Law Commons^™

Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse Verdict Forms, Second Edition

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

The Ex Ante Function Of The Criminal Law, Paul H. Robinson, John M. Darley, Kevin M. Carlsmith

All Faculty Scholarship

Criminal legal codes draw clear lines between permissible and illegal conduct, and the criminal justice system counts on people knowing these lines and governing their conduct accordingly. This is the "ex ante" function of the law; lines are drawn, and because citizens fear punishments or believe in the moral validity of the legal codes they do not cross these lines. But do people in fact know the lines that legal codes draw? The fact that several states have adopted laws that deviate from other state laws enables a field experiment to address this question. Residents (N = 203) of states …

Innocence Protection Act: Death Penalty Reform On The Horizon, Ronald Weich

All Faculty Scholarship

The criminal justice pendulum may be swinging back in the direction of fairness. The Innocence Protection Act of 2001, introduced in both the Senate and the House of Representatives earlier this year, promises meaningful reforms in the administration of capital punishment in the United States.

Unlike previous slabs at reform, the Innocence Protection Act (lPA) has a real chance to become law because it commands unusually broad bipartisan support. The Senate bill (S. 486) is sponsored by Democrat Pat Leahy of Vermont and Republican Gordon Smith of Oregon. The House bill (H.R. 912) is sponsored by Democrat Bill Delahunt of …

Sexual Abuse Against Women In Prison, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

One of the by-products of the influx of women into correctional settings has been the emergence of sexual misconduct against women in prison as a major issue for corrections officials and attorneys who represent women. This article advocates for laws criminalizing sexual abuse of women inmates, as well as training to prevent such abuse.

Treading The Thin Blue Line: Military Special-Operations Trained Police Swat Teams And The Constitution, Karan R. Singh

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The increasing use of SWAT teams and paramilitary force by local law enforcement has been the focus of a growing concern regarding the heavy-handed exercise of police power. Critics question the constitutionality of joint-training between the military and civilian police, as well as the Fourth Amendment considerations raised by SWAT tactics. This Note examines the history, mission, and continuing need for police SWAT teams, addressing the constitutional issues raised concerning training and tactics. It explains how SWAT joint-training with the military is authorized by federal law and concludes that SWAT tactics are constitutionally acceptable in a majority of situations. Though …

Distorting The Prosecution Process: Informers, Mandatory Minimum Sentences, And Wrongful Convictions, Dianne L. Martin

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

As the use of mandatory minimum sentences becomes more common in Canada, it is important to consider a range of potential consequences that are neither intended nor anticipated. This article considers the implications of mandatory minimum sentences in contributing to wrongful convictions. It considers the impact of these sentences on two significant processes in the criminal justice system, plea bargaining and the development of informers, and argues that both processes are vulnerable to distortions. These distortions, which include the wrongful conviction of innocent people, can be exacerbated by the threat of mandatory minimum prison sentences. In the case of plea …

Sentencing In The States: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Julie Stewart

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Mandatory sentencing laws are responsible for the booming prison population in the United States. They are applied most frequently to crimes involving drugs and mandate harsh penalties of five, ten, twenty years or more behind bars for crimes involving no violence. Julie Stewart, President of the Families Against Mandatory Minimums Foundation (FAMM) and the sister of a marijuana user who spent five years in a federal prison, describes the unfairness of America’s sentencing policies, with a particular emphasis on the application of mandatory minimum sentences to drug-related convictions. These laws have led to a marked increase in the number of …

The Nullification Of Section 718.2(E): Aggravating Aboriginal Over-Representation In Canadian Prisons, Renee Pelletier

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article considers the disproportionate incarceration rate of Aboriginal offenders in Canadian prisons and the effectiveness of Parliament's attempts at alleviating this problem through the enactment of section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code. This article focuses primarily on two recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions-R. v. Gladue and R. v. Wells. It is argued that the Court's narrow view of systemic factors, the Imitation it places on section 718.2(e) through its discussion of serious offences, as well as a number of practical problems inherent in the framework provided by the Court, strip the provision of its remedial intent. The article …

No One Can Serve Two Masters: Arguments Against Private Prosecutors, Matthew S. Nichols

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Mickens V. Taylor No. 00-4, 2001 Wl 133196, At "1 (4th Cir. Feb. 16, 2001)

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Establishing A Capital Defense Unit In Virginia: A Proposal To Increase The Quality Of Representation For Indigent Capital Defendants, Jeremy P. White

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Lovitt V. Commonwealth 537 S.E.2d 866 (Va. 2000)

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

H.B. 2580 (Va. 2001)

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Accountability Solutions In The Consent Search And Seizure Wasteland, José F. Anderson

All Faculty Scholarship

The legal and social issues that have emerged out of the doctrine that people in America have a right against unreasonable government instituted searches and seizures have dominated the dialogue and controversy in the American criminal justice system over the last three decades. A large portion of the debate has centered around the controversial exclusionary rule, which frees the sometimes unmistakably guilty because of irregularities in police procedure.

