Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Criminal Law (9)
- Constitutional Law (7)
- Criminal Procedure (5)
- International Law (5)
- Civil Rights and Discrimination (4)
-
- Law Enforcement and Corrections (3)
- Law and Society (3)
- Applied Statistics (2)
- Human Rights Law (2)
- Juvenile Law (2)
- Law and Psychology (2)
- Physical Sciences and Mathematics (2)
- State and Local Government Law (2)
- Statistics and Probability (2)
- Family Law (1)
- Judges (1)
- Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility (1)
- Legal History (1)
- Medical Jurisprudence (1)
- Other Law (1)
- Race and Ethnicity (1)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (1)
- Sociology (1)
- Institution
-
- Cornell University Law School (5)
- University of Missouri School of Law (3)
- BLR (2)
- Notre Dame Law School (2)
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- William S. Boyd School of Law (2)
-
- American University Washington College of Law (1)
- Columbia Law School (1)
- Maurer School of Law: Indiana University (1)
- New York Law School (1)
- University of Baltimore Law (1)
- University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (1)
- University of Michigan Law School (1)
- Vanderbilt University Law School (1)
- Washington and Lee University School of Law (1)
- Publication
-
- Cornell Law Faculty Publications (5)
- ExpressO (2)
- Faculty Publications (2)
- Journal Articles (2)
- Scholarly Works (2)
-
- All Faculty Scholarship (1)
- American University International Law Review (1)
- Articles & Chapters (1)
- Articles by Maurer Faculty (1)
- Faculty Scholarship (1)
- Michigan Law Review (1)
- Missouri Law Review (1)
- University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class (1)
- Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications (1)
- Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice (1)
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 23 of 23
Full-Text Articles in Law
Revelations From The Blackmun Papers On The Development Of Death Penalty Law, Martha Dragich Pearson
Revelations From The Blackmun Papers On The Development Of Death Penalty Law, Martha Dragich Pearson
Missouri Law Review
Justice Blackmun's legacy is strongly linked to two issues - abortion and capital punishment. Blackmun's opinions in these controversial areas account for much of the notion that his ideology changed while on the Court. Participants in this Symposium have reflected on these and other areas where Justice Blackmun left his mark on American law. Professor Deason explores the arbitrability cases and shows that the Court struggled - and Justices changed their minds - even in connection with relatively technical legal issues arising in non-controversial commercial contexts. One reason the Court struggles with some issues is that legal standards are (or …
Deterrence Versus Brutalization: Capital Punishment's Differing Impacts Among States, Joanna M. Shepherd
Deterrence Versus Brutalization: Capital Punishment's Differing Impacts Among States, Joanna M. Shepherd
Michigan Law Review
Policymakers' false beliefs about capital punishment's universal deterrent effect may have caused many people to die needlessly. If deterrence is capital punishment's purpose then, in the majority of states where executions do not deter crime, executions kill convicts uselessly. Moreover, in the many states where the brutalization effect outweighs the deterrent effect, executions not only kill convicts needlessly but also induce the additional murders of many innocent people. After Part II discusses capital punishment's recent history in the United States, Part III reviews the conflict in recent studies on capital punishment and deterrence. Part IV explores differences in states' applications …
Does The Icj's Decision In Avena Really Mean Anything To Mexicans On Death Row?, Kenneth Williams
Does The Icj's Decision In Avena Really Mean Anything To Mexicans On Death Row?, Kenneth Williams
ExpressO
This article assesses the legality of President Bush's order to state courts that they review the convictions and sentences of certain Mexican nationals on death row in response to the ICJ's decision that the rights of these inmates had been violated. The article also discusses the review process and makes a proposal to ensure that the ICJ's mandate is carried out. Finally, there is a discussion as to the importance of these cases to both the U.S. and Mexico.
