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The Innocent Defendant’S Dilemma: An Innovative Empirical Study Of Plea Bargaining’S Innocence Problem, Lucian Dervan, Vanessa Edkins Dec 2012

The Innocent Defendant’S Dilemma: An Innovative Empirical Study Of Plea Bargaining’S Innocence Problem, Lucian Dervan, Vanessa Edkins

Lucian E Dervan

In 1989, Ada JoAnn Taylor was accused of murder and presented with stark options. If she pleaded guilty, she would be rewarded with a sentence of ten to forty years in prison. If, however, she proceeded to trial and was convicted, she would likely spend the rest of her life behind bars. Over a thousand miles away in Florida and more than twenty years later, a college student was accused of cheating and presented with her own incentives to admit wrongdoing and save the university the time and expense of proceeding before a disciplinary review board. Both women decided the …


Hearing On Stolen Or Counterfeit Goods Legislation, Lucian Dervan Dec 2011

Hearing On Stolen Or Counterfeit Goods Legislation, Lucian Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

On March 28, 2012, Professor Dervan was called to testify before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security (Judiciary Committee, U.S. House of Representatives) and offer his thoughts regarding proposed counterfeit goods legislation (The Safe Doses Act (H.R. 4223) and the Counterfeit Drug Penalty Enhancement Act of 2011 (H.R. 3668)). In his prepared statement, Professor Dervan examines the phenomenon of overcriminalization, the collapse of mens rea, the true impact of increased statutory maximums, plea bargaining, and the continued deterioration of our constitutionally protected right to trial by jury. His closing remarks to the Committee offer a poignant critique of …


Global Bribery: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Lucian Dervan Dec 2011

Global Bribery: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Lucian Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

Written for a European publication focusing on internal investigations, this piece seeks to introduce the reader to the fundamental elements of the American FCPA, including discussion of available defenses under the statute. Further, this piece discusses some of the collateral considerations that must be made during the investigation of an FCPA matter, particularly given the existence of overlapping anti-bribery provisions in various countries throughout the world and the likelihood of concurrent parallel proceedings both in the United States and abroad during the pendency of any international bribery matter. Finally, this piece offers some thoughts regarding FCPA compliance programs.


Information Warfare And Civilian Populations: How The Law Of War Addresses A Fear Of The Unknown, Lucian Dervan Dec 2010

Information Warfare And Civilian Populations: How The Law Of War Addresses A Fear Of The Unknown, Lucian Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

Imagine a civilian communications system is being temporarily relied upon by an opposing military force for vital operations. If one launches a computer network attack against the communications system, the operation may disable the opposing force’s ability to function adequately and, as a result, prompt their surrender. The alternative course of action is to launch a traditional kinetic weapons attack in the hopes of inflicting enough casualties on the troops to induce surrender. Given these options, the law of war would encourage the utilization of the computer network attack because it would result in less unnecessary suffering. But is the …


American Prison Culture In An International Context: An Examination Of Prisons In America, The Netherlands, And Israel, Lucian Dervan Dec 2010

American Prison Culture In An International Context: An Examination Of Prisons In America, The Netherlands, And Israel, Lucian Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

In 2004, British authorities arrested Abu Hamza al-Masri, an Egyptian born cleric sought by the United States for his involvement in instigating terrorist attacks. As authorities prepared to extradite him in July 2010, the European Court of Human Rights issued a stay. According to the court, al-Masri’s claims that maximum-security prisons in the United States violate European human rights laws prohibiting torture and degrading treatment warranted further examination. Regardless of the eventual resolution of the al-Masri case, the European Court of Human Rights’ inability to summarily dismiss these assertions demonstrates something quite troubling. At a minimum, the court’s actions indicate …


The Surprising Lessons From Plea Bargaining In The Shadow Of Terror, Lucian Dervan Dec 2010

The Surprising Lessons From Plea Bargaining In The Shadow Of Terror, Lucian Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

