Law Commons^™

Keith Allen Harward's Wrongful Conviction, Matthias Pearce

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Keith Allen Harward served 33 years in prison in Virginia for a rape and murder (The Innocence Project, 2025). The main evidence for his conviction was bite marks found on the rape victim’s legs. Someone broke into a house and murdered a man and raped the man’s wife. The rape victim described the man who had assaulted her, saying he was wearing a sailor’s outfit. A shipyard security guard nearby reported a man in a blood-spattered E-3 sailor’s uniform. Dental records of all E-3s were obtained and tested, and Harward was identified as the assailant (Keith Allen HARWARD v. COMMONWEALTH …

Attorney Perceptions Of Plea-Bargaining, Sarah K. Edelen

Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how criminal prosecutors and defense attorneys describe the negotiation process of plea-bargains, and the roles and discretion they exercise during it. Additionally, plea-bargaining is not well understood by many members of the public, so this research allows the public to gain insight and knowledge into the process. This study consisted of in-depth, qualitative interviews with both prosecutors and defense attorneys. The results of the study were analyzed through a content analysis. Overall, it was found that the way the plea-bargaining process is described through the existing literature differs …

State V. Grant: Is Intent An Essential Element Of Criminal Attempt In Maine?, Bethanne Lyons Poliquin

Maine Law Review

Criminal attempt is a conceptually difficult area of the criminal law. Efforts to develop a judicial and statutory framework for the imposition of criminal attempt liability have resulted in analytical difficulties from which sound policy has not emerged. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has recently encountered this problem in State v. Grant. Liability for criminal attempt has traditionally been limited to those situations in which the actor is shown to have had the specific intent to engage in conduct that constituted a substantial step toward the commission of the substantive crime. Because of this requirement, courts have reasoned that criminal …

Criminal Contempt In Maine: Constitutionally Protected Or Neglected?, Christopher D. Hardy

Maine Law Review

The power to punish contempt of court is an ancient power justified as inherent and necessary for the effective administration of justice. Because criminal contempts are willful challenges to the power of a court to maintain control over its proceedings, contempts are acts which serve to lessen the dignity and authority of the court. Certainly, the maintenance of decorum in the courtrooms is of paramount importance. Absent the ability to sanction willful disobedience, a court is powerless to enforce its decrees or control its proceedings. Yet it is a power readily open to abuse; application of this power must be …

Presumptions Against Criminal Defendants, Affirmative Defenses, And A Substantive Due Process Interpretation Of County Court Of Ulster V. Allen, John C. Sheldon

Maine Law Review

In County Court of Ulster County v. Allen, the Supreme Court stated: "inferences and presumptions are a staple of our adversary system of factfinding." Because Allen concerned the constitutionality of the use against criminal defendants of such deductive devices as statutory inferences and presumptions, it appeared that the decision would ultimately favor their unrestricted use in criminal cases by the prosecution. Further, that expectation was buttressed by the ruling in Patterson v. New York, in which the Court awarded constitutional sanction to state use of affirmative defenses against criminal defendants. These facts suggested that the Court would refrain from imposing …

Get Your Act Together: The Alternative Fines Act In Federal Prosecutions Of Corporate Environmental Crimes, Josiah B. Harmar

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Occupy, Nicholas Marti

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Rise Re-Entry Program, Rise Artists

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Airport Milk Justice, Elsbeth Magilton

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

This creative and personal Essay explores the complex and often overlooked experience of a new working mother. Through a series of personal stories featuring airports and security personnel, this author navigates the struggles and lack of support from society for breastfeeding on-the-go. Ultimately, the author was able to use these personal experiences and turn them into a positive advocacy mission for herself and for other working mothers across the United States by finding solutions and reaching out to airport regulators. This piece highlights candidly the intersection between motherhood and the professional world by illustrating the difficulties and evolving expectations for …

A Love Letter To The Leaders: Why Recognizing And Discussing Secondary Trauma In Legal Work Will Benefit Your Staff, Your Clients, And Most Importantly, The Work, Isabel Corngold, Elizabeth Cole

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

When you work in a client-facing, client-centered section of the law like criminal law, and specifically wrongful convictions, you encounter trauma. Many organizations, including innocence organizations, do not do a sufficient job to recognize and address the impact of that trauma on their staff. This piece seeks to explain the potential impact of this trauma by, one, defining the terms burnout; secondary and vicarious trauma; empathetic distress; countertransference; and compassion fatigue, and, two, listing out signs and symptoms that can be caused by experiencing any of these emotions. Drawing from the authors’ experiences in innocence organizations, this piece addresses leaders …

Extraterritorial Civil Liability After Mallory: A Potential New Weapon For Anti-Abortion States In The Interstate Abortion War, Velma Lockman

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization marked the culmination of a decades-long movement to overturn the constitutional right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade. The decision commenced an interstate abortion war, in which anti-abortion states are now seeking to enforce their anti-abortion statutes in pro-abortion states. One such statute is Senate Bill 8 (“S.B.8”), a Texas anti-abortion statute that utilizes civil liability to prosecute anyone for “aiding or abetting” abortion.

