Law Commons^™

The Difference Of One Vote Or One Day: Reviewing The Demographics Of Florida’S Death Row After Hurst V. Florida, Melanie Kalmanson

University of Miami Law Review

As the federal appeals court with jurisdiction over Florida and Alabama—two leaders in capital punishment in the United States—the Eleventh Circuit reviews several claims each year related to capital punishment. Florida is home to one of the largest death row populations in the country. Thus, understanding Florida’s capital sentencing scheme is important for understanding capital punishment nationwide.

This Article analyzes the empirical demographics of Florida’s death row population and reviews how defendants are sentenced to death and ultimately executed in Florida. The analysis reveals that although age is not a factor upon which murder/manslaughter defendants are discriminated against in the …

Straight Outta Scotus: Domestic Violence, True Threats, And Free Speech, Jessica Miles

University of Miami Law Review

Domestic violence intersects with constitutional, criminal, and civil law in ways that often present challenges for jurists seeking to reconcile conflicting interests in promoting victim safety and protecting the legal rights of those accused of abuse. One current issue presenting such tensions relates to “true threats” of violence which the U.S. Supreme Court considers to be among the categories of speech receiving only limited First Amendment protection. The Supreme Court has yet to indicate what level of intent would be constitutionally sufficient for conviction of a speaker of a true threat and the circuit courts have split on this issue. …

Queering The Dream—The Impact Trump’S Decision Has On Lgbtq+ Dreamers, Candelario Saldana

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

On June 15, 2012, President Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program, which was an exercise of prosecutorial discretion that provided temporary relief from deportation to youth known as Dreamers. On September 5, 2017, the Trump administration announced that it would begin phasing out the program. The fate of the program has recently been litigated in courts including the Supreme Court, with a decision pending from the Supreme Court anytime in 2020 (although there is a push to stall a decision due to the COVID-19 pandemic). In this article I discuss the historical context of DACA and …

Ten Years Fighting Hate, David A. Hall

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

On October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (“the Act”). One of the goals of the Act was to broaden protections against crimes motivated by hatred for a person’s group membership (her perceived race, national origin, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or religion). The Act intends to address the need for US law to recognize the particularly destructive and virulent nature of crimes motivated by this kind of animus toward minority groups. Such crimes can often have an outsized effect, because they are intended to …