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Death And Harmless Error: A Rhetorical Response To Judging Innocence, Colin Starger Feb 2008

Death And Harmless Error: A Rhetorical Response To Judging Innocence, Colin Starger

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Professor Garrett’s impressive empirical analysis of the first 200 post conviction DNA exonerations in the United States (“Garrett Study”) has the potential to affect contemporary debates surrounding our nation’s criminal justice system. This Response explores this potential by harnessing the Study’s data in support of arguments for and against a contested doctrinal proposition — that guilt-based harmless error rules should never apply in death penalty appeals. My analysis starts with the premise that the Study’s real world impact will necessarily depend on how jurists, politicians, and scholars extrapolate the explanatory power of the data beyond the 200 cases themselves. While …


Torture, Truth Serum, And Ticking Bombs: Toward A Pragmatic Perspective Of Coercive Interrogation, Kenneth Lasson Jan 2008

Torture, Truth Serum, And Ticking Bombs: Toward A Pragmatic Perspective Of Coercive Interrogation, Kenneth Lasson

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The 'War on Terror' has prompted a great deal of discussion about the use of torture as a means of extracting information from those suspected of having perpetrated past acts of violence or planning future ones. Despite the years that have passed since the attacks of September 11, 2001, for both citizens and government officials there is still a strong tension between the competing emotions of anger, revenge, and desperation; it seems increasingly difficult to adhere to international norms governing a nation's moral and legal obligations to protect its citizens from grave danger while continuing to support individual freedoms. Among …