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Full-Text Articles in Law
Researching Marijuana Law, Seth Quidachay-Swan
Researching Marijuana Law, Seth Quidachay-Swan
Law Librarian Scholarship
This article provides a brief overview of the current legal framework governing the regulation of marijuana at the federal and state levels in the United States. It also provides an overview of the state of Michigan’s current regulatory framework and resources for attorneys interested in learning more about marijuana regulation.
Expungement Of Criminal Convictions: An Empirical Study, J.J. Prescott, Sonja B. Starr
Expungement Of Criminal Convictions: An Empirical Study, J.J. Prescott, Sonja B. Starr
Articles
Laws permitting the expungement of criminal convictions are a key component of modern criminal justice reform efforts and have been the subject of a recent upsurge in legislative activity. This debate has been almost entirely devoid of evidence about the laws’ effects, in part because the necessary data (such as sealed records themselves) have been unavailable. We were able to obtain access to de-identified data that overcome that problem, and we use it to carry out a comprehensive statewide study of expungement recipients and comparable nonrecipients in Michigan. We offer three key sets of empirical findings. First, among those legally …
Domestic Violence Convictions And Firearms Possession: The Law As It Stands And As It Moves, Kate E. Britt
Domestic Violence Convictions And Firearms Possession: The Law As It Stands And As It Moves, Kate E. Britt
Law Librarian Scholarship
Legislatures have attempted to curb instances of gun use in fatal and nonfatal domestic violence by passing statutes restricting possession of firearms for perpetrators of domestic violence. This article explains federal and Michigan law as it stands and discusses current efforts to further limit perpetrators’ access to firearms.
Research Resources For Michigan Criminal Law, Kate E. Britt
Research Resources For Michigan Criminal Law, Kate E. Britt
Law Librarian Scholarship
Few areas of the law are as consequential to the personal lives of those involved as criminal law. The law can, and does, change quickly, and attorneys need to stay abreast of the latest developments to effectively represent their clients. Thankfully, modern government bodies publish current primary law (and many useful secondary sources) online. The sites outlined below will take users to reliable sources of Michigan criminal law and procedure.
Sentence Creep: Increasing Penalties In Michigan And The Need For Sentencing Reform, Anne Yantus
Sentence Creep: Increasing Penalties In Michigan And The Need For Sentencing Reform, Anne Yantus
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The governor and several legislators have requested review of Michigan’s sentencing practices with an eye toward sentence reform. Michigan leads the country in the average length of prison stay, and by internal comparisons the average minimum sentence has nearly doubled in the last decade. This Article explores cumulative increases to criminal penalties over the last several decades as reflected in amendments to the sentencing guidelines, increased maximum sentences, harsh mandatory minimum terms, increased authority for consecutive sentencing, wide sentencing discretion for habitual and repeat drug offenders, and tough parole practices and policies. The reality for legislators is that it is …
No Contact Parole Restrictions: Unconstitutional And Counterproductive, Sharon Brett
No Contact Parole Restrictions: Unconstitutional And Counterproductive, Sharon Brett
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
Although what Jesse Timmendequas did was abhorrent, the legislation enacted in the wake of his crime went far beyond making sure we know the pedophiles or pedophile-murderers living in our neighborhoods. Megan's name now lends itself to a host of state laws requiring the state to notify neighbors when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood. The term "sex offender" is intentionally broad, covering everyone from voyeurs and exhibitionists to rapists and child molesters. Yet, Megan's Laws treat them the same way, ignoring some crucial questions: Are all sex offenders alike? Are they all monsters? In reality, the majority of …
What Does Graham Mean In Michigan?, Kimberly A. Thomas
What Does Graham Mean In Michigan?, Kimberly A. Thomas
Articles
In Graham v. Florida, the United States Supreme Court held that life without parole could not be imposed on a juvenile offender for a nonhomicide crime.1 In this context, the Graham Court extensively discussed the diminished culpability of juvenile criminal defendants, as compared to adults. The Court relied on current scientific research regarding adolescent development and neuroscience. While the narrowest holding of Graham has little impact in Michigan, the science it relies on, and the potential broader implications for adolescents in Michigan, are significant.
