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Full-Text Articles in Law
Distorting The Prosecution Process: Informers, Mandatory Minimum Sentences, And Wrongful Convictions, Dianne L. Martin
Distorting The Prosecution Process: Informers, Mandatory Minimum Sentences, And Wrongful Convictions, Dianne L. Martin
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
As the use of mandatory minimum sentences becomes more common in Canada, it is important to consider a range of potential consequences that are neither intended nor anticipated. This article considers the implications of mandatory minimum sentences in contributing to wrongful convictions. It considers the impact of these sentences on two significant processes in the criminal justice system, plea bargaining and the development of informers, and argues that both processes are vulnerable to distortions. These distortions, which include the wrongful conviction of innocent people, can be exacerbated by the threat of mandatory minimum prison sentences. In the case of plea …
Sentencing In The States: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Julie Stewart
Sentencing In The States: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Julie Stewart
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Mandatory sentencing laws are responsible for the booming prison population in the United States. They are applied most frequently to crimes involving drugs and mandate harsh penalties of five, ten, twenty years or more behind bars for crimes involving no violence. Julie Stewart, President of the Families Against Mandatory Minimums Foundation (FAMM) and the sister of a marijuana user who spent five years in a federal prison, describes the unfairness of America’s sentencing policies, with a particular emphasis on the application of mandatory minimum sentences to drug-related convictions. These laws have led to a marked increase in the number of …
The Nullification Of Section 718.2(E): Aggravating Aboriginal Over-Representation In Canadian Prisons, Renee Pelletier
The Nullification Of Section 718.2(E): Aggravating Aboriginal Over-Representation In Canadian Prisons, Renee Pelletier
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article considers the disproportionate incarceration rate of Aboriginal offenders in Canadian prisons and the effectiveness of Parliament's attempts at alleviating this problem through the enactment of section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code. This article focuses primarily on two recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions-R. v. Gladue and R. v. Wells. It is argued that the Court's narrow view of systemic factors, the Imitation it places on section 718.2(e) through its discussion of serious offences, as well as a number of practical problems inherent in the framework provided by the Court, strip the provision of its remedial intent. The article …