possible, upon a showing that they are at low risk to re-offend, and have a supportive home to go to once released.
The Right To A Public Trial In The Time Of Covid-19, Stephen E. Smith
The Right To A Public Trial In The Time Of Covid-19, Stephen E. Smith
Washington and Lee Law Review Online
Maintaining social distance in the time of COVID-19 is a public health priority. A crowded courtroom is an environment at odds with public health needs. Accordingly, until science determines otherwise, it will be necessary for judges to manage courtroom attendance and exclude the public from trials, wholly or in part. Courtrooms may be closed to the public, despite the Sixth Amendment’s right to a public trial, when the closure is justified by a strong government interest and is narrowly tailored to further that interest. Typically, this heightened scrutiny is applied on a case-by-case basis and turns on a case’s specific …
State Prosecutors At The Center Of Mass Imprisonment And Criminal Justice Reform, Nora V. Demleitner
State Prosecutors At The Center Of Mass Imprisonment And Criminal Justice Reform, Nora V. Demleitner
Scholarly Articles
State prosecutors around the country have played a crucial role in mass imprisonment. Little supervision and virtually unsurpassed decision making power have provided them with unrivaled influence over the size, growth, and composition of our criminal justice system. They decide which cases to prosecute, whether to divert a case, whether to offer a plea, and what sentence to recommend. Their impact does not stop at sentencing. They weigh in on alternative dockets, supervision violations, parole release, and even clemency requests. But they are also part of a larger system that constrains them. Funding, judicial limits on their power, and legislative …