Law Commons^™

Plea Bargaining, Discovery, And The Intractable Problem Of Impeachment Disclosures, R. Michael Cassidy

Vanderbilt Law Review

Several recent high-profile cases have illustrated flaws with the government's discovery practices in criminal cases and have put prosecutors across the country on the defensive about their compliance with disclosure obligations. The conviction of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens on ethics charges was set aside after it was revealed that federal prosecutors withheld notes of an interview with a key government witness; one member of the Stevens prosecution team who was under investigation for contempt subsequently committed suicide. The Supreme Court remanded a double murder case from Tennessee for potential resentencing after it was revealed that state prosecutors had withheld …

Procuring Guilty Pleas For International Crimes: The Limited Influence Of Sentence Discounts, Nancy A. Combs

Vanderbilt Law Review

Approximately 90 percent of all American criminal cases are disposed of by means of guilty pleas, and a large percentage of defendants brought before courts in England, Australia, and other countries that use common-law procedures likewise plead guilty. Why do substantial numbers of defendants in national criminal justice systems choose to convict themselves when they are entitled to have their guilt formally adjudicated? The widely accepted primary reason is that they receive sentencing discounts when they choose to selfconvict. Most defendants charged with domestic crimes plead guilty following a process of plea bargaining between defense counsel and prosecutors. Although plea …

Retribution For Rats: Cooperation, Punishment, And Atonement, Michael A. Simons

Vanderbilt Law Review

To mobsters, he is a "rat"; to drug dealers, a "snitch." To school children, he is a "tattletale"; to corporate executives, a "whistle- blower." To cops, he is an "informant"; to prosecutors, a "cooperator." By whatever name he is known, the person who betrays his associates to the authorities is almost universally reviled. In movies, on television, in literature, the cooperator embodies all that society holds in contempt: he is disloyal, deceitful, greedy, selfish, and weak. The cooperator, though, has long been a mainstay of our criminal justice system. For centuries, criminal defendants have received leniency in return for testimony …

The Troubling Influence Of Equality In Constitutional Criminal Procedure: From Brown To Miranda, Furman And Beyond, Scott W. Howe

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article identifies and critiques a view of the criminal-procedure clauses in the Bill of Rights that is revealed in Supreme Court decisions after Brown v. Board of Education. Professor Howe argues that the Court has gone astray in constructing these clauses by focusing on equality. He contends that the criminal-procedure clauses are better understood as discrete protections of individual liberty than as reflecting a unified theory or separate theories about equality. Building on this perspective, the Article proposes a reformulation of doctrine in varied realms of constitutional criminal procedure, including police -interrogation, capital sentencing, and administrative searches and seizures. …

Specific Crime Vs. Criminal Ways: Criminal Conduct And Responsibility In Rule 3e1.1, Matthew Richardson

Vanderbilt Law Review

The United States Sentencing Commission ("Sentencing Commission") drafted Rule 3E1.1 with an inherent ambiguity, one that concerns both the Rule's purpose and design. Rule 3E1.1 allows for a reduction in sentence if a criminal "accepts responsibility" for his offense.' As result of the Rule's ambiguous language, prior tensions in interpretation of its meaning have spilled over into the current debate over sentence reductions.

The inherent ambiguity results from the Rule's genesis. The Sentencing Commission enacted the Rule with the purpose of increasing predictability in sentencing by reducing judicial discretion. Before the enactment of the Rule, mitigating and aggravating circumstances allowed …

Running From The Law: Should Bounty Hunters Be Considered State Actors And Thus Subject To Constitutional Restraints?, Andrew D. Patrick

Vanderbilt Law Review

The issue of bounty hunter misconduct catapulted into the public spotlight in September, 1997, when a team of commando-like criminals who claimed to be searching for a bail-jumper gunned down a Phoenix couple in their own bedroom. Though the perpetrators' story was later uncovered as a hoax, and though the men would likely have been convicted of second-degree murder regardless of their profession,s their case and others like it aroused impassioned demands for bounty hunter regulation and, more radically, constitutional restraints on the bail bond industry.