The year after Dobbs, the Supreme Court issued their opinion in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company, which upheld a Pennsylvania consent-by-registration statute and allows Pennsylvania courts to exercise …

Ecarrots: Prison Control And Profits From Correctional Tablets, Justin Iverson

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

In recent years, tablets have gained tremendous popularity behind bars for their ability to expand access to educational and rehabilitative services for people in prison. However, there are downsides to tablet implementation, including high costs at the expense of a captive population and shifting power dynamics resulting in possible volatility. This Article examines the use of correctional tablets in jails and prisons as mechanisms for administrative control and profit-making in an era of beleaguered correctional budgets. It also considers legal and policy implications related to the disproportionately negative impact of the introduction of tablets on people in poverty, increased dependency …

Forewords To The Inaugural Issue, Njaj Editorial Board, Richard Moberly, Stefanie S. Pearlman, Kala Mueller, Danielle Jefferis, Brooklyn Terrill

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

2024-25 Masthead, Njaj Editorial Board

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Quo Vadis Desain Pengamanan Hakim Dari Perbuatan Merendahkan Kehormatan Dan Keluhuran Martabat Hakim (Pmkh) Di Indonesia, Zainatul Ilmiyah

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Judges, as the main judicial actors in law enforcement, have an independent nature, both in terms of institutions and in terms of determining their decisions. However, in exercising their authority, judges are often faced with the risk of injury, both physical and psychological, by the public, who are not satisfied with the decisions made by the judges. With an empirical legal research method and using a conceptual approach, statute approach, and comparative approach, this study aims to find the best form in the design of an institutional model for judge and court security units. In this study, it was found …

Rethinking The Automobile Exception, Lori A. Hoetger

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ohio's Unconstitutional Burden Of Proof For Criminal New Trial Motions Based On Newly Discovered Evidence, David B. Alden, Michael P. Koslen

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Does A Lie Become An Obstruction Of Justice?, Michael Allain

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Most people agree that lying is wrong. The early English, for example, were particularly sensitive to lying: “King Alfred provided that the slanderer shall have his tongue cut out, unless he could redeem it with the price of his head.” But determining which lies are culpable, if any, is thorny; some say harm-causing lies are culpable, while others disagree, advising caution.

Naturally, this debate has found its way into our law. One example lies in the obstruction of justice adjustment—a sentencing enhancement in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (“the Guidelines”). How does that provision determine when a lie is culpable? …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Re-Imagining Tomorrow: A Technology, Innovation Law, And Ethics Symposium On Addictive Technology And Children, Margaret Chon

Seattle University Law Review

In this Foreword, Professor Margaret Chon introduces Seattle University's Technology, Innovation Law, and Ethics (TILE) program, the 2024 TILE Symposium, and Dr. Gaia Bernstein’s Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies.

Keynote Address: The Movement To Protect Kids From Addictive Technologies, Gaia Bernstein

Seattle University Law Review

In this keynote address, I describe my personal journey starting with a school outreach program I created in 2017 to address technology overuse among kids. While I initially advocated for self-help methods, I grew to recognize that the tech industry bore responsibility. This realization led me to write Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, which focused on collective action to pressure the tech industry to redesign its addictive products.

I then describe the movement to control addictive technologies and protect kids, which has gained momentum since the end of the pandemic. This movement combines grassroots parent activism with legal-political action. …

Moral Panic Or Public Health Crisis? Lessons From Drugs And Gambling For “Addictive” Design, Matthew B. Lawrence, Haomin (Kevin) Yan

Seattle University Law Review

Alcohol, automobiles, guns, lottery, loot boxes, meat, music, opioid painkillers, processed foods, prop bets, slot machines, television, tobacco, violent video games. Over the last century each of these has been subject to concerns—some might even say “moral panics”—from parents and policymakers about avoidable harms to kids and adults. In some cases we look back with the benefit of hindsight and dismiss those concerns as naïve or moralistic. In others we look back at them as justified or as having come too late to check an expanding industry before it did unfathomable harm while growing so powerful that it became all …

Responding To Digital Addiction, Ned Snow

Seattle University Law Review

In Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, Professor Gaia Bernstein calls our attention to the growing problem of digital addiction. Digital addiction may sound like something out of a science-fiction novel or something that does not raise the same sort of real-life practical concerns as are present in a physical health crisis or an economic decline. But as Bernstein presents the evidence, we learn that the consequences of digital addiction can be just as harmful as a serious disease or a financial depression. Cognitive development disorders, anxiety, emotional depression, social isolation, and other mental health ills can be debilitating—as much …

