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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Power Of Prosecutors, Jeffrey Bellin
The Power Of Prosecutors, Jeffrey Bellin
Faculty Publications
One of the predominant themes in the criminal justice literature is that prosecutors dominate the justice system. Over seventy-five years ago, Attorney General Robert Jackson famously proclaimed that the “prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America.” In one of the most cited law review articles of all time, Bill Stuntz added that prosecutors—not legislators, judges, or police—“are the criminal justice system’s real lawmakers.” And an unchallenged modern consensus holds that prosecutors “rule the criminal justice system.”
This Article applies a critical lens to longstanding claims of prosecutorial preeminence. It reveals a curious …
Criminal-Justice Apps: A Modest Step Toward Democratizing The Criminal Process, Adam M. Gershowitz
Criminal-Justice Apps: A Modest Step Toward Democratizing The Criminal Process, Adam M. Gershowitz
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Waiting For Justice, Jeffrey Bellin
Waiting For Justice, Jeffrey Bellin
Popular Media
One man’s seven-year wait for a trial reveals the ways mandatory minimums distort our courts.
The Silence Penalty, Jeffrey Bellin
The Silence Penalty, Jeffrey Bellin
Faculty Publications
In every criminal trial, the defendant possesses the right to testify. Deciding whether to exercise that right, however, is rarely easy. Declining to testify shields defendants from questioning by the prosecutor and normally precludes the introduction of a defendant’s prior crimes. But silence comes at a price. Jurors penalize defendants who fail to testify by inferring guilt from silence.
This Article explores this complex dynamic, focusing on empirical evidence from mock juror experiments—including the results of a new 400-person mock juror simulation conducted for this Article—and data from real trials. It concludes that the penalty defendants suffer when they refuse …
The Limits Of Prosecutorial Power, Jeffrey Bellin
An Ntsb For Capital Punishment, Adam M. Gershowitz
An Ntsb For Capital Punishment, Adam M. Gershowitz
Faculty Publications
When a fatal traffic accident happens, we expect the local police and prosecutors to handle the investigation and criminal charges. When afatal airplane crash occurs, however, we turn instead to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The reason is that air crashes are complicated and the NTSB has vast expertise. Without that expertise, investigations falter. We need look no further than the mess made by Malaysian authorities in the search for Flight 370 to see the importance of expertise in handling complicated investigations and processes. It is easy to point to a similar series of mistakes by local prosecutors and …
Rethinking The Timing Of Capital Clemency, Adam M. Gershowitz
Rethinking The Timing Of Capital Clemency, Adam M. Gershowitz
Faculty Publications
This Article reviews every capital clemency over the last four decades. It demonstrates that in the majority of cases, the reason for commutation was known at the conclusion of direct appeals—years or even decades before the habeas process ended. Yet when governors or pardon boards actually commuted the death sentences, they typically waited until the eve of execution, with only days or hours to spare. Leaving clemency until the last minute sometimes leads to many years of unnecessary state and federal habeas corpus litigation, and this Article documents nearly 300 years of wasted habeas corpus review. Additionally, last-minute commutations harm …
On Hart's Category Mistake, Michael S. Green
On Hart's Category Mistake, Michael S. Green
Faculty Publications
This essay concerns Scott Shapiro’s criticism that H.L.A. Hart’s theory of law suffers from a “category mistake.” Although other philosophers of law have summarily dismissed Shapiro’s criticism, I argue that it identifies an important requirement for an adequate theory of law. Such a theory must explain why legal officials justify their actions by reference to abstract propositional entities, instead of pointing to the existence of social practices. A virtue of Shapiro’s planning theory of law is that it can explain this phenomenon. Despite these sympathies, however, I end with the suggestion that Shapiro’s criticism of Hart, as it stands, is …
Andenaes And The Theory Of Deterence, Larry I. Palmer
Andenaes And The Theory Of Deterence, Larry I. Palmer
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.