Law Commons^™

A (Partial And Principled) Defense Of Sentences Of Life Imprisonment, Mirko Bagaric, Jennifer Svilar

Cleveland State Law Review

There has been more than a five-fold increase in the number of life sentences in the United States over the past four decades. One in seven prisoners in the United States is serving a life (or virtual) life sentence. This amounts to over 200,000 prisoners. The increase has occurred against the backdrop of near universal condemnation by scholars and public policy advocates – many of whom are now advocating for the abolition of life sentences. Arguments that life sentences are not an effective deterrent or means of protecting the community have some merit. Yet, we argue that in a limited …

A Look Into Wrongful Conviction Within The U.S. Justice System, Isabella T. Likos

The Downtown Review

The United States justice system has principles in place in order to prevent wrongful convictions such as the presumption of innocence and having to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. However, even with these principles in places there are times that people are wrongfully convicted. There are multiple reasons why wrongful conviction occur, including false confessions and erroneous eyewitness testimony. Wrongful conviction impacts not only the wrongfully convicted, but their family, friends, and the victims. While wrongful convictions do happen, there are steps that can be taken going forward that can help prevent them and exonerate the wrongfully convicted.

Gravely Disabled: The Vestigial Prong Of 5150 Designations, Diane Y. Byun

Journal of Law and Health

Effective July 1, 1972, California’s Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (“LPS Act”) set the precedent for modern mental health commitment procedures in the U.S. named after its authors, State Assemblyman Frank Lanterman and State Senators Nicholas C. Petris and Alan Short, the LPS Act sought to “end the inappropriate, indefinite, and involuntary commitment of persons with mental health disorder”; to “provide prompt evaluation and treatment of persons with mental health disorders or impaired by chronic alcoholism”; and to “guarantee and protect public safety.” Despite citing to these articles of intent, the LPS Act violates its own legislative intent through its inclusion of “gravely …

Homeless And Helpless: How The United States Has Failed Those With Severe And Persistent Mental Illness, Ashley Gorfido

Journal of Law and Health

The United States has failed its citizens who suffer from severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI). Homelessness is one of the most obvious manifestations of this failure. The combination of a lack of effective treatment, inadequate entitlement programs such as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and subpar housing options form systemic barriers that prevent people suffering from mental illness from being able to obtain adequate housing. Cultural beliefs within the United States regarding who is homeless and what homelessness means also play a significant role in the development of positively impactful social welfare programs.

Part II of this Note reviews …

Table Of Contents, Antonio Medina-Rivera, Lee F. Wilberschied Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

Opportunity In Ohio: Rethinking Northeast Ohio's Opportunity Zones With Local Legislation, Patrick J. Lipaj

Cleveland State Law Review

Welcome to Census Tract 1186.02! Here, in a small sliver of Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood, tucked between Superior and Hough Avenues, you will uncover a lot. You will discover a rich history of the city’s ethnic and cultural roots. You will also find gang violence, underperforming schools, a median household income of $9,526, and a poverty rate of 66.5 percent. Something you will not find in 1186.02 is investment. Private or public, money is not flowing in to 1186.02 and it has not for a long time. The substantial toll of continuous underinvestment on the residents of this neighborhood, one of …

Criminalization Of Young Black Males, Useni Eugene Perkins

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the historical, social, cultural and political factors that contribute to the criminalization of a disproportionate number of young Black males. In doing so, it provides greater clarity for the reasons we are “walking in circles” to find a solution to why these youth are facing a future that is indisputably bleak. In framing this pronouncement, it will show how these factors have been institutionalized to create a system of racial oppression that targets young Black males to be both its victims and victimizers. As the result of this system, many young Black males are portrayed in …

Introduction, Antonio Medina-Rivera, Lee F. Wilberschied Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

Introduction Project 400: Our Lived Experience, Ronnie A. Dunn

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

The New Debt Peonage In The Era Of Mass Incarceration, Timothy Black, Lacey Caporale