The notion that society suffers when criminals go free because of the constable's blunder has struck a decidedly political note in the discussion over criminal justice reform. Many observers are quick to …

Punishing Dangerousness: Cloaking Preventive Detention As Criminal Justice, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Laypersons have traditionally thought of the criminal justice system as being in the business of doing justice: punishing offenders for the crimes they commit. Yet during the past several decades, the justice system's focus has shifted from punishing past crimes to preventing future violations through the incarceration and control of dangerous offenders. Habitual-offender statutes, such as "three strikes" laws, authorize life sentences for repeat offenders. Jurisdictional reforms have decreased the age at which juveniles may be tried as adults. Gang membership and recruitment are now punished. "Megan's Law" statutes require community notification of convicted sex offenders. "Sexual predator" statutes provide …

Effective Capital Representation Of The Mentally Retarded Defendant, Shruti S. B. Desai

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Residual Doubt: It's A Life Saver, Christina S. Pignatelli

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

The Long And Winding Road: The Quest For Admission Of Prison, Life Evidence In Virginia Capital Sentencing Proceedings, Latanya R. White

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Bacon V. Lee 225 F.3d 470 (4th Cir. 2000)

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Goins V. Angelone 226 F.3d 312 (4th Cir. 2000)

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Parole Eligibility In Goins V. Angelone, 226 F.3d 312 (4th Cir. 2000) And Bacon V. Lee, 225 F.3d 470 (4th Cir. 2000)

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Sanders V. Easley 230 F.3d 679 (4th Cir. 2000)

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

White V. Lee No. 00-3, 2000 Wl 1803290, At *1 (4th Cir. Dec. 8, 2000)

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Akers V. Commonwealth 535 S.E.2d 674 (Va. 2000) Overton V. Commonwealth 539 S.E.2d 421 (Va. 2000)

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Atkins V. Commonwealth 534 S.E.2d 312 (Va. 2000)

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse Verdict Forms

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Miranda'S Mistake, William J. Stuntz

Michigan Law Review

The oddest thing about Miranda is its politics - a point reinforced by the decision in, and the reaction to, Dickerson v. United States. In Dickerson, the Supreme Court faced the question whether Miranda ought to be overturned, either directly or by permitting legislative overrides. The lawyers, the literature, and the Court split along right-left - or, in the Court's case, right-center - lines, with the right seeking to do away with Miranda's restrictions on police questioning, and the left (or center) seeking to maintain them. The split is familiar. Reactions to Miranda have always divided along ideological lines, with …

The Paths Not Taken: The Supreme Court's Failures In Dickerson, Paul G. Cassell

Michigan Law Review

Where's the rest of the opinion? That was my immediate reaction to reading the Supreme Court's terse decision in Dickerson, delivered to me via email from the clerk's office a few minutes after its release. Surely, I thought, some glitch in the transmission had eliminated the pages of discussion on the critical issues in the case. Yet, as it became clear that I had received all of the Court's opinion, my incredulity grew.

Miranda, Dickerson, And The Puzzling Persistence Of Fifth Amendment Exceptionalism, Stephen J. Schulhofer

Michigan Law Review

Dickerson v. United States preserves the status quo regime for judicial oversight of police interrogation. That result could be seen, in the present climate, as a victory for due process values, but there remain many reasons for concern that existing safeguards are flawed - that they are either too restrictive or not restrictive enough. Such concerns are partly empirical, of course. They depend on factual assessments of how much the Miranda rules do restrict the police. But such concerns also reflect a crucial, though often unstated, normative premise; they presuppose a certain view of how much the police should be …

Miranda, The Constitution, And Congress, David A. Strauss

Michigan Law Review

Are Miranda warnings required by the Constitution, or not? If they are, why has the Supreme Court repeatedly said that the rights created by Miranda are "not themselves rights protected by the Constitution"? If not, why can't an Act of Congress, such as 18 U.S.C. 3501, declare them to be unnecessary? These were the central questions posed by United States v. Dickerson. It is not clear that the majority opinion ever really answered them. The majority said that "Miranda is constitutionally based," that Miranda has "constitutional underpinnings," that Miranda is "a constitutional decision," and that Miranda "announced a constitutional rule." …