Revelations From The Blackmun Papers On The Development Of Death Penalty Law , Martha Dragich
Revelations From The Blackmun Papers On The Development Of Death Penalty Law , Martha Dragich
Faculty Publications
Professor Dragich uses the Blackmun papers to augment our understanding of Justice Blackmun's "evolution" on the question of capital punishment. Though the evolution was gradual, she finds that the case of Warren McCleskey seems to have deeply affected Justice Blackmun.
Applying The Death Penalty To Crimes Of Genocide, Jens David Ohlin
Applying The Death Penalty To Crimes Of Genocide, Jens David Ohlin
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Race And The Death Penalty After Mccleskey: A Case Study Of Kentucky's Racial Justice Act, Justin R. Arnold
Race And The Death Penalty After Mccleskey: A Case Study Of Kentucky's Racial Justice Act, Justin R. Arnold
Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice
No abstract provided.
The 'Abuse Excuse' In Capital Sentencing Trials: Is It Relevant To Responsibility, Punishment, Or Neither?, Paul J. Litton
The 'Abuse Excuse' In Capital Sentencing Trials: Is It Relevant To Responsibility, Punishment, Or Neither?, Paul J. Litton
Faculty Publications
The violent criminal who was a victim of severe childhood abuse frequently appears in the responsibility literature because he presents a difficulty for theorists who maintain the compatibility of causal determinism and our practices of holding persons responsible. The challenge is based on the fact that learning about an offender's horrific childhood mitigates the indignation that many persons feel towards him, possibly indicating that they hold him less than fully responsible. Many capital defendants present evidence of suffering childhood abuse, and many jurors find this evidence to count against imposing death. The most obvious explanation for a response like this …
Reliability Matters: Reassociating Bagley Materality, Strickland Prejudice, And Cumulative Harmless Error, John H. Blume, Christopher W. Seeds
Reliability Matters: Reassociating Bagley Materality, Strickland Prejudice, And Cumulative Harmless Error, John H. Blume, Christopher W. Seeds
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Most commonly invoked after conviction and direct appeal, when a defendant may claim that his lawyer was ineffective or that the government failed to disclose exculpatory information, the Brady doctrine, which governs the prosecutor’s duty to disclose favorable evidence to the defense, and the Strickland doctrine, which monitors defense counsel’s duty to represent the client effectively, have developed into the principal safeguards of fair trials, fundamental to the protection of defendants’ constitutional rights and arguably defendants’ strongest insurance of a reliable verdict. But the doctrines do not sufficiently protect these core values.
The doctrines, despite their common due process heritage …
Cleaning Up The Eighth Amendment Mess, Tom Stacy
Cleaning Up The Eighth Amendment Mess, Tom Stacy
ExpressO
This article criticizes the Court’s interpretation of the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause and proposes its own understanding. The Court’s jurisprudence is plagued by deep inconsistencies concerning the text, the Court’s own role, and a constitutional requirement of proportionate punishment.
In search of ways to redress these fundamental shortcomings, the article explores three alternative interpretations: 1) A textualist approach; 2) Justice Scalia’s understanding that the Clause forbids only punishments unacceptable for all offenses; and 3) a majoritarian approach that would consistently define cruel and unusual punishment in terms of legislative judgments and penal custom. As evidenced by the …
The Innocence Protection Act Of 2004: A Small Step Forward And A Framework For Larger Reforms, Ronald Weich
The Innocence Protection Act Of 2004: A Small Step Forward And A Framework For Larger Reforms, Ronald Weich
All Faculty Scholarship
Passage of the Innocence Protection Act in the closing days of the 108th Congress was a watershed moment. To be sure, the bill that finally became law was a shadow of the more ambitious criminal justice reforms first championed five years earlier by Senator Pat Leahy, Congressman Bill Delahunt and others. But the enactment of legislation designed to strengthen — not weaken — procedural protections for death row inmates was rich in symbolic importance and promise.
