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Articles 991 - 1020 of 1442

Full-Text Articles in Criminal Law

Convictions Of Innocent Persons In Massachusetts: An Overview, Stanley Z. Fisher Oct 2002

Convictions Of Innocent Persons In Massachusetts: An Overview, Stanley Z. Fisher

Faculty Scholarship

Scholars documenting the incidence and causes of wrongful convictions in the United States have focused on cases arising all across the country. Because reform of the practices that lead to such errors of justice must largely take place on the state level, there is value in examining wrongful convictions in particular jurisdictions. This article attempts to identify and briefly describe all known cases of conviction of innocent persons in Massachusetts from 1800 to the present time. Part I discusses the criteria for identifying "the innocent." For the purpose of gaining support for needed reforms in the law, the most persuasive …


The Blooding Of America: Privacy And The Dna Dragnet, Jeffrey S. Grand Aug 2002

The Blooding Of America: Privacy And The Dna Dragnet, Jeffrey S. Grand

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.


What Is True? Perspectives Of A Former Prosecutor, Steven M. Cohen Feb 2002

What Is True? Perspectives Of A Former Prosecutor, Steven M. Cohen

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.


A Canadian Perspective On The Role Of Cooperators And Informants, Steven Skurka Feb 2002

A Canadian Perspective On The Role Of Cooperators And Informants, Steven Skurka

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.


Closing Remarks, Barry Scheck Feb 2002

Closing Remarks, Barry Scheck

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.


Thinking Outside The Box: How The Enforcement Of Ethical Rules Can Minimize The Dangers Of Prosecutorial Leniency And Immunity Deals, Michael S. Ross Feb 2002

Thinking Outside The Box: How The Enforcement Of Ethical Rules Can Minimize The Dangers Of Prosecutorial Leniency And Immunity Deals, Michael S. Ross

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.


Mitigation Evidence And Capital Cases In Washington: Proposals For Change, Mary Pat Treuthart, Anne Branstad, Matthew Kite Jan 2002

Mitigation Evidence And Capital Cases In Washington: Proposals For Change, Mary Pat Treuthart, Anne Branstad, Matthew Kite

Seattle University Law Review

Part II of this article examines the United States Supreme Court's recognition of the importance of mitigation evidence in capital cases. Part III then focuses on the role of mitigation evidence in Washington's death penalty scheme. The following section, Part IV, addresses the public policy implications when mitigation evidence is not presented. Finally, Part V proposes changes to the current sentencing procedure in Washington involving capital crimes.


Dealing With Complex Evidence Of Domestic Violence: A Primer For The Civil Bench, Jane C. Murphy, Jane H. Aiken Jan 2002

Dealing With Complex Evidence Of Domestic Violence: A Primer For The Civil Bench, Jane C. Murphy, Jane H. Aiken

All Faculty Scholarship

New laws and policies aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence have been adopted across the country throughout the last twenty years. The legal approaches taken to protect battered women and control family violence have brought about significant changes in family law. New laws include statutes permitting civil protection or restraining orders, and laws requiring that domestic violence be considered in custody and visitation decisions. Both of these types of statutory reforms can provide protection to adult victims of domestic violence and their children. Evaluating a parent’s fitness by considering past acts of violence to other family members results in …


Compelled Statements From Police Officers And Garrity Immunity, Steven D. Clymer Nov 2001

Compelled Statements From Police Officers And Garrity Immunity, Steven D. Clymer

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In this Article, Professor Steven Clymer describes the problem created when police departments require officers suspected of misconduct to answer internal affairs investigators' questions or face job termination. Relying on the Supreme Court's decision in Garrity v. New Jersey, courts treat such compelled statements as immunized testimony. That treatment not only renders such a statement inadmissible in a criminal prosecution of the suspect police officer, it also may require the prosecution to shoulder the daunting and sometimes insurmountable burden of demonstrating that its physical evidence, witness testimony, and strategic decisionmaking are untainted by the statement. Because police internal affairs …


"Whodunit" Versus "What Was Done": When To Admit Character Evidence In Criminal Cases, Sherry F. Colb May 2001

"Whodunit" Versus "What Was Done": When To Admit Character Evidence In Criminal Cases, Sherry F. Colb

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In virtually every jurisdiction in the United States, the law of evidence prohibits parties from offering proof of an individual's general character traits to suggest that, on a specific occasion, the individual behaved in a manner consistent with those traits. In a criminal trial in particular, the law prohibits a prosecutor's introduction of evidence about the defendant's character as proof of his guilt. In this Article, Professor Colb proposes that the exclusion of defendant character evidence is appropriate in one category of cases but inappropriate in another. In the first category, which Professor Colb calls "whodunit" cases, the parties agree …


Conjunction And Aggregation, Saul Levmore Feb 2001

Conjunction And Aggregation, Saul Levmore

Michigan Law Review

This Article begins with the puzzle of why the law avoids the issue of conjunctive probability. Mathematically inclined observers might, for example, employ the "product rule," multiplying the probabilities associated with several events or requirements in order to assess a combined likelihood, but judges and lawyers seem otherwise inclined. Courts and statutes might be explicit about the manner in which multiple requirements should be combined, but they are not. Thus, it is often unclear whether a factfinder should assess if condition A was more likely than not to be present - and then go on to see whether condition B …


Convicting The Innocent Beyond A Reasonable Doubt: Some Lessons About Jury Instructions From The Sheppard Case, Lawrence Solan Jan 2001

Convicting The Innocent Beyond A Reasonable Doubt: Some Lessons About Jury Instructions From The Sheppard Case, Lawrence Solan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Voluntary Intoxication In Florida: Public Policy Versus Due Process And Why Florida's Intoxication Statute Cannot Withstand A Constitutional Challenge, Michael L. Elkins Jan 2001

