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Specific Intent And The Purposeful Narrowing Of Victim Protection Under The Convention Against Torture, Mary Holper
Specific Intent And The Purposeful Narrowing Of Victim Protection Under The Convention Against Torture, Mary Holper
Mary Holper
Article 3 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment (“CAT”) prevents removal of a person to a country where there is a substantial likelihood of torture. The U.S. ratified the CAT in 1994, yet modified the treaty’s definition of “torture” by inserting an understanding that “torture” includes only pain or suffering that is “specifically intended.” Specific intent, an antiquated criminal law term, has several different meanings in criminal law jurisprudence. In Matter of J-E-, the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2002 chose the most narrow definition of specific intent, “purposeful,” and …
The New Moral Turpitude Test: Failing Chevron Step Zero, Mary Holper
The New Moral Turpitude Test: Failing Chevron Step Zero, Mary Holper
Mary Holper
In the waning days of the Bush administration, Attorney General Michael Mukasey decided In re Silva-Trevino, in which he reversed over a century of immigration law precedent by creating a new moral turpitude test. He abandoned the well-entrenched "categorical approach," the mechanism by which immigration judges decide whether a noncitizen is removable for a criminal conviction, and allowed judges to engage in a factual inquiry of whether an offense involves moral turpitude. The Attorney General made such a broad, sweeping change through a process that allowed no input from affected parties, including the individual whose case became the new precedent. …
Deportation For A Sin: Why Moral Turpitude Is Void For Vagueness, Mary Holper
Deportation For A Sin: Why Moral Turpitude Is Void For Vagueness, Mary Holper
Mary Holper
A major problem facing noncitizen criminal defendants today is the vagueness of the term “crime involving moral turpitude” (CIMT) in deportation law. The Supreme Court in the 1951 case Jordan v. DeGeorge decided that a statute authorizing deportation for a CIMT was not void for vagueness because courts had long held the noncitizen’s offense, fraud, to be a CIMT, so he was on notice of his likely deportation. I argue that when noncitizens are charged with an offense that case law has not clearly delineated as a CIMT, the term is vague, since the definition used by the agency and …
Habeas Corpus Reform In El Salvador, Mary Holper
Habeas Corpus Reform In El Salvador, Mary Holper
Mary Holper
In this paper I compare the habeas corpus systems of El Salvador, the United States and Argentina. My purpose is to develop a general understanding of the procedure for bringing the writ in each country and analyze the substantive law governing the rights of habeas corpus petitioners in each country. I evaluate the systems against the backdrop of each country’s political and legal history with respect to the writ of habeas corpus. The ultimate aim of this paper is to reform the habeas corpus law of El Salvador by analyzing the Salvadoran system as compared to the Argentine and U.S. …