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

In 1867, Congress passed legislation that forbid the practices of debt peonage. However, the law was circumvented after the period of Reconstruction in the south and debt peonage became central to the expansion of southern agriculture through sharecropping and industrialization through convict leasing, practices that forced debtors into new forms of coerced labor. Debt peonage was presumable ended in the 1940s by the Justice Department. But was it? The era of mass incarceration has institutionalized a new form of debt peonage through which racialized poverty is governed, mechanisms of social control are reconstituted, and freedom is circumscribed. In this paper, …

Comparing The Violent Crime Trends In Select States To The National Trends To Determine Differences Between Crimes, States, And Regions, Alexandra N. Kremer

The Downtown Review

Violent crimes include crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, and assault. The FBI in the UCR breaks these down into Type I, crimes against the person, and Type II, property crimes, offenses. The FBI also divides the country into four regions: West, South, Northeast, and Midwest. Each of these regions are examined, through the use of two states from each, here. Their overall violent crime rates and trends, and their specific Type I offensive rates and trends, are examined against the national data and against each other. Several theories are used to explain the potential causes of the differences in …

Local Regulation Of Charitable Solicitation, Joseph Mead

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Most discussions of the policy context for nonprofits in the United States focus on federal or state restrictions. Fundraising charities, however, must comply not only with myriad state requirements but an uncertain number of local requirements as well. Based on a survey of the largest cities in the United States, I find that all of these cities have some restrictions on charitable solicitation. Several of the cities also impose extensive registration requirements and other restrictions. These findings highlight the need for nonprofits to be aware of local regulation of their activities.

Psychosocial Analysis Of An Ethnography At The Cuyahoga County Public Defenders Office, Ernest M. Oleksy

The Downtown Review

Too often, social science majors become jaded with their field of study due to a misperception of the nature of many potential jobs which they are qualified for. Such discord is prevalent amongst undergraduates who strive for work in the criminal justice system. Hollywood misrepresentations become the archetypes of the aforementioned field, leaving out the necessity and ubiquity of accompanying desk work. Still other social science majors struggle to identify theoretical interpretations in praxis.

An Examination Of The Death Penalty, Alexandra N. Kremer

The Downtown Review

The death penalty, or capital punishment, is the use of execution through hanging, beheading, drowning, gas chambers, lethal injection, and electrocution among others in response to a crime. This has spurred much debate on whether it should be used for reasons such as ethics, revenge, economics, effectiveness as a deterrent, and constitutionality. Capital punishment has roots that date back to the 18^th century B.C., but, as of 2016, has been abolished in law or practice by more than two thirds of the world’s countries and several states within the United States. Here, the arguments for and against the death …

Righting A Wrong: Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, And The Espionage Act Prosecutions, David Forte

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This is a story of excess and reparation. It is a chronicle of one President from the elite intellectual classes of the East, and another from a county seat in the heartland. Woodrow Wilson was the college president whose contribution to the art of government lay in the principle of expertise and efficiency. When he went to war, he turned the machinery of government into a comprehensive and highly effective instrument for victory. For Wilson, it followed that there could be little tolerance for those who impeded the success of American arms by their anti-war propaganda, draft resistance, or ideological …

Legislation Meets Tradition: Interpretations And Implications Of The Volunteer Protection Act For Nonprofit Organizations As Viewed Through The Lens Of Hermeneutics, Patricia Groble, Nicholas C. Zingale, Joseph Mead

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Volunteers enable nonprofit organizations to reach more clients and more effectively fulfill their missions. However, the good done by these volunteers may be offset by their careless behavior. Rising fears that resulting lawsuits and monetary damages would deter potential volunteers from volunteering caused Congress to enact the Volunteer Protection Act. This research studies court decisions to ascertain whether the law fulfills its purpose and considers the implications of these interpretations for nonprofit managers. It also tests the usefulness of the hermeneutical approach to legal interpretation and to determine how the Act has changed as a result of these court decisions.