Be Careful What You Wish For: An Examination Of Arrest And Prosecution Patterns Of Domestic Violence Cases In Two Cities In Michigan, Andrea D. Lyon
Be Careful What You Wish For: An Examination Of Arrest And Prosecution Patterns Of Domestic Violence Cases In Two Cities In Michigan, Andrea D. Lyon
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
This Article will examine six months of data on arrests for domestic violence in the cities of Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. In order to be able to interpret what the data means Lyon did some other research. The results were surprising- for example, although women tend to be injured most severely by domestic violence, they use violence in intimate relationships a little more often than men. Part I of this Article traces a brief history of domestic violence and discusses the issue of who commits domestic violence, Part II discusses the "must arrest" and "should arrest" policies and their history, …
Rape Shield Laws--Is It Time For Reinforcement?, Catherine L. Kello
Rape Shield Laws--Is It Time For Reinforcement?, Catherine L. Kello
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note takes a critical look at civil suits arising from allegations of rape, particularly from the perspective of how these actions run counter to the spirit of rape reform and rape shield legislation. The analysis begins with a brief history of the Rape Shield Law and its intended purposes. Part II then utilizes two cases to outline the current dilemma posed by civil suits that are filed during a pending criminal sexual conduct prosecution. After presenting these cases, Part III considers whether a legislative remedy is required and determines that it is. Part IV then proposes a Model Statute. …
Psychiatric Assistance For Indigent Defendants Pleading Insanity: The Michigan Experience, Paul Zisla
Psychiatric Assistance For Indigent Defendants Pleading Insanity: The Michigan Experience, Paul Zisla
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The federal government and many states already provide psychiatric assistance to indigent defendants pleading insanity. Michigan's statutory scheme for delivering this service presents an opportunity to evaluate an approach that generally favors defendant interests in areas left unresolved by Ake. This Note undertakes that evaluation. Part I summarizes the Ake decision, key problem areas, and the research methodology. Part II describes the Michigan statutory system. Part III evaluates that system using data from interviews with legal and psychiatric practitioners and considers the consequences of Michigan's approach to the issues posed by Ake. The evaluation shows that Michigan's system …
Evaluating Michigan's Guilty But Mentally Ill Verdict: An Empirical Study, Gare A. Smith, James A. Hall
Evaluating Michigan's Guilty But Mentally Ill Verdict: An Empirical Study, Gare A. Smith, James A. Hall
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Because Michigan's GBMI statute has been in effect for several years, enough data exists to assess the statute's use and practical effect. The purpose of this Project is to evaluate the statute and thus provide guidance for those legislatures considering similar proposals. This Project concludes that the new verdict has completely failed in its intended purpose. Part I describes the statute's history, legislative purpose, and procedural mechanics. Part II analyzes the displacing effect of the GBMI verdict on other verdicts, and sets forth empirical data on the disparate characteristics of defendants who raise the insanity defense and are subsequently found …
Some Observations On The Disposition Of Ccw Cases In Detroit, Michigan Law Review
Some Observations On The Disposition Of Ccw Cases In Detroit, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Part I of this Note details the disposition of cases alleging violations of the Michigan CCW statute that were brought in the Detroit recorder's court during 1973. Although the statute is only part of the current scheme of gun control in Michigan, it is the principal weapon available to the police and prosecutor in the preventive battle against the illegal use of firearms. To give meaning to the dispositional statistics and to aid in perceiving the over-all judicial attitude toward CCW cases, the statistical results of the study are compared with statistics on the disposition of cases involving felonies similar …
Legislative Note: Micigan's Criminal Sexual Assault Law, Kenneth A. Cobb, Nancy R. Schauer
Legislative Note: Micigan's Criminal Sexual Assault Law, Kenneth A. Cobb, Nancy R. Schauer
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Under increasing pressure from women's rights groups and other reform organizations, the Michigan legislature has re-evaluated its centenarian rape statute, found it inadequate for the realities of the mid-twentieth century, and enacted a new sexual assault act. While people may refer to the act as "the new rape law," it should be noted at the outset that the statute is intended to prohibit a variety of sexual acts which involve criminal assault. Michigan's new criminal sexual assault law was formulated to distinguish among degrees of violence as motivated by hostility rather than passion; rape, like other crimes, is more heinous …
The Concurrent State And Local Regulation Of Marijuana: The Validity Of The Ann Arbor Marijuana Ordinance, Michigan Law Review
The Concurrent State And Local Regulation Of Marijuana: The Validity Of The Ann Arbor Marijuana Ordinance, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The City Council of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has recently amended the City's "marijuana ordinance" so that it prohibits the possession, control, use, giving away, or sale of marijuana, and specifies a five dollar fine as punishment for violations of the ordinance. The State of Michigan has also legislated to prohibit marijuana-related activities, specifying a number of different offenses with penalties ranging as high as four years in prison, or a 2,000 dollar fine, or both. By enacting the ordinance, the City government has minimized the criminal sanctions for an activity it has found essentially benign, pursuant to certain local purposes. …
Mental Illness And Criminal Commitment In Michigan, Grant H. Morris
Mental Illness And Criminal Commitment In Michigan, Grant H. Morris
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This article concentrates on one vital issue: to what extent are differences in treatment justified because of a mentally ill person's "criminal" involvement. While the article is primarily concerned with Michigan institutions and Michigan statutes, the discussion and the solutions proposed are in many respects applicable to all states of the Union. Not only must all states reevaluate their policies toward criminal commitment of the mentally ill in light of ever-changing medical and penal theory, but they must also consider the developing constitutional concepts in this area. These constitutional issues are raised here only to the extent necessary to alert …
