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Full-Text Articles in Law
No Change In Sight For Sentencing Guidelines, Wes R. Porter
No Change In Sight For Sentencing Guidelines, Wes R. Porter
Publications
In the post-Booker era, the commission must reinvent itself to provide a useful tool for the courts in determining punishment, explains Wes Reber Porter of Golden Gate University School of Law.
Confrontation Clause Again Before High Court, Robert K. Calhoun
Confrontation Clause Again Before High Court, Robert K. Calhoun
Publications
This past term, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the latest in a series of confrontation clause cases that began in 2004 with Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36. In Bullcoming v. New Mexico, 11 C.D.O.S. 7706, the court held that the confrontation clause does not permit the government to introduce a forensic lab report in a criminal trial through the in-court testimony of an analyst who did not personally perform or observe the test that formed the basis for the report.
Why Cops Lie, Peter Keane
Why Cops Lie, Peter Keane
Publications
Police officer perjury in court to justify illegal dope searches is commonplace. One of the dirty little not-so-secret secrets of the criminal justice system is undercover narcotics officers intentionally lying under oath. It is a perversion of the American justice system that strikes directly at the rule of law. Yet it is the routine way of doing business in courtrooms everywhere in America.
Ninth Circuit Strikes Out On Hearsay, Peter Keane
Ninth Circuit Strikes Out On Hearsay, Peter Keane
Publications
The recent Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opinion, United States v. Barry Bonds , is a murky distortion of an important Federal Rule of Evidence. Quite apart from any celebrity status about a decision regarding the upcoming perjury trial of the former Giants' slugger, the ruling significantly affects the admissibility of evidence in the federal courts in an unfortunate and erroneous way.
The Pendulum In Federal Sentencing Can Also Swing Toward Predictability: A Renewed Role For Binding Plea Agreements Post-Booker, Wes R. Porter
The Pendulum In Federal Sentencing Can Also Swing Toward Predictability: A Renewed Role For Binding Plea Agreements Post-Booker, Wes R. Porter
Publications
This article argues that in addition to the swing toward increased judicial discretion and overall lower sentences, the pendulum also can swing toward predictability and informed decision making for the defendant. The federal sentencing scheme must allow a defendant to pursue, negotiate, and contract for what the defendant believes is a uniform, proportional, and fair sentence. Increased use of binding plea agreements in federal court could complement the progressive developments following Booker and restore some predictability and informed decision making to federal sentencing. However, without significant rule, policy, and perception changes, like those proposed in Part VI of this article, …
Wrongfully Convicted: The Overrepresentation Of The Poor, Susan Rutberg
Wrongfully Convicted: The Overrepresentation Of The Poor, Susan Rutberg
Publications
Professor Susan Rutberg introduced a panel of her students who presented papers, each focused on an individual cause of wrongful convictions and a proposed solution to this identified problem. The panel illustrated how law school students can use the lens of their inexperience to articulate straightforward approaches that might reduce the circumstances that produce wrongful convictions and alleviate some of the hardship such convictions cause.
Wrongfully Incarcerated, Randomly Compensated - How To Fund Wrongful-Conviction Compensation Statutes, Deborah M. Mostaghel
Wrongfully Incarcerated, Randomly Compensated - How To Fund Wrongful-Conviction Compensation Statutes, Deborah M. Mostaghel
Publications
It is sadly true that there are people in this country who are sentenced to prison, and even death, for crimes they did not commit. Some have been exonerated and released, largely as the result of innocence projects that have helped prisoners assemble DNA evidence that shows they were not the perpetrators. Some have been exonerated years after they died in prison. Many others are no doubt never exonerated. For a wrongfully convicted person, exoneration is the end of one road but only the beginning of another. Unbelievably, exonerees starting out on the road back to society find that they …