Since September 11, 2001, several hundred individuals have been convicted of terrorism related charges. Of these convictions, over 80% resulted from a plea of guilty. It is surprising and counterintuitive that such a large percentage of these cases are resolved in this manner, yet, even when prosecuting suspected terrorists caught attempting suicide attacks, the power of the plea bargaining machine exerts a striking influence. As a result, a close examination of these extraordinary cases offers important insights into the forces that drive the plea bargaining system. Utilizing these insights, this article critiques two divergent and dominant theories of plea bargaining …


Re-Evaluating Corporate Criminal Liability: The Doj's Internal Moral Culpability Standard For Corporate Criminal Liability, Lucian Dervan Dec 2010

Re-Evaluating Corporate Criminal Liability: The Doj's Internal Moral Culpability Standard For Corporate Criminal Liability, Lucian Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

This article examines the common law respondeat superior test for corporate criminal liability and proposes that it be expanded beyond the current two prong test to encompass a third prong regarding moral culpability. Further, this article supports this proposal by noting that the Department of Justice has already incorporated a moral culpability element into its analysis of corporate criminal liability through application of the Department’s Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations. While some might argue that one should be satisfied that the Department of Justice has seen fit to implement a new corporate criminal liability standard on its own …


Responding To Potential Employee Misconduct In The Age Of The Whistleblower: Foreseeing And Avoiding Hidden Dangers, Lucian E. Dervan Dec 2007

Responding To Potential Employee Misconduct In The Age Of The Whistleblower: Foreseeing And Avoiding Hidden Dangers, Lucian E. Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

The number of law suits brought against corporations in the United States as a result of employee whistleblowers has risen in recent years. There are two predominant reasons for this trend. First, publicity surrounding cases such as Enron in the early 2000s have made employees more sensitive to potential misconduct in the workplace. For instance, a 2007 study found that 56% of employees reported that they had observed conduct that “violated company ethics standards, policy, or the law” in the previous twelve months. Second, employees are now more aware of the role of whistleblowers and are more likely to report …


Watching Your Step: Avoiding The Pitfalls And Perils Of Corporate Internal Investigations, Lucian E. Dervan Dec 2004

Watching Your Step: Avoiding The Pitfalls And Perils Of Corporate Internal Investigations, Lucian E. Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

Since the creation of the Corporate Fraud Task Force in July 2002, the United States Department of Justice and the other member agencies have worked feverishly to ferret out corporate crime and punish wrongdoers. The Task Force, in the three years following the announcement of its formation by President Bush, has instituted hundreds of investigations, secured over five hundred corporate fraud convictions or guilty pleas, and charged over nine hundred defendants. Not to be outdone by federal law enforcement authorities, some state attorneys general have followed suit, pursuing their own well-publicized probes of corporate practices. The stakes in these investigations …


Three Governors: Herman Talmadge, The Georgia Supreme Court And The Gubernatorial Election Of 1946, Lucian E. Dervan Nov 2002

Three Governors: Herman Talmadge, The Georgia Supreme Court And The Gubernatorial Election Of 1946, Lucian E. Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

Herman Talmadge, who died March 21, 2002, was a governor, senator, and Georgia icon who controlled state politics for much of the last half of the 20th century. While many events in Talmadge’s life deserve attention, one event in particular stands out amongst the trials and tribulations, victories and scandals in this long American political life. In 1946, the Georgia gubernatorial election brought a state government to its knees, a state Supreme Court to the height of its power and Talmadge into the national spotlight as a revolver toting aspiring governor.


Selected Conceptions Of Federalism: The Selective Use Of History In The Supreme Court's States' Rights Opinions, Lucian E. Dervan Dec 2000

Selected Conceptions Of Federalism: The Selective Use Of History In The Supreme Court's States' Rights Opinions, Lucian E. Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

In the period leading to the Civil War, debate over federalism and states’ rights developed into the seeds of a war that would forever change America. Over one hundred years later, the debate over federalism continues, unanswered by the blood of more than half a million soldiers. Over the last decade, the United States Supreme Court has increased state sovereignty and state immunity to levels unseen since the pre-Civil War period. The Court’s opinions are structured in a manner that relies significantly on historical methodologies. The multiple rationales used to structure the Justices’ arguments clash, and the Justices spar with …