Law Commons^™

Criminal Law, Franklin J. Hogue, Laura D. Hogue

Mercer Law Review

This year we surveyed hundreds of criminal law cases to select those we thought most worthy of inclusion in this survey. We have no doubt that other lawyers practicing criminal law would have included other cases and left out some we included. This is a survey of the vast everchanging landscape of criminal law, and the practitioner may use this article as a starting point for the careful and detailed research that must be done in actual cases.

• Pretrial Issues
• Guilty Plea
• Jury Selection
• State's Case in Chief
• Defense Case
• Sentencing
• Appellate Review
• Mandamus

Holloway V. United States: Conditional V. Unconditional Intent To Kill, Michael Douglas Owens

Mercer Law Review

In Holloway v. United States, the United States Supreme Court held that the "intent to kill" element in the federal cajacking statute was satisfied by a mere conditional intent to kill. The Court reasoned that a common-sense reading of the statute indicated Congress's attempt to include the mens rea of both unconditional and conditional intent.

Powell V. State: The Demise Of Georgia's Consensual Sodomy Statute, Gregory K. Smith

Mercer Law Review

In Powell v. State, the Supreme Court of Georgia held that section 16-6-2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated ("O.C.G.A."), which criminalizes sodomy, violates the right to privacy guaranteed by the Georgia Constitution. The court found that the right to engage in private, unforced, consensual, noncommercial sexual acts is included within the meaning of the Due Process Clause of the Georgia Constitution.