Writing in the April 2001 issue of THE CHAMPION (Innocence Protection Act: Death Penalty Reform on the Horizon), I said optimistically: "The criminal justice …
Preferring White Lives: The Racial Administration Of The Death Penalty In Maryland, Michael Millemann, Gary W. Christopher
Preferring White Lives: The Racial Administration Of The Death Penalty In Maryland, Michael Millemann, Gary W. Christopher
University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class
No abstract provided.
Protecting The Innocent: The Massachusetts Governor's Council Report, Joseph L. Hoffmann
Protecting The Innocent: The Massachusetts Governor's Council Report, Joseph L. Hoffmann
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
Mental Disorder As An Exemption From The Death Penalty: The Aba-Irr Task Force Recommendations, Christopher Slobogin
Mental Disorder As An Exemption From The Death Penalty: The Aba-Irr Task Force Recommendations, Christopher Slobogin
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
The Task Force on Mental Disability and the Death Penalty (Task Force) established by the Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section of the American Bar Association (ABA-IRR) has proposed that the ABA adopt three recommendations concerning the role of mental disability in capital cases. The first two recommendations call for a prohibition on execution of offenders whose mental disorder rendered them less culpable at the time of the offense, and the third would prohibit execution of those whose mental disability currently renders them incompetent to pursue appeals or to be executed. This Article discusses the first two, culpability-related, recommendations. With respect …
Expert Testimony In Capital Sentencing: Juror Responses, John H. Montgomery, J. Richard Ciccone, Stephen P. Garvey, Theodore Eisenberg
Expert Testimony In Capital Sentencing: Juror Responses, John H. Montgomery, J. Richard Ciccone, Stephen P. Garvey, Theodore Eisenberg
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
The U.S. Supreme Court, in Furman v. Georgia (1972), held that the death penalty is constitutional only when applied on an individualized basis. The resultant changes in the laws in death penalty states fostered the involvement of psychiatric and psychologic expert witnesses at the sentencing phase of the trial, to testify on two major issues: (1) the mitigating factor of a defendant’s abnormal mental state and (2) the aggravating factor of a defendant’s potential for future violence. This study was an exploration of the responses of capital jurors to psychiatric/psychologic expert testimony during capital sentencing. The Capital Jury Project is …
Death Sentence Rates And County Demographics: An Empirical Study, Theodore Eisenberg
Death Sentence Rates And County Demographics: An Empirical Study, Theodore Eisenberg
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
The number of murders in a state largely determines the size of a state's death row. The more murders, the larger the death row. This fundamental relation yields surprising results, including the newsworthy finding that Texas's death sentencing rate is not unusually high. Recent state-level research also underscores the importance of race in the demography of death row. Death penalty research has long emphasized race's role, and with good reason--a racial hierarchy exists in death sentence rates. Black defendants who murder white victims receive death sentences at the highest rate; white defendants who murder white victims receive death sentences at …
Justice Miriam Shearing: Nevada's Trailblazing Minimalist, Mary E. Berkheiser
Justice Miriam Shearing: Nevada's Trailblazing Minimalist, Mary E. Berkheiser
Scholarly Works
Nevada Supreme Court Justice Miriam Shearing retired at the end of her second term on January 4, 2005. Over the nearly thirty years of her very public life on the bench, many have written of her accomplishments as the firs woman to enter the brotherhood of the Nevada judiciary. With Justice Sharing’s retirement, the time is ripe for an examination of her judicial decisions during the twelve years she served on the Nevada Supreme Court. The analysis here provides one perspective on her body of work. It begins, as it must, with a glimpse into the person behind the work.
Capitalizing Adolescence: Juvenile Offenders On Death Row, Mary Berkheiser
Capitalizing Adolescence: Juvenile Offenders On Death Row, Mary Berkheiser
Scholarly Works
Taking as its sample group the 2005 population of seventy-two juvenile offenders on death row, this article examines the roles of peer influence and group offending in the murders committed by those now awaiting execution. Based on that examination, the article suggests certain reforms in the capital trials of juveniles. To set the stage, the article first marshals the evidence supporting the “group crime” theory of youth violence and then discusses the critical role of peers in adolescent development and group offending of a violent crime.