Constitutional protections are applicable only against the government and "state actors." Bounty hunters have …

Bargaining About Future Jeopardy, Daniel C. Richman

Vanderbilt Law Review

The debate about how much protection criminal defendants should have against successive prosecutions has generally been conducted in the context of how to interpret the Double Jeopardy Clause. The doctrinal focus of this debate ignores the fact that for the huge majority of defendants-those who plead guilty instead of standing trial-the Double Jeopardy Clause sin- ply sets a default rule, establishing a minimum level of protection when defendants choose not to bargain about the possibility of future charges. In this Article, Professor Richman examines the world that exists in the shadow of minimalist double jeopardy doctrine, exploring the dynamics of …

New York's Loyalty To The Spirit Of "Miranda": Simply The Best For Twenty-Five Years, Lorraine J. Adler

Vanderbilt Law Review

The landmark Supreme Court decision Miranda v. Arizona, recognized a defendant's right to be informed of the rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment's self-incrimination clause, including the right to counsel. The Miranda Court realized that a suspect may feel compelled to waive his Fifth Amendment privilege while in official detention. The Court held that the police must read the now-familiar warnings to a subject in custodial interrogation before he can waive his rights. Therefore, the Court in Miranda chose to strike the balance between effective law enforcement and protecting a subject's constitutional rights at the point of informing the subject …

Breaking The Silence: Should Jurors Be Allowed To Question Witnesses During Trial?, Jeffrey S. Berkowitz

Vanderbilt Law Review

The above line of questioning destroyed the defendant's chance of being acquitted. Surprisingly, however, the questions that sealed the defendant's fate were raised by a juror after the prosecutor had failed to elicit the devastating facts.'

The notion of allowing jurors to question witnesses during a trial is not a novel one, but the governmental entities responsible for supervising the court system never have encouraged the practice.' As a result, juror questioning is not widespread.' This situation, however, may be changing. During 1989 judges in at least thirty states, including New York, California, and Connecticut, agreed to conduct the first …

Judicial "Pruning" Of "Garden Variety Fraud" Civil Rico Cases Does Not Work: It's Time For Congress To Act, Susan Getzendanner

Vanderbilt Law Review

After many years of effort, Congress actually may amend substantively the civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act'-"RICO"-this year.' So I am delighted to accept the timely invitation of the Vanderbilt Law Review to add my view of how the law should be revised.My RICO perspective comes from my years as a federal district court judge in Chicago from 1980 to 1987, when I witnessed the real birth and growth of civil RICO.'

I am told by my co-panelist, Professor G. Robert Blakey, that for a time I had written more RICO opinions than any other judge …

The Excessive Fines Clause And Punitive. Damages: Some Lessons From History, Calvin R. Massey

Vanderbilt Law Review

Contrary to the notion that the eighth amendment' is confined strictly to criminal cases, the excessive fines clause of the eighth amendment should apply to the imposition of punitive damages and all judicially imposed monetary sanctions in civil cases. Although this view represents a sharp departure from accepted doctrine, this interpretation of the excessive fines clause is consistent with the historical development of the textual antecedents of the eighth amendment,s the political theory that underlies the adoption of the eighth amendment, and the contemporary purposes served by punitive damages themselves. Moreover, this view in noway violates the holdings of those …

The Right To Counsel During Custodial Interrogation: Equivocal References To An Attorney-Determining What Statements Or Conduct Should Constitute An Accused's Invocation Of The Right To Counsel, Matthew W.D. Bowman

Vanderbilt Law Review

The fifth amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees to all persons the privilege against compelled self-incrimination. In Miranda v. Arizona, the United States Supreme Court interpreted the fifth amendment to require a specified set of procedural safeguards that law enforcement officers must follow to protect adequately each individual's fifth amendment rights. The Miranda safeguards require that prior to an accused's custodial interrogation, government officials must inform the accused that he has the right to remain silent; that any of his statements maybe used against him in a subsequent criminal action; that he has the right to confer with counsel; …

