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Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Future Of The Confrontation Clause: Semiautonomous And Autonomous Machine Witnesses, Brian Sites
The Future Of The Confrontation Clause: Semiautonomous And Autonomous Machine Witnesses, Brian Sites
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
How should the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment be interpreted as to machine witnesses? Courts across the country have resisted efforts to cross-examine the human agents who assist machines that generate data used in criminal trials. Such challenges under the Confrontation Clause have been rejected directly and in great number, and the rules of evidence are largely being read to not require the testimony of those who have the best information about the machine's use for the case at hand. This problem arises in an era of machine exceptionalism and widespread use. From increasingly sophisticated forensic lab tools to …
Sentencing And Prior Convictions: The Past, The Future, And The End Of The Prior-Conviction Exception To "Apprendi", Nancy J. King
Sentencing And Prior Convictions: The Past, The Future, And The End Of The Prior-Conviction Exception To "Apprendi", Nancy J. King
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This article traces the fascinating history of early efforts to identify defendants and their prior convictions as well as the evolving use of prior convictions in aggravating punishment; examines how contemporary repeat offender penalties fall short of punishment goals and contribute to the racially lopsided profile of punishment today; and critiques potential justifications for the prior conviction exception to the rule in Apprendi v. New Jersey, arguing that the exception should be abandoned. The article summarizes empirical research testing the relationship between prior convictions and examining the efficacy of repeat offender sentences in reducing recidivism; collects commentary on the use …
Reclaiming Equality To Reframe Indigent Defense Reform, Lauren Sudeall
Reclaiming Equality To Reframe Indigent Defense Reform, Lauren Sudeall
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Equal access to resources is fundamental to meaningful legal representation, yet for decades, equality arguments have been ignored in litigating indigent defense reform. At a time when underfunded indigent defense systems across the country are failing to provide indigent defendants with adequate representation, the question of resources is even more critical. Traditionally, advocates seeking indigent defense reform have relied on Sixth Amendment arguments to protect the rights of indigents in this context; however, the Sixth Amendment approach suffers from a number of shortcomings that have made it a poor tool for systemic reform, including its exclusive focus on attorney performance …
Cunningham V. California - Case Comment, Rebecca Haw Allensworth
Cunningham V. California - Case Comment, Rebecca Haw Allensworth
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Sixth Amendment--Allocation of Fact-finding in Sentencing.--Apprendi v. New Jersey spawned a series of Supreme Court sentencing decisions which, when viewed together, are at best confusing and at worst contradictory. Commentators and courts have struggled to find a coherent governing principle uniting "Apprendi," "Blakely v. Washington," and "United States v. Booker." The holding in "Apprendi," originally described as a bright-line rule, has proved anything but. Last Term, in "Cunningham v. California," the Court added another chapter to the Apprendi saga when it declared unconstitutional California's Determinate Sentencing Law (DSL). Justice Ginsburg authored the majority opinion that overturned the California Supreme Court's …
Teaching A Course On Regulation Of The Police (With A Special Focus On The Sixth Amendment), Christopher Slobogin
Teaching A Course On Regulation Of The Police (With A Special Focus On The Sixth Amendment), Christopher Slobogin
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
The organizers of this symposium gave us the choice of writing about effective assistance of counsel or about teaching criminal procedure. I've decided to do both. This article discusses teaching the criminal procedure course most often called "Police Practices," for which I write a textbook entitled Regulation of Police Investigation: Legal, Historical, Empirical and Comparative Materials.' Borrowing heavily from the Teacher's Manual for that book, the first part of this article describes my general philosophy for teaching the course. The rest of the article illustrates this philosophy by describing how I teach students about the application of the Sixth Amendment …
Toward Taping, Christopher Slobogin
Toward Taping, Christopher Slobogin
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Numerous authors, from all points on the political spectrum, have advocated that police interrogations be taped. But police rarely record custodial questioning, at least in full, and only a handful of courts have found this failure objectionable. This commentary outlines three different constitutional grounds for mandating that such recording become a routine practice. To set up the constitutional argument, the article first outlines why taping is needed despite the elaborate rules that now govern interrogation. Put simply, the reasoning is as follows: the Miranda regime has failed, voluntariness should once again be the focal point of interrogation regulation, and taping …