Voluntary Intoxication In Florida: Public Policy Versus Due Process And Why Florida's Intoxication Statute Cannot Withstand A Constitutional Challenge, Michael L. Elkins

St. Thomas Law Review

This comment examines the substance of the opinions in Egelhoff and juxtaposes the Florida statutory scheme against the proper constitutional analysis. The Egelhoff majority has done little to provide a workable constitutional backdrop from which other state statutes banning evidence of voluntary intoxication may be categorized. Part II of this comment provides the historical background for the voluntary intoxication defense. Part I initially examines the factual and legal background of the Egelhoff case as set forth by the Montana Supreme Court. Part IV then provides an analysis of the opinions authored by the United States Supreme Court. This section will …


Personal Reflections On The Reliability Of Jury Verdicts, Sam Reese Sheppard Jan 2001

Personal Reflections On The Reliability Of Jury Verdicts, Sam Reese Sheppard

Cleveland State Law Review

The symposium presentation given by Dr. Sheppard’s son discussed the impact of the trial on his entire family, as well as the idea of a failed trial. He went through the different juries encountered by his father. He also listed his hopes for the symposium: “What would I hope to come out of a conference like this? First, selfishly, I would hope that it would help us with our new legal endeavor. Second, I hope that we can contribute to serious legal work that deals on realistic and dignified grounds on the problem, both federally and statewide, of wrongful incarceration. …


Why Miranda Does Not Prevent Confessions: Some Lessons From Albert Camus, Arthur Miller And Oprah Winfrey, 51 Syracuse L. Rev. 863 (2001), Timothy P. O'Neill Jan 2001

Why Miranda Does Not Prevent Confessions: Some Lessons From Albert Camus, Arthur Miller And Oprah Winfrey, 51 Syracuse L. Rev. 863 (2001), Timothy P. O'Neill

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Scientific Evidence And The Ethical Obligations Of Attorneys, Michael J. Saks Jan 2001

Scientific Evidence And The Ethical Obligations Of Attorneys, Michael J. Saks

Cleveland State Law Review

This article considers the question: "What are the legal and ethical responsibilities of attorneys when offering scientific expert evidence to courts?" To a lesser extent it considers the responsibilities of attorneys to challenge such evidence when proffered and the ethical dimensions of the working relationship of lawyers and experts. Although the most prominent discussions of such issues have concerned so-called junk science in civil trials, the legal context upon which this article will focus is the criminal trial, where dubious science is more common, less questioned, and has even become institutionalized. The rules and practices of civil cases are provided …


Constitutional Formalism And The Meaning Of Apprendi V. New Jersey, Benjamin Priester Jan 2001

Constitutional Formalism And The Meaning Of Apprendi V. New Jersey, Benjamin Priester

Journal Publications

In June 2000, the United States Supreme Court decided Apprendi v. New Jersey,' a case that likely will have a significant impact on the administration of criminal justice in federal and state courts. The Court imposed a procedural limitation on prosecutors by restricting the types of facts that may be proven at sentencing rather than at trial. Specifically, the Court adopted a constitutional principle that "any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum" is an element of the offense of conviction. Under wellestablished constitutional doctrine, the Constitution's full procedural protections, especially the necessity of …


Introduction Symposium: Toward More Reliable Jury Verdicts - Law, Technology, And Media Development Since The Trials Of Dr. Sam Sheppard , Patricia J. Falk Jan 2001

Introduction Symposium: Toward More Reliable Jury Verdicts - Law, Technology, And Media Development Since The Trials Of Dr. Sam Sheppard , Patricia J. Falk

Cleveland State Law Review

The three Sheppard cases, spread over almost half a century, serve as a point of departure to explore how the multiple forces of law, science, and the media have interacted in criminal trials and in later challenges to the reliability of those trials. The Sheppard cases have resulted in five enduring legacies. Perhaps the most obvious legacy of the Sheppard cases is the new law the case made when it was heard by the United States Supreme Court on a federal habeas corpus appeal. In Sheppard v. Maxwell, the Court created a new legal standard regarding the effects of pretrial …


A Distant Mirror: The Sheppard Case From The Next Millennium, James Robertson Jan 2001

A Distant Mirror: The Sheppard Case From The Next Millennium, James Robertson

Cleveland State Law Review

My own vantage point is that of a trial judge, and for me, revisiting the Sheppard case is a chance to ruminate on the relationship between judges and the media and how judges deal with high profile cases. I will consider that subject, and then meander a little farther along and share a few thoughts about what I call hermetically sealed justice - our modem insistence that judges say nothing and juries know nothing. Finally, I will have a few words to say about DNA evidence and the "reliable verdict" ideal that appears to be one of the propositions to …


Scientific Evidence In The Sam Sheppard Case , Paul C. Giannelli Jan 2001

Scientific Evidence In The Sam Sheppard Case , Paul C. Giannelli

Cleveland State Law Review

My panel is discussing reliable jury verdicts, and my topic is "scientific" evidence. One way to approach this issue is to compare scientific evidence with other methods of proof. The trial lawyers that I worked with viewed cases as falling primarily into one of three categories: eyewitness cases, confession cases, and "scientific" evidence cases. In this scheme, anything that was not an eyewitness, confession, or snitch case was a "scientific evidence" case. These categories, of course, are neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive; often two and sometimes all three are involved. Nevertheless, these categories are helpful because they present trial attorneys …


Joseph In Lawyerland, Robin West Jan 2001

Joseph In Lawyerland, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

As Alice wanders through Wonderland in an unreal space in real time-a dream-learning backward truths from illogical creatures who speak