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Articles 1 - 19 of 19
Full-Text Articles in Law
Boots And Bail On The Ground: Assessing The Implementation Of Misdemeanor Bail Reforms In Georgia, Andrea Woods, Sandra G. Mayson, Lauren Sudeall, Guthrie Armstrong, Anthony Potts
Boots And Bail On The Ground: Assessing The Implementation Of Misdemeanor Bail Reforms In Georgia, Andrea Woods, Sandra G. Mayson, Lauren Sudeall, Guthrie Armstrong, Anthony Potts
Faculty Publications By Year
This Article presents a mixed-methods study of misdemeanor bail practice across Georgia in the wake of reform. We observed bail hearings and interviewed system actors in a representative sample of fifty-five counties to assess the extent to which pretrial practice conforms to legal standards clarified in Senate Bill 407 and Walker v. Calhoun. We also analyzed jail population data published by county jails and by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. We found that a handful of counties have made promising headway in adhering to law and best practices, but that the majority have some distance to go. Most …
Public Defense Litigation: An Overview, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Public Defense Litigation: An Overview, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Faculty Publications By Year
No abstract provided.
Proportionality Skepticism In A Red State, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Proportionality Skepticism In A Red State, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Faculty Publications By Year
Commentary on Carol S. Steiker & Jordan M. Steiker, Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment (2016).
Keeping Gideon'S Promise: Using Equal Protection To Address The Denial Of Counsel In Misdemeanor Cases, Brandon Buskey, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Keeping Gideon'S Promise: Using Equal Protection To Address The Denial Of Counsel In Misdemeanor Cases, Brandon Buskey, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Faculty Publications By Year
The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees criminal defendants the right to counsel, and the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that right is applicable to all defendants in felony cases, even those unable to afford a lawyer. Yet, for defendants facing misdemeanor charges, only those defendants whose convictions result in incarceration are entitled to the assistance of counsel.
The number of misdemeanor prosecutions has increased dramatically in recent years, as have the volume and severity of collateral consequences attached to such convictions; yet, the Court’s right to counsel jurisprudence in this area has remained stagnant. Critics of the …
An Empirical Assessment Of Georgia's Beyond A Reasonable Doubt Standard To Determine Intellectual Disability In Capital Cases, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
An Empirical Assessment Of Georgia's Beyond A Reasonable Doubt Standard To Determine Intellectual Disability In Capital Cases, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Faculty Publications By Year
In Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court held that execution of people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. In doing so, the Court explicitly left to the states the question of which procedures would be used to identify such defendants as exempt from the death penalty. More than a decade before Atkins, Georgia was the first state to bar execution of people with intellectual disability. Yet, of the states that continue to impose the death penalty as a punishment for capital murder, Georgia is the only state that requires capital defendants …
Rules, Standards, Sentencing, And The Nature Of Law, Russell D. Covey
Rules, Standards, Sentencing, And The Nature Of Law, Russell D. Covey
Faculty Publications By Year
Sentencing law and practice in the United States can be characterized as an argument about rules and standards. Whereas in the decades prior to the 1980s when sentencing was largely a discretionary activity governed only by broad sentencing standards, a sentencing reform movement in the 1980s transformed sentencing practice through the advent of sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum provisions. As a result, sentencing became far less standard-like and far more rule-like. Although reform proponents believed that this "rulification" of sentencing would reduce unwarranted sentencing disparities and enhance justice, it is far from clear that these goals were achieved. Indeed, the …
Shadow Dwellers: The Underregulated World Of State And Local Dna Databases, Stephen Mercer, Jessica D. Gabel
Shadow Dwellers: The Underregulated World Of State And Local Dna Databases, Stephen Mercer, Jessica D. Gabel
Faculty Publications By Year
No abstract provided.
Abolishing Jailhouse Snitch Testimony, Russell D. Covey
Abolishing Jailhouse Snitch Testimony, Russell D. Covey
Faculty Publications By Year
Jailhouse snitch testimony is inherently unreliable. Snitches have powerful incentives to invent incriminating lies about other inmates in often well-founded hopes that such testimony will provide them with material benefits, including in many cases substantial reduction of criminal charges against them or of the time they are required to serve. At the same time, false snitch testimony is difficult, if not altogether impossible, for criminal defendants to impeach. Because such testimony usually pits the word of two individuals against one another, both of whose credibility is suspect, jurors have little ability to accurately or effectively assess or weigh the evidence. …
Reclaiming Equality To Reframe Indigent Defense Reform, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Reclaiming Equality To Reframe Indigent Defense Reform, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Faculty Publications By Year
Equal access to resources is fundamental to meaningful legal representation, yet for decades, equality arguments have been ignored in litigating indigent defense reform. At a time when underfunded indigent defense systems across the country are failing to provide indigent defendants with adequate representation, the question of resources is even more critical. Traditionally, advocates seeking indigent defense reform have relied on Sixth Amendment arguments to protect the rights of indigents in this context; however, the Sixth Amendment approach suffers from a number of shortcomings that have made it a poor tool for systemic reform, including its exclusive focus on attorney performance …
Unintended Consequences: The Impact Of The Court's Recent Cases On Structural Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel Claims, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Unintended Consequences: The Impact Of The Court's Recent Cases On Structural Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel Claims, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Faculty Publications By Year
The Supreme Court’s recent Sixth Amendment cases have garnered much attention for their potential impact on ineffective assistance of counsel claims asserted in the context of a criminal case. This short article explores the unintended consequences of these decisions on structural ineffective assistance of counsel claims made in the civil context alleging that systemic deficiencies are likely to lead to right to counsel violations. The article concludes that the Court’s departure from a trial-centered conception of the right to counsel, its willingness to articulate specific pre-trial duties of counsel and its more pragmatic approach towards enforcing the Sixth Amendment will …
Regulating The Science Of Forensic Evidence: A Broken System Requires A New Federal Agency, Jessica D. Gabel, Ashley D. Champion
Regulating The Science Of Forensic Evidence: A Broken System Requires A New Federal Agency, Jessica D. Gabel, Ashley D. Champion
Faculty Publications By Year
Professor Gabel and Ms. Champion agree with Mr. Goldstein's argument that serious validity and reliability problems plague forensic science, but, using the recent Troy Davis case in Georgia as an illustration, they argue for federal rather than state oversight. Gabel and Champion assert that many states lack the funding to construct an adequate system and that the fragmentation caused by different state systems would be a significant impediment to reform. They suggest a federal agency that, like the Environmental Protection Agency, would set minimum standards but allow states to experiment with enhanced regulation.