The Ai Doppelgänger Dilemma: Cloned Voices In The Music Industry, Elizabeth Shields

Seattle University Law Review

With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), there has been an influx of “voice clones”—deep-learning algorithms that create synthetic speech to realistically mimic human voices. Celebrities and, in particular, music artists, have been subjected to the proliferation of AI voice clones on social media platforms like TikTok and streaming platforms such as Spotify. Despite music utilizing AI voice clones having amassed much popularity, this technology can be harmful and highly invasive to musicians whose livelihoods often depend on their distinct voices. While legal scholars have attempted to articulate various rights that could protect a person’s voice, individuals are largely …

Let The Sunshine In: Crafting Constitutional Transparency Regulations For Content Moderation, Caitlin Ring Carlson

Seattle University Law Review

In response to public concern about the impact of social media, legislators in some U.S. states have developed laws to regulate the process of content moderation. Many include mandatory transparency and disclosure requirements, some of which courts have already deemed an unconstitutional infringement on social media platforms’ right to free expression. This article explores the parameters for crafting constitutional social media transparency regulations using existing U.S. media policy and insights from recent legal challenges. The resulting analysis identifies content neutral transparency requirements that mandate the disclosure of purely factual, non-controversial information as those most likely to withstand judicial scrutiny. Specifically, …

This Is Not A Game: The Addictive Allure Of Digital Companions, Nizan Geslevich Packin, Karni Chagal-Feferkorn

Seattle University Law Review

Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents have become an inescapable part of modern childhood, reshaping education, leisure activities, entertainment, and social interaction. From AI-powered tutors that adapt to individual learning styles to emotionally responsive chatbots that simulate human companionship, these systems promise unprecedented personalization, cognitive stimulation, and social support. However, these benefits mask significant risks that remain unregulated and inadequately addressed.

Although adults are also susceptible to forming deep emotional bonds with AI companions—often trusting them as if they possessed genuine understanding and empathy—children are particularly vulnerable. Their misplaced trust can more severely distort social development, weaken critical thinking, and foster unhealthy …

Cars Don’T Stop For Yellow Lights: Turning Maine’S Yellow Flag Law Red, Jamison Rhoads-Doyle

Maine Law Review

This Case Note is about Maine’s Extreme Risk Protection Order law, Title 34-B, Section 3862-A, of the Maine Revised Statutes. The purpose of Maine’s law and others like it is to proactively take firearms away from individuals who present a substantial risk of violently harming themselves or others. In the aftermath of the mass shooting which occurred in Lewiston, Maine on October 25, 2023, there was debate over whether law enforcement could have used Section 3862-A to proactively prevent the shooting, as well as over whether Section 3862-A was an effective tool for preventing violence in the first place. This …

Slow, Expensive, And Out Of Control: A Statutory Solution To The Competency Crisis, Robert Barnhart

Maine Law Review

The United States Constitution guarantees both the right to a speedy trial and the right to be competent to stand trial. United States Supreme Court decisions have recognized both of these rights but left the hard work of implementing them to legislatures and rulemakers. After turning the technicalities over to the states, the Supreme Court has generally stayed out of the business of setting bright-line rules to follow, both for setting speedy trial limits and ensuring defendants are evaluated and restored to competency. This delegation has led to a dual crisis. Cases are not resolved on time, and a substantial …

State Of The Grid: Cybersecurity Best Practices For The Utility Industry, Corban Garcia

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Developing a strong cybersecurity posture is essential for protecting critical infrastructure, especially in the utility industry. This study analyzes a multi-layered cybersecurity approach that integrates risk management, technology, governance, and workforce training. Based on an examination of industry literature, six key steps were identified. These include assessing security posture, developing policies, implementing security controls, employee training, incident response planning, and regular audits. Each step plays a vital role in mitigating cyber threats and ensuring operational resilience. A comparative analysis of cybersecurity frameworks and real-world incidents highlights the necessity of proactive security strategies. Without these foundational steps, organizations face greater risks …

Accidental Brady Violations, Adam M. Gershowitz

Texas A&M Law Review

Prosecutors are often seen as the villains of the criminal justice system. And the most villainous thing a prosecutor can do is to commit an intentional Brady violation by withholding favorable and material evidence from the defense. Not surprisingly, there is a wide literature criticizing prosecutors for flagrant misconduct.

But not all Brady violations are intentional. Prosecutors sometimes—perhaps often—commit accidental Brady violations by inadvertently failing to recognize favorable evidence. Because many prosecutors are inexperienced, overworked, and under-trained, they do not recognize exculpatory or impeachment evidence when it is in their files. Additionally, prosecutors also fail to disclose evidence that is …