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Full-Text Articles in Law
Legal Fictions And Moral Reasoning: Capital Punishment And The Mentally Retarded Defendant After Penry V. Johnson, Timothy S. Hall
Legal Fictions And Moral Reasoning: Capital Punishment And The Mentally Retarded Defendant After Penry V. Johnson, Timothy S. Hall
Akron Law Review
The relationship between mental health law and criminal law is disturbing in both its substance and its scope. If it is true that the task of lawyering is that of enabling the client to have his story told, it is certainly true that nowhere are clients' stories more complex than in the intersection between criminal law and mental health law. This Article involves one such intersection: the relationship between mental retardation and capital punishment. Johnny Paul Penry is a convicted rapist and murderer on death row in Texas. He is a survivor of long-term child abuse and organic brain damage …
Life After Sentence Of Death: What Becomes Of Individuals Under Sentence Of Death After Capital Punishment Legislation Is Repealed Or Invalidated, James R. Acker, Brian W. Stull
Life After Sentence Of Death: What Becomes Of Individuals Under Sentence Of Death After Capital Punishment Legislation Is Repealed Or Invalidated, James R. Acker, Brian W. Stull
Akron Law Review
More than 2500 individuals are now under sentence of death in the United States. At the same time, multiple indicators—public opinion polls, legislative repeal and judicial invalidation of deathpenalty laws, the reduction in new death sentences, and infrequency of executions—suggest that support for capital punishment has significantly eroded. As jurisdictions abandon or consider eliminating the death-penalty, the fate of prisoners on death row—whether their death sentences, valid when imposed, should be carried out or whether these individuals should instead be spared execution—looms as contentious political and legal issues, fraught with complex philosophical, penological, and constitutional questions. This article presents a …
The Continuing And Unlawful Exclusion Of Qualified Ex-Offenders From Jury Service In Ohio, Jordan Berman
The Continuing And Unlawful Exclusion Of Qualified Ex-Offenders From Jury Service In Ohio, Jordan Berman
Akron Law Review
Whether an Ohioan with a felony conviction can be considered for jury service may well depend on where he or she lives in the state or the judge presiding at trial, rather than the dictates of Ohio law. By statute, Ohio permits those with felony convictions to serve on juries upon the completion of any parole or community control sanctions that may have been imposed. This article is not concerned with this settled law but rather the dramatic unevenness of its implementation, as Ohio courts of common pleas, and even individual judges, vary widely in whether they abide by or …
Sentencing By Ambush: An Insider's Perspective On Plea Bargaining Reform, Justice Michael P. Donnelly
Sentencing By Ambush: An Insider's Perspective On Plea Bargaining Reform, Justice Michael P. Donnelly
Akron Law Review
The vast majority of cases in our state criminal justice system are resolved not by proceeding to trial but through negotiated plea agreements. These are contracts between the government and the accused in which both sides are negotiating for some form of benefit in the ultimate resolution. In this article, Justice Donnelly exposes what he sees as a flaw in the system in the manner in which trial court judges oversee this process of negotiation. In a significant number of cases, the state induces defendants to enter into a guilty plea with no certain sentence, amounting to an illusory agreement …
Emergent Neurotechnologies And Challenges To Responsibility Frameworks, Laura Cabrera, Jennifer Carter-Johnson
Emergent Neurotechnologies And Challenges To Responsibility Frameworks, Laura Cabrera, Jennifer Carter-Johnson
Akron Law Review
This article examines the emerging medical technology of deep brain stimulation (DBS), a type of brain implant, to determine its ethical and legal ramifications. Lawyers, philosophers, and ethicists have labored to define the conditions under which individuals are to be judged legally and morally responsible for their actions. But where does responsibility lie if a person acts under the influence of her brain implant? Do we hold the individual solely responsible for her actions? Can we attribute any blame to the device? What about the engineers who designed it, or the manufacturer? The neurosurgeon who implanted it, or the neurologist …