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Full-Text Articles in Law
How Criminal Code Drafting Form Can Restrain Prosecutorial And Legislative Excesses: Consolidated Offense Drafting, Paul H. Robinson, Matthew Kussmaul, Muhammad Sarahne
How Criminal Code Drafting Form Can Restrain Prosecutorial And Legislative Excesses: Consolidated Offense Drafting, Paul H. Robinson, Matthew Kussmaul, Muhammad Sarahne
All Faculty Scholarship
Solving criminal justice problems typically requires the enactment of new rules or the modification of existing ones. But there are some serious problems that can best be solved simply by altering the way in which the existing rules are drafted rather than by altering their content. This is the case with two of the most serious problems in criminal justice today: the problem of overlapping criminal offenses that create excessive prosecutorial charging discretion and the problem of legislative inconsistency and irrationality in grading offenses.
After examining these two problems and demonstrating their serious effects in perverting criminal justice, the essay …
Plata O Plomo: Effect Of Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations On The American Criminal Justice System, Mark M. Mcpherson
Plata O Plomo: Effect Of Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations On The American Criminal Justice System, Mark M. Mcpherson
St. Mary's Law Journal
Abstract forthcoming
Mens Rea, Criminal Responsibility, And The Death Of Freddie Gray, Michael Serota
Mens Rea, Criminal Responsibility, And The Death Of Freddie Gray, Michael Serota
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
Who (if anyone) is criminally responsible for the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old African-American man who died from injuries suffered while in the custody of Baltimore police? This question has been at the forefront of the extensive coverage of Gray’s death, which has inspired a national discussion about law enforcement’s relationship with black communities. But it is also a question that may never be fairly resolved for reasons wholly unrelated to the topic of community policing, with which Gray’s death has become synonymous. What may ultimately hamper the administration of justice in the prosecution of the police officers involved …
Criminal Responsibility: Knowledge, Will And Choice, Robert J. Willey
Criminal Responsibility: Knowledge, Will And Choice, Robert J. Willey
Akron Law Review
The Court acknowledged that the M'Naghten formula was the recognized test for insanity, that it was a test of criminal responsibility rather than a medical test of insanity, that it has been followed in a classic fashion, that each doctor had compressed his final conclusion into the required M'Naghten strait jacket, and that the defense had proved by the greater weight of the evidence that the defendant was not guilty by reason of insanity.
Both of these courts claimed to be following M'Naghten, though the Colby court decried its present use, and the Keaton court approved an instruction that included …
Hines 57: The Catchall Case To The Texas Kidnapping Statute., Karen Bartlett
Hines 57: The Catchall Case To The Texas Kidnapping Statute., Karen Bartlett
St. Mary's Law Journal
This Recent Development asserts that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ refusal to define “substantial interference” in relation to the kidnapping statute, opens the floodgates for every act of confinement or movement committed in the course of a substantive offense constituting kidnapping. The Court maintains it is up to the jury to define the term. If the Texas Legislature does not narrowly define the kidnapping statute, virtually every assault, robbery, sexual assault, and some murders will constitute both the substantive offense plus kidnapping. Furthermore, such logic would in effect bootstrap murder into capital murder, which happened in Herrin v. State. …
Voluntary Intoxication As A Mitigating Circumstance During The Death Penalty Sentencing Phase: A Proposal For Reform Comment., Jeffrey A. Walsh
Voluntary Intoxication As A Mitigating Circumstance During The Death Penalty Sentencing Phase: A Proposal For Reform Comment., Jeffrey A. Walsh
St. Mary's Law Journal
When the State of Texas seeks the death penalty against a defendant, the trial court conducts a sentencing proceeding under Article 37.071 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. This proceeding determines whether the defendant will receive the death penalty. During deliberation, the jury must consider all mitigating evidence. The defendant may claim his voluntary intoxication as a mitigating factor. Under Tex. Pen. Code § 8.04(b), the court instructs the jury to consider evidence of voluntary intoxication only if it rendered the defendant temporarily insane. Although Article 37.071 calls upon juries to consider “all” mitigating evidence, a Section 8.04 instruction …
Mens Rea And The Colorado Criminal Code, Marianne Wesson
Mens Rea And The Colorado Criminal Code, Marianne Wesson
Publications
No abstract provided.
A Reasoned Approach To The Reform Of Sex Offense Legislation, Ronald B. Schram
A Reasoned Approach To The Reform Of Sex Offense Legislation, Ronald B. Schram
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Currently there is a widespread movement toward the revision of state criminal codes. The goals of such an undertaking are varied: (1) to reduce the size of the criminal law by eliminating inconsistent, overlapping, or obsolete provisions; (2) to phrase the prohibitions in clear and concise language; (3) to introduce more modern approaches to the definition and treatment of criminal offenses; and (4) to harmonize the penalty imposed for a particular act with the severity of the act and the penalty for other acts. This paper will concentrate on sex offenses in an attempt to understand the legislative process of …
Criminal Law - Insane Persons - Competency To Stand Trial, John H. Hess M.D., Henry B. Pearsall S.Ed., Donald A. Slichter S.Ed., Herbert E. Thomas M.D.
Criminal Law - Insane Persons - Competency To Stand Trial, John H. Hess M.D., Henry B. Pearsall S.Ed., Donald A. Slichter S.Ed., Herbert E. Thomas M.D.
Michigan Law Review
Mental unsoundness in a person accused of a crime raises two distinct legal questions. One is the question of the individual's responsibility for his behavior and the other is the question of the individual's competency to enter into the legal procedures of trial or punishment. In recent years considerable attention has been given to matters of responsibility, but relatively little attention has been paid to the problem of incompetency and especially to the consequences of incompetency proceedings. In order to analyze and evaluate the operations of the Michigan law in the area of incompetency to stand trial, two psychiatrists joined …