Questioning Miranda, Gerald M. Caplan

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article argues that the Supreme Court should go further and reexamine the basic principles underlying Miranda. Although its impact has been tamed by interpretation and practice, and although the hour is late," a case can be made for overruling Miranda. Miranda was not a wise or necessary decision, nor has Miranda proved to be, as is generally contended, a harmless one. It sent our jurisprudence on a hazardous detour by introducing novel conceptions of the proper relationship between the suspect and authority. It accentuated just those features of our system that manifest the least regard for truth seeking, that …

Disclosure And Civil Use Of Immunized Testimony, Elizabeth J. Schwartz

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development examines the current conflict among the circuits. This study first explores the rationales under-lying use immunity and contrasts them with the guidelines formulated by the Supreme Court for controlling judicial disclosure of grand jury testimony. Second, this Recent Development examines the analyses used by the federal courts in determining whether to release immunized grand jury testimony for civil use's and the effect of disclosure on a witness' claim of fifth amendment privilege.This study submits that in their effort to promote civil discovery,several courts have misconstrued the scope and effect of the disclosure power and have usurped the …

The Interstate Agreement On Detainers: Defining The Federal Role, Janet R. Necessary

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 1970, Congress enacted into law the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act, making the United States and the District of Columbia parties to the interstate compact already adopted by 37 states.' The purpose of the Agreement is to "encourage the expeditious and orderly disposition" of charges underlying detainers by providing procedures by which prisoners may request disposition of such charges and prosecuting jurisdictions may obtain the presence of prisoners for trial. Recently problems of interpretation have surfaced as the federal courts have endeavored to define the role of the United States under the Agreement. The courts of appeals presently disagree …

Recent Cases, Daniel P. Smith, R. Michael Moore

Vanderbilt Law Review

Courts Split on the Necessity of Separate Authorization for a Covert Entry Under Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968

Daniel Paul Smith

Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968,' which regulates the use of electronic surveillance, was designed to protect "the privacy of wire and oral communications,"and to delineate "on a uniform basis the circumstances and conditions under which the interception of wire and oral communications may be authorized."' In general, communications may be intercepted only by law enforcement officers, who are engaged in the investigation of …

Criminal Procedure As Defined By The Tennessee Supreme Court, Julian L. Bibb, Walter S. Weems

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Tennessee Supreme Court, elected simultaneously for the first time since the early 1900's, assumed office in September 1974 amid speculation concerning future judicial policy. The court, com-posed of Chief Justice William H. D. Fones and Justices Ray L.Brock, Jr., Robert E. Cooper, William J. Harbison, and Joe W.Henry, immediately indicated the importance of a uniform judicial policy governing criminal procedure by creating a special commission to revise the state rules of criminal procedure. Additionally,during its present term the court has decided numerous cases directed toward the formation of well-defined rules under which criminal allegations can be adjudged. This Special …

Recent Cases, Theodore Brown, Jr., Janet R. Necessary

Vanderbilt Law Review

Responding to an increase in the number of habeas corpus petitions filed by federal prisoners in the district courts whose jurisdictions included federal prisons,, Congress in 1948 enacted 28 U.S.C. § 2255.1 The statute's purpose is to provide federal prisoners with an expeditious remedy for correcting erroneous sentencing without resort to habeas corpus.' In an effort to restrict the number of evidentiary hearings required, section 2255 provides for denial of petitions in which the motion, files, and records of the case conclusively demonstrate that the prisoner is entitled to no relief." Since approximately two-thirds of all federal criminal prosecutions are …