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 …
The Process Of Penal Law Reform—A Look At The Proposed Michigan Revised Criminal Code, Jerold H. Israel
The Process Of Penal Law Reform—A Look At The Proposed Michigan Revised Criminal Code, Jerold H. Israel
Articles
T HE subject of this symposium, the proposed Michigan Revised Criminal Code (Proposed Code),' is the product of a three-year study by a Joint Committee of the State Bar. The study was undertaken pursuant to a 1964 resolution of the State Bar Commissioners calling for a "complete revision of the criminal code to redefine crimes and penalties."'2 The Joint Committee is an extraordinarily large group, being composed of members of both the standing Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and the Special Code Revision Committee.' Its membership reflects great diversity in viewpoint and professional interests, including not only prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges, …
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 …
Criminal Law-National Stolen Property Act--Application Of Kann V. United States, Edward S. Tripp
Criminal Law-National Stolen Property Act--Application Of Kann V. United States, Edward S. Tripp
Michigan Law Review
Defendant, as payee, knowingly negotiated forged checks at Jackson, Michigan. The checks were forwarded to the drawee bank in Missouri for payment and were returned unpaid. Defendant was convicted for violation of the National Stolen Property Act. The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed on authority of Kann v. United States. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, held, reversed. The circuit court erred in basing its interpretation of the National Stolen Property Act on Kann v. United States. Two justices dissented without opinion. United States v. Sheridan, (U.S. 1946) 67 S. …
Criminal Law And Procedure - Conspiracy To Commit A Misdemeanor As A Felony, Michigan Law Review
Criminal Law And Procedure - Conspiracy To Commit A Misdemeanor As A Felony, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The defendant was indicted for conspiring to destroy the poles and wires of an electric public utility, the destruction of such property being a statutory misdemeanor. The indictment was prosecuted under the provision of the Michigan statutes which states that all crimes indictable at common law are punishable as felonies unless specifically declared otherwise by the statute. The crime of conspiracy comes under this "common-law offense" provision. Upon denial of his motion to dismiss, defendant sought mandamus to review the ruling. Held, an agreement to do an act made a misdemeanor by statute is a common-law conspiracy, and such …
Criminal Law And Procedure-Jury Trial- Directed Verdict Of Guilty- Michigan Rule, Michigan Law Review
Criminal Law And Procedure-Jury Trial- Directed Verdict Of Guilty- Michigan Rule, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The defendant was convicted of negligent homicide as the result of a collision between his car and another, in which an occupant of the other car was killed. The trial court charged the jury, inter alia, "The court submits the case to you for your determination. The view of the court is that under the law there is only one verdict that can be found by the jury under the evidence in this case in its most favorable light." This was objected to by the defendant as error. Held, the instruction was in effect a direction of a verdict …
Evidence - Constitutional Law - Use Of Statutory Presumptions In Criminal Cases, Edward M. Watson
Evidence - Constitutional Law - Use Of Statutory Presumptions In Criminal Cases, Edward M. Watson
Michigan Law Review
The recent efforts on the part of state legislatures to increase the effectiveness of their criminal codes has resulted in extending the use of the statutory presumption to new fields of criminal law. The reaction which necessarily follows such an innovation upon traditional practice has appeared in the form of renewed attacks upon the constitutionality of the device, accompanied by the usual expressions of alarm concerning the "threat to liberty" that lurks in the use of this "mechanistic" instrument of "arbitrary oppression."
Constitutional Law - Validity Of Sex Offender Acts, William K. Jackson
Constitutional Law - Validity Of Sex Offender Acts, William K. Jackson
Michigan Law Review
The sex offender has become an acute problem. Sociologists, psychiatrists, and lawyers sensing the imperative need for action have devoted much time and thought to the questions involved. Experience has shown that the sex offender is generally a recidivist; he has to be arrested and committed repeatedly for the same type of crimes. The point is graphically illustrated by the case of a man, fifty-nine years of age, arrested recently in Detroit for a sex offense involving a youth. An examination of his record showed that he had been arrested in 1899, when twenty-one years of age, on charges involving …
Criminal Law And Procedure - Indecent Exposure - Nudism
Criminal Law And Procedure - Indecent Exposure - Nudism
Michigan Law Review
The two recent cases of People v. Ring and People v. Burke have raised the interesting question of the legal position in this country of the practice of organized nudism. Inasmuch as the decisions are difficult to reconcile, the result is somewhat disconcerting.
Presumptions - Constitutional Validity Of Statute Establishing Proof Of Reputation As Prima Facie Evidence Of Commission Of Crime
Michigan Law Review
The rise and sway of the gangster as a menace to American social and economic security has led, of late, to the employment of unique means of combating lawlessness. Faced by a tremendous increase in the difficulties lying in the path of those seeking the conviction of professional criminals for major crimes, the police and prosecutors often turn towards a means of fighting crime originally devised to make life uncomfortable for petty off enders. The enforcement of the pistol laws and the vagrancy statutes against millionaire gangsters, and repeated arrests on suspicion, have been resorted to as a means of …
Some Inadequacies In The Law Of Arrest, John Barker Waite
Some Inadequacies In The Law Of Arrest, John Barker Waite
Michigan Law Review
Suppose that a farmer whose orchard borders the highway happens on the spot in time to see a truck, with the license tag of a foreign state, conveniently parked while the driver loads it with apples which he picks from the farmer's trees. What can the farmer-owner do in respect to the situation?