Law Commons^™

Running A Red Light: How Pennsylvania Rushed To Its Destination And Failed To Define "Exigent Circumstances" In Commonwealth V. Alexander, Josephine L. Mlakar

Duquesne Law Review

The United States Supreme Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court both recognize an "automobile exception" to the warrant requirement pursuant to their respective constitutions. In 2014, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted the federal automobile exception. Under the federal automobile exception, police can search a vehicle without a warrant where probable cause exists. In 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overruled its 2014 decision, and announced its official departure from federal standard. Now, police can search a vehicle without a warrant only upon a showing of both probable cause and exigent circumstances.

Adding an exigency component to the warrantless search requirement is …

Triaging Lomax: An Urgent Proposal For Legislative Reform To Restore Judicial Protection In American Prisons, Alexis B. Thurston

Duquesne Law Review

In a 2003 study of trends in inmate litigation before and after the enactment of the Prison Litigation Reform Act ("PLRA"), Harvard Law School Professor Margo Schlanger described the PLRA's administrative exhaustion requirement as "the statute's most damaging component."¹ Almost two decades later, in June of 2020, the United States Supreme Court indirectly strengthened the administrative exhaustion requirement through its ruling in Lomax v. Ortiz-Marquez.² In Lomax, the Court found that all dismissals of inmate litigation resulting from the failure of an incarcerated plaintiff to adhere to the exhaustion requirement would count as "strikes" against the …

What Machines Can Teach Us About "Confrontation", Andrea Roth

Duquesne Law Review

In this short Article, I argue that treating non-human conveyances of information-and other forms of evidence that cannot be cross-examined-as beyond the Confrontation Clause is unsatisfactory as a matter of text, history, logic, and principle. Instead, all of these clues lead to one conclusion: the right of confrontation is a right not only to physical presence of certain human witnesses to facilitate demeanor review and questioning, but to a meaningful opportunity to scrutinize the government's proof, whatever its form.⁸ That right would include out-of-court discovery of critical contextual information about the evidence, whether or not exculpatory, and a …

Ending Manner-Of-Death Testimony And Other Opinion Determinations Of Crime, Keith A. Findley, Dean A. Strang

Duquesne Law Review

In January 2011, Ellen Greenberg's fianc6 and her apartment building manager broke down her apartment door after she failed repeatedly to respond to attempts to contact her.¹ They found herd ead in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, the victim of twenty stab wounds to her chest, torso, head, and neck, including stab wounds to the back of her head and to her body through her clothes. They found a half-eaten fruit salad on the kitchen counter along with an overturned knife block. By all appearances, Greenberg was the victim of a grisly murder, and the medical …

Considering "Machine Testimony": The Impact Of Facial Recognition Software On Eyewitness Identifications, Valena Beety

Duquesne Law Review

Andrea Roth's seminal work in Machine Testimony and Trial by Machine presented a problem that is now upon us: addressing biased algorithms and the rampant reliance on technology by prosecutors and law enforcement.¹ That reliance, however, is no longer unquestioning. Roth's work came at a crucial moment in time, when other articles were embracing the apparent impartiality of technology and algorithms for use in the criminal legal system. Her scholarship steered us away from that blind acceptance and dove deep, not only questioning technology itself, but also how to frame those questions of technology in the courtroom.

Unjust Incarceration: Problems Facing Pennsylvania's Preliminary Hearing And How To Reform It, Drew Sheldon

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Proceedings - Plea Bargaining, Scott W. Reid

Duquesne Law Review

The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has held that an unconsummated plea agreement cannot be enforced absent detrimental reliance.

Virgin Islands v. Scotland, 614 F.2d 360 (3d Cir. 1980).

Property, Privacy, And Deterrence: The Exclusionary Rule In Search Of A Rationale, Steven R. Schlesinger, Bradford Wilson

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Of Crime - And Punishment: Sentencing The White-Collar Criminal, Alfred S. Pelaez

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law - Eighth Amendment - Cruel And Unusual Punishment - Length Of Prison Sentences, Albert A. Torrence

Duquesne Law Review

The Supreme Court of the United States has held that a mandatory life sentence imposed under a state recidivist statute on a defendant convicted of three nonviolent felonies totaling $229 does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment

Rummel v. Estelle, 100 S. Ct. 1133 (1980).

Criminal Procedure - Change Of Venue For Jury Prejudice, Norman K. Clark

Duquesne Law Review

The United States Supreme Court has held that a state statute preventing a change of venue for a jury trial in a criminal case, solely on the ground that the crime with which defendant was charged was a misdemeanor, violates the right to trial by impartial jury guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment.

Groppi v. Wisconsin, 400 U.S. 505 (1971).

Criminal Procedure - Right To Counsel - Indentification Evidence, Marcia I. Lappas

Duquesne Law Review

The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, by extending the rule of United States v. Wade, has held that an accused who is in custody has a right to counsel at pre-trial photographic identifications; that evidence of such out-of-court identifications conducted in the absence of the accused's counsel is not admissible at trial; and that the eyewitnesses in question are not competent to make in-court identifications.

United States v. Zeiler, 427 F.2d 1305 (3d Cir. 1970).

Over a period of more than five years, the Pittsburgh area was the victim of a series of bank robberies, all …

Criminal Procedure - Plea Bargaining, Stanley M. Stein

Duquesne Law Review

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has held that any participation by a trial judge in the plea bargaining process prior to trial is forbidden.

Commonwealth v. Evans, 434 Pa. 52, 252 A.2d 689 (1969).

Enforcement Of The Common Law Rules Of Arrest: A Handcuffing Of Police?, Douglas D. Mcbroom

Duquesne Law Review

"In the streets, the only law is that at the end of the policeman's nightstick." The degree of truth in this statement has long been a subject of concern among civil libertarians. Nevertheless, police agencies were for many years left to their own devices in meeting the essential problem of keeping order on the streets; only a small portion of their actions were subject to judicial review.

Criminal Law Arrest, Thomas P. Ruane

Duquesne Law Review

A police officer may stop and question a person, short of arrest, if the officer has reasonable suspicion, as distinguished from probable cause to believe, that the person has committed a crime; and may make a brief frisk of the person for dangerous weapons if the officer reasonably believes that his personal safety so requires.

Commonwealth v. Hicks, 209 Pa. Super. 1, 223 A.2d 873 (1966).

Criminal Procedure - Indictments - Due Process - Former Acquittal, F. Regan Nerone

Duquesne Law Review

A defendant, once acquitted of murder, may be retried under a manslaughter indictment and convicted of manslaughter, although the evidence presented proved the crime of murder but not that of manslaughter.

Commonwealth v. Frazier, 420 Pa. 209, 216 A.2d 337 (1966).