Iraq, Cambodia, And International Justice , Patricia M. Wald
Iraq, Cambodia, And International Justice , Patricia M. Wald
American University International Law Review
No abstract provided.
If I Implore You And Order You To Set Me Free, Robert Blecker
If I Implore You And Order You To Set Me Free, Robert Blecker
Articles & Chapters
When Odysseus ordered his men to put wax in their ears, bind him to the mast and keep rowing until they passed the Sirens, no matter what he might later command, and then, in the throes of passion, attempted to countermand his earlier command, there, then, Constitutionalism was born in the West. We are perpetually challenged at rational moments to keep future passions in check, so when the future becomes the present, we can survive it without regret.
This brief essay summarily employs the metaphor to account for constitutional rights, long and fixed senatorial terms, life-time judicial tenure, judicial review, …
Medellin V. Dretke: Federalism And International Law, Curtis Bradley, Lori Fisler Damrosch, Martin Flaherty
Medellin V. Dretke: Federalism And International Law, Curtis Bradley, Lori Fisler Damrosch, Martin Flaherty
Faculty Scholarship
This evening, we're going to have, at the very least, a discussion which may blossom into a debate-we will see as the evening progresses. However one characterizes the event, we're here to discuss the Medellin v. Dretke case and, more broadly, we are going to be discussing cutting edge issues of international law, including the operation of self-executing treaties and state legal systems, the weight to be given to judgments of international courts interpreting such treaties, and the duties of state and federal judiciaries in this process, all in the context of death penalty cases. Let me give you a …
Domestic And International Developments Relating To The Death Penalty: Introduction And Remarks, Sandra L. Babcock
Domestic And International Developments Relating To The Death Penalty: Introduction And Remarks, Sandra L. Babcock
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
In recent years, international law has played an increasingly prominent role in the development of death penalty jurisprudence in both domestic and international tribunals. In the United States, the citation of foreign jurisprudence by the Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons and Atkins v. Virginia has generated an intense debate within the Court, Congress, and the media. In the Caribbean, decisions of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the Inter-American Court on Human Rights have resulted in commutations of numerous death sentences. While abolitionists have celebrated these developments, the death penalty remains a popular sanction, and human rights …
Roper V. Simmons And Our Constitution In International Equipoise, Roger P. Alford
Roper V. Simmons And Our Constitution In International Equipoise, Roger P. Alford
Journal Articles
In Roper v. Simmons, the Court unequivocally affirms the use of comparative constitutionalism to interpret the Eighth Amendment. It does not, however, provide an obvious theoretical basis to justify the practice. This Article searches for a theory to explain the comparativism in Roper using the theories advanced in the author's previous scholarship. It concludes that of the colorable candidates, natural law constitutionalism is the most plausible explanation, with the attendant problems associated therewith. The Article concludes with an analysis of the possible ramifications of the Court's comparative approach, suggesting that it may be pursuing a Constitution that is in international …
In Search Of A Theory For Constitutional Comparativism, Roger P. Alford
In Search Of A Theory For Constitutional Comparativism, Roger P. Alford
Journal Articles
Constitutional comparativism - the notion that international and foreign material should be used to interpret the U.S. Constitution - is gaining currency. Yet proponents of this practice rarely offer a firm theoretical justification for the practice. This Article contends that constitutional comparativism should be examined from the perspective of constitutional theory. The use of comparative and international material must be deemed appropriate or inappropriate based on a particular judge's interpretive mode of constitutional analysis. The Article presents four classic constitutional theories - originalism, natural law, majoritarianism, and pragmatism - and addresses the propriety of constitutional comparativism under each theory. This …