Recent Cases, Michael D. Kelly, Robert D. Tuke

Vanderbilt Law Review

Antitrust Law--Clayton Act--Statistics of Market Concentration and Increased Market Share are Insufficient to Show Violation of Section 7 When Other Factors Mandate a Conclusion that Competition will not be Substantially Lessened by the Contested Acquisition --

Preservation of a large number of marginal competitors does not necessarily result in the optimum level of competition, and size per se is not illegal' and should not be equated with anticompetitive effect. Seemingly, the competitive objectives of antimerger law have been infused with a theory characterized by socio-political feelings of hostility towards large, integrated corporations contrasted with friendliness toward small, independent business units …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Criminal Law-Confessions-- Government Can Satisfy Its Burden of Proving Waiver of Miranda Rights By Showing Warnings Given, Signed Waiver, and Proof of Defendant's Capacity to Understand the Warnings

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Criminal Procedure--Grand Jury-Attorney Work Product Consisting of Written Summaries and Personal Recollections of Interviews Is Privileged Against Disclosure at Federal Grand Jury Investigations

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Public Employees --Freedom of Association-Discharge of Non-policy-making Public Employees on Ground of Political Affiliation Infringes Employees' Freedom of Association

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Torts--Wrongful Death-Common--Law Cause of Action for Wrongful Death Exists Under Massachusetts Law

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

RECENT CASES

Antitrust--Sham Exception--Allegations of Purposeful and Concerted Use of Adjudicatory Processes to Harass and Deter Parties From Having Free Access to These Processes Constitute a Cause of Action Under Antitrust Laws

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Criminal Procedure--Confessions--Determination of Confession's Voluntariness by Preponderance of the Evidence Is Not Violative of Fifth Amendment Prohibition Against Self-Incrimination

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Landlord and Tenant--Forcible Entry and Detainer Statute--Provisions for Immediate Trial and Limitation of Triable Issues Not Violative of Due Process or Equal-Protection Clauses

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Securities Regulation-Section 16(b) of Securities Exchange Act of 1934--Insider May Sell Enough Stock To Bring His Holdings Below Ten Percent and Within Six …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Administrative Law--Judicial Review of SEC Decisions--No-Action Letter Under Commission's Proxy Rules Procedures Has Sufficient Finality and Formality to be Reviewable

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Creditors' Rights--Section 77 Railroad Reorganization--Federal Priority Under Section 191 Denied; Interline Balance Claims Granted Priority Under Equitable Six-Months Rule

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Criminal Procedure --Breach of the Peace--State Peace Bond Statute Establishes Criminal Proceedings and Must Satisfy Requirements of Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses

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Criminal Procedure--Presumption of Innocence--Cautionary Instruction to Jury that Presumption of Innocence is Not Intended To Aid the Guilty To Escape is Not Misleading or Erroneous

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Landlord and Tenant Law--Warranty of Habitability Implied by Law …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Civil Rights--Personal Injury--Intent to Injure Is Not a Prerequisite to Recovery for Police Abuse Under Section 1983

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Constitutional Law--Abortion--Statute Prohibiting Abortion of Unquickened Fetus Violates Mother's Constitutional Right of Privacy

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Constitutional Law--Obscenity--State Statute Allowing Injunction Against Dissemination of Allegedly Obscene Material Prior to Adversary Hearing Not Violative of First Amendment

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Constitutional Law--Right of Privacy--State Statute Requiring Disclosure of All Substantial Financial Interests of Public Officials is Overbroad and an Unconstitutional Invasion of Privacy

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Constitutional Law--Sixth Amendment--Admission of Prior Inconsistent Statements as Substantive Evidence Does Not Violate Right of Confrontation

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Criminal Procedure--Search and Seizure--Warrantless Search of …

Imprisonment For Nonpayment Of Fines And Costs: A New Look At The Law And The Constitution, Paul M. Stein