The Ethics In Synthetics: Statistics In The Service Of Ethics And Law In Health-Related Research In Big Data From Multiple Sources, Sharon Bassan Ph.D., Ofer Harel Ph.D.

Journal of Law and Health

An ethical advancement of scientific knowledge demands a delicate equilibrium between benefits and harms, in particular in health-related research. When applying and advancing scientific knowledge or technologies, Article 4 of UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, ethically justifiable research requires maximizing direct and indirect benefits and minimizing possible harms. The National Institution of Health [NIH] Data Sharing Policy and Implementation Guidance similarly states that data necessary for drawing valid conclusions and advancing medical research should be made as widely and freely available as possible (in order to share the benefits) while safeguarding the privacy of participants from potentially …

Postmodern Social Control: Dividuals And Surveillance, Ernest M. Oleksy

The Downtown Review

As a society's foundational philosophy changes, so, too, will its forms of social control. By using the works of thinkers like Deleuze and Foucault as pivot points, the dynamic nature of social interactions and the agents to mediate those actions shall be investigated. This article includes findings from archival analysis written in a journalistic prose for simplicity of consumption.

Inseparable: Perspective Of Senator Daniel Webster, Ernest M. Oleksy

The Downtown Review

Considering the hypersensitivity that their nation has towards race relations, it is often ineffable to contemporary Americans as to how anyone could have argued against abolition in the 19th century. However, by taking the perspective of Senator Daniel Webster speaking to an audience of disunionist-abolitionists, proslaveryites, and various shades of moderates, numerous points of contention will be brought to light as to why chattel slavery persisted so long in the U.S. Focal points of dialogue will include the Narrative of Frederick Douglass, the "positive good" claims of Senator John C. Calhoun, the disunionism of William Lloyd Garrison, and the defense …

Supporting Mothers With Mental Illness: Postpartum Mental Health Service Linkage As A Matter Of Public Health And Child Welfare Policy, Jesse Krohn, Msed, Jd, Meredith Matone, Drph, Mhs

Journal of Law and Health

Through our work in youth advocacy as, respectively, legal and public health professionals, we are all too aware of the high levels of health care fragmentation experienced during pregnancy and postpartum by poor, young mothers of color. Meredith Matone’s research highlights the heightened risk of fragmentation for girls with histories of child welfare involvement. For example, she found that 66.7% of young mothers who had resided in out-of-home placements and who had taken antipsychotic medication prior to becoming pregnant failed to fill prescriptions for antipsychotics in their first postpartum year. Put another way, two-thirds of these vulnerable young mothers—a far …

To Leave Or Not To Leave—Law Libraries And The Fdlp: A Decade Later, Is That Still The Question?, Lauren M. Collins

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article recounts the literature of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when some librarians, considering the changing form of government information, questioned whether the FDLP would survive in its existing form and recommended FDLP changes that would keep depository libraries engaged as the means of accessing digital government information evolved. In the later 2000s, articles and reports included comprehensive suggestions to the GPO, by and on behalf of library associations, of ways to make depository libraries stronger partners in the FDLP. Possibly in response to these calls for reform, the GPO polled depository libraries in its 2012 FDLP Forecast …

Mending Invisible Wounds: The Efficacy And Legality Of Mdma-Assisted Psychotherapy In United States' Veterans Suffering With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Jonathan Perry

Journal of Law and Health

Though Veteran Affairs has provided crucial life sustaining—and often lifesaving—treatments to returning soldiers, the substantial and ever-increasing rates of veteran suicides, drug addictions, and criminal behavior indicate a need for broader options in treatment. One of the most profound discoveries uncovered through MDMA-assisted psychotherapy research is MDMA’s facilitation of the alleviation of addictive behavior in subjects, and, as a result, an alleviation of addictions in general. Addiction is one of the key symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and drug abuse plays a large role in the other afflictions suffered by veterans, namely criminal activity and a high rate of …

