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Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Law

The "Smart On Crime" Prosecutor, Roger Fairfax Oct 2012

The "Smart On Crime" Prosecutor, Roger Fairfax

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

"Smart on Crime" criminal justice reforms have emerged in recent years as shrinking government budgets and exploding incarceration rates have prompted scrutiny of the efficiency and efficacy of existing criminal justice approaches. Policymakers across the country have sought out new strategies designed to prevent crime and recidivism, enhance community safety, reduce our reliance on incarceration, and save taxpayer dollars. As a result, law enforcement, courts, and correctional agencies have been implementing innovative approaches in areas such as diversion, problem-solving courts, alternatives to incarceration, and ex-offender re-entry. However, the role of prosecutors and prosecutorial agencies in this story is often overlooked. …


Challenges And Choices In Criminal Law Course Design Commentary Symposium: Criminal Law Pedagogy, Roger Fairfax Oct 2012

Challenges And Choices In Criminal Law Course Design Commentary Symposium: Criminal Law Pedagogy, Roger Fairfax

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

I thoroughly enjoy every course in my teaching package, but the first-year Criminal Law course occupies a special place in my heart. The subject matter in the Criminal Law course is perhaps the most compelling of any offered in the first-year curriculum. As such, it provides Criminal Law instructors the tremendous opportunity to capture the imagination of students and to highlight the nexus between law in books and law in action.


What Use Are Legal Academics?, Roger Fairfax Aug 2012

What Use Are Legal Academics?, Roger Fairfax

Presentations

No abstract provided.


Prosecutorial Decriminalization, Erik Luna Jul 2012

Prosecutorial Decriminalization, Erik Luna

Scholarly Articles

The article discusses the legal concept of prosecutorial decriminalization in the U.S. as of July 2012, focusing on an analysis of the use of criminal laws to enforce the public standards of morality in America. Penal codes and criminal sanctions are addressed, along with several reform measures aimed at restructuring a criminal law system in the U.S. which has reportedly been overburdened by overcriminalization. The use of the American judiciary system as a check on overcriminalization is mentioned.


Batson's Grand Jury Dna, Roger Fairfax Jul 2012

Batson's Grand Jury Dna, Roger Fairfax

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Batson v. Kentucky was a landmark decision imposing constitutional restrictions on peremptory challenges in the petit jury selection process. Batson was a culmination of a long line of cases addressing racial discrimination in jury selection. However, the role of anti-discrimination doctrine in grand jury selection is often overlooked when the story of Batson is considered. Many of the key equal protection cases underpinning the Batson decision were grand jury cases. Furthermore, the evidentiary framework applied to challenges to race-based peremptory strikes in Batson was forged in a century's worth of grand jury discrimination doctrine. This Essay, prepared for the "Batson …


Madness Alone Punishes The Madman: The Search For Moral Dignity In The Court's Competency Doctrine As Applied In Capital Cases, J. Amy Dillard Apr 2012

Madness Alone Punishes The Madman: The Search For Moral Dignity In The Court's Competency Doctrine As Applied In Capital Cases, J. Amy Dillard

All Faculty Scholarship

The purposes of the competency doctrine are to guarantee reliability in criminal prosecutions, to ensure that only those defendants who can appreciate punishment are subject to it, and to maintain moral dignity, both actual and apparent, in criminal proceedings. No matter his crime, the “madman” should not be forced to stand trial. Historically, courts viewed questions of competency as a binary choice, finding the defendant either competent or incompetent to stand trial. However, in Edwards v. Indiana, the Supreme Court conceded that it views competency on a spectrum and offered a new category of competency — borderline-competent. The Court held …


Miranda’S Hidden Right, Laurent Sacharoff Jan 2012

Miranda’S Hidden Right, Laurent Sacharoff

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

When the Court in Miranda v. Arizona applied the Fifth Amendment “right to remain silent” to the stationhouse, it also created an inherent contradiction that has bedeviled Miranda cases since. That is, the Court in Miranda said that a suspect can waive her right to remain silent but also that she must invoke it. Numerous courts have repeated this incantation, including most recently last summer in Berghuis v. Thompkins. But how can both be true about the same right? Either the suspect has the right and can waive it or does not yet enjoy it and must therefore invoke it. …


Nothing Is Not Enough: Fix The Absurd Post-Booker Federal Sentencing System, Frank O. Bowman Iii Jan 2012

Nothing Is Not Enough: Fix The Absurd Post-Booker Federal Sentencing System, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

This article is an elaboration of testimony I gave in February 2012 at a U.S. Sentencing Commission hearing considering whether the advisory guidelines system created by the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in United States v. Booker should be modified or replaced. I argue that it should.


Overcriminalization For Lack Of Better Options: A Celebration Of Bill Stuntz, Daniel C. Richman Jan 2012

Overcriminalization For Lack Of Better Options: A Celebration Of Bill Stuntz, Daniel C. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

The unity of Bill Stuntz's character – his profound integrity – makes it easy to move from a celebration of his friendship (which I’ve treasured since we first met back in 1985) to one of his scholarship, for creativity, wisdom, and humility are strengths not just of Bill himself but of his work. Even as his broad brush strokes have fundamentally advanced our understanding of the interplay between substantive criminal law, criminal procedure, and criminal justice institutions over time, Bill's work – like Bill himself – welcomes and endures sustained engagement. Humility is appropriate for me, too, as I offer …