Overcoming Defiance Of The Constitution: The Need For A Federal Role In Protecting The Right To Counsel In Georgia, Stephen B. Bright, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Overcoming Defiance Of The Constitution: The Need For A Federal Role In Protecting The Right To Counsel In Georgia, Stephen B. Bright, Lauren Sudeall Lucas
Faculty Publications By Year
In their issue brief, Mr. Bright and Ms. Lucas discuss the problems that have existed in Georgia’s indigent defense system since Gideon was handed down. They contend that “[a]ll three branches of Georgia’s government have failed in their constitutional responsibility to ensure that poor people accused of crimes are effectively represented by competent lawyers.” They also argue that “[t]he federal government, which has made immense contributions to the prosecution of criminal cases in Georgia through grants to law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts, shares responsibility for the integrity of Georgia’s criminal justice system and the enforcement of the constitutional right to …
Signaling And Plea Bargaining's Innocence Problem, Russell D. Covey
Signaling And Plea Bargaining's Innocence Problem, Russell D. Covey
Faculty Publications By Year
The dominant theoretical model of plea bargaining predicts that, under conditions of full information and rational choice, criminal cases should uniformly be settled through plea bargaining. That prediction holds for innocent and guilty defendants alike. Because it is perfectly rational for innocent defendants to plead guilty, plea bargaining might be said to have an "innocence problem." Plea bargaining's innocence problem is, at bottom, the result of a signaling defect. Innocent defendants lacking verifiable innocence claims are pooled together with guilty defendants who falsely proclaim innocence. As a result, both groups of defendants are treated similarly at trial and in plea …
Fixed Justice: Reforming Plea-Bargaining With Plea-Based Ceilings, Russell D. Covey
Fixed Justice: Reforming Plea-Bargaining With Plea-Based Ceilings, Russell D. Covey
Faculty Publications By Year
The ubiquity of plea bargaining creates real concern that innocent defendants are occasionally, or perhaps even routinely, pleading guilty to avoid coercive trial sentences. Pleading guilty is a rational choice for defendants as long as prosecutors offer plea discounts so substantial that trial is not a rational strategy regardless of guilt or innocence. The long-recognized solution to this problem is to enforce limits on the size of the plea/trial sentencing differential. As a practical matter, however, discount limits are unenforceable if prosecutors retain ultimate discretion over charge selection and declination. Because the doctrine of prosecutorial charging discretion is immune to …
Miranda And The Media: Tracing The Cultural Evolution Of A Constitutional Revolution, Russell D. Covey
Miranda And The Media: Tracing The Cultural Evolution Of A Constitutional Revolution, Russell D. Covey
Faculty Publications By Year
This article explores the depiction of interrogation in film and television from the 1940s to the present, and contrasts that imagery with the Supreme Court's interrogation jurisprudence over the same time frame. Although my treatment of the subject is necessarily only fragmentary (a comprehensive review of either topic would fill many volumes), this article hazards a few tentative hypotheses.
Rule 412 Laid Bare: A Procedural Rule That Cannot Adequately Protect Sexual Harassment Plaintiffs From Embarrassing Exposure, Andrea A. Curcio
Rule 412 Laid Bare: A Procedural Rule That Cannot Adequately Protect Sexual Harassment Plaintiffs From Embarrassing Exposure, Andrea A. Curcio
Faculty Publications By Year
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
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.
Process And Prediction: A Return To A Fuzzy Model Of Pre-Trial Detention, Jack F. Williams
Process And Prediction: A Return To A Fuzzy Model Of Pre-Trial Detention, Jack F. Williams
Faculty Publications By Year
No abstract provided.
Turning Back The Clock On Sexual Abuse Of Children: Amending Virginia's Statute Of Limitations, Paul A. Lombardo
Turning Back The Clock On Sexual Abuse Of Children: Amending Virginia's Statute Of Limitations, Paul A. Lombardo
Faculty Publications By Year
No abstract provided.