Introduction, Antonio Medina-Rivera, Lee F. Wilberschied Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

American Muslims: How The “American Creed” Fosters Assimilation And Pluralism, James R. Moore

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

This article examines the status of American Muslims in the United States in relationship to other cultural groups and some of the widespread stereotypes that plague Muslims in contemporary society. Much has been written about the discrimination faced by Muslims, particularly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, spawned by religious, racial, and ethnic bigotry. Some polls show many Americans harbor some prejudices against Muslims, but these prejudices have not resulted in widespread violence or discrimination; although there has been some violence and discrimination experienced by some Muslims, the empirical data show that the majority of American Muslims are very successful …

Table Of Contents, Antonio Medina-Rivera, Lee F. Wilberschied Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

Language And The Promised Land: Passage And Migration To A Spanish-Language ‘Third Place’, Kenya C. Dworkin Y Mendez

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

The Spanish-language anthology Caminos para la paz: Literatura israelí y árabe en castellano (Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 2007) [Paths towards/for Peace: Israeli and Arab literature in Castilian], compiled by Ignacio López-Calvo and Cristián Ricci, offers us a collection of over thirty reflections—some Jewish, others Muslim—about the millennial but also contemporary situation of two literally related and historic peoples in a language—Spanish—that seemingly allows them to inhabit the same, this time uncontested, space. Despite the potentially questionable title of the work, which couches the conflict as that of a nation-state versus a nation and/or two peoples contesting rights to one same land, …

Hannah Arendt And Natives As Extras: Towards An Ontology Of Palestinian Presence?, Francesco Melfi

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

The essay grew out of Hannah Arendt’s reflection on the roles and uses of the mask, a meditation on the ontology of the transient public figure or persona vs. one that restitutes the person to the unadulterated Selbstdenken dimension of the Epicurean philosopher-in-hiding. The author individuates in the resulting caesura between the donning and the taking off of the mask the primal source of that paradox in Hanna Arendt’s political behavior that alternately compelled her to confront the ontological presence of the Palestinian people, and made her withdraw into philosophical hiding without ever really coming to terms with it. In …

Teaching Secondary Mathematics And Science Contents Embedded In Historical And Cultural Contexts: Challenges And Possibilities, Roland Pourdavood

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Many preservice teachers come to understand that they must cross the boundaries of their own familiar cultural and historical contexts in order to meet the needs of diverse students. This qualitative and descriptive study examines the evolution of secondary preservice teachers’ views on teaching and learning mathematics and science in historical and cultural contexts. Data were collected throughout participants’ enrollment in a semester-long course entitled Perspectives on Science and Mathematics, which is taken in conjunction with student teaching. Data sources included university classroom observations, preservice teachers’ verbal and written responses to class discussions, reading assignments, and course activities. Common themes …

On Confucius’S Ideology Of Aesthetic Order, Li Wang

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Advocating order, order for all things, and taking order as beauty is the core element of Confucius’s aesthetic ideology. Confucius’s thought of aesthetic order is different from others of the “hundred schools of thoughts” in the pre-Qin period, and is also diverse from the Western value of aesthetic order. Confucius’s thought of aesthetic order has its own unique value system, which has become the mainstream value of aesthetic order in the Chinese society for 2000 years until today, after being integrated with the Chinese feudal imperial system in early Han Dynasty. This paper illustrates Confucius’s ideology of aesthetic order from …

Why We Need Reed: Unmasking Pretext In Anti-Panhandling Legislation, Joseph Mead

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of areas where asking for help is restricted or banned. Whether called begging, panhandling, or solicitation, cities were spurred on by concerns of business owners and residents to ban or highly restrict this type of speech from occurring in public areas. Yet laws such as these have been repeatedly struck down by courts in recent months, fueled in large part by the Supreme Court’s decision in Reed v. City of Gilbert.

In this essay I argue that, at least in the context of anti-panhandling legislation, Reed …