Vanderbilt Law Review

This note is based on the premise that a new understanding of the principles of sentencing has evolved during the past half-century. After articulating this thesis, one which has been more fully developed elsewhere, an assessment is made of the extent to which the more modern concepts of sentencing have been embodied in public policy as enunciated in statutes and court decisions, particularly decisions interpreting constitutional requirements. This examination reveals tha the existing rules and practices concerning imprisonment for fines and costs reflect uneasy compromises between competing policies and that these rules and practices are largely holdovers from an earlier …

Covert Contingencies In The Right To The Assistance Of Counsel, Abraham S. Blumberg

Vanderbilt Law Review

On the basis of a sociological survey showing that a very large percentage of guilty pleas are induced by defense counsel, Professor Blumberg concludes that criminal justice is not structured on the adversary model which the Supreme Court's right to counsel decisions presuppose. He submits that the primary loyalty of defense counsel is to the criminal court "system," the informal organization of court officials on which they depend for their professional existence. He suggests further that the additional attorneys which will be required to implement the right to counsel decisions will simply serve to make the"system" more efficient in utilizing …

Criminal Law And Procedure -- 1964 Tennessee Survey, Graham Parker, Robert E. Kendrick

Vanderbilt Law Review

The substantive criminal law receives little attention from the Tennessee appellate courts. No doubt this observation would be equally true of most jurisdictions. To one who received his legal training in a common law system of criminal law and who yet has had some experience with Canada's federal code of criminal law, the emphasis on criminal procedure is surprising. Does this mean that the state codes of substantive law have reached such heights of perfection and expertise that the efforts of the Model Penal Code draftsmen are unnecessary or, at best, academic? It is unlikely. The position rather reflects a …

Criminal Law And Procedure -- 1963 Tennessee Survey, Robert E. Kendrick

Vanderbilt Law Review

1. Homicide. A number of years ago the Tennessee Supreme Court adopted the common law principle that one is justified in taking life in defense of his habitation when actually or apparently necessary to repel an attempt by another to enter forcibly or violently under circumstances creating a reasonable apprehension that the assailant's design is imminently to commit a felony therein or to assault or offer personal violence or inflict personal injury on an inmate so that there are reasonable grounds for concluding that life is endangered or great bodily harm is threatened thereby.'

Flippen v. State, a homicide case, …

The Use Of Coerced Confessions In State Courts, J. A. Spanogle

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is now well settled that involuntary confessions must be excluded from evidence in all criminal trials in state courts. It has been difficult, however, to distinguish a voluntary confession from an involuntary one, because the term "involuntary" is not well defined. This lack of definition, which creates great problems for state trial and appellate courts in attempting to apply the rule to individual cases, has, in turn, stemmed from a lack of understanding of the reasons for excluding involuntary confessions. The United States Supreme Court has handed down thirty-four coerced confession cases, holding confessions admissible in some factual situations …

Criminal Law And Procedure -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Robert E. Kendrick

Vanderbilt Law Review

Offenses against the person-(a) Homicide: Parties.-Because of an asserted lack of intention to commit homicide, two persons asked the state supreme court in Eager v. State to reverse their convictions of involuntary manslaughter for allegedly, while intoxicated, killing a pedestrian with an automobile driven by one and directed and aided by the other. In affirming, it would have been enough to dispose of this contention to invoke the statutory provision that "manslaughter is the unlawful killing of another without malice, either express or implied, which may be... involuntary, but in the commission of some unlawful act,"' to call attention to …

Criminal Law And Procedure--1959 Tennessee Survey, Robert E. Kendrick

Vanderbilt Law Review

Conspiracy--Cline v. State was an appeal from a conviction of a conspiracy to dynamite and destroy a public school building in Clinton, Tennessee, in violation of a statute making it a felony for two or more persons to agree "to commit an illegal act capable of producing conditions destructive to life or property.. ." by possessing, transporting or using explosives. Three men, D1, D2 and D3, had been indicated; but, before defendants were put to trial, the state entered a "nolle prosequi" against D1, who became a state's witness. Afterwards, D2 was acquitted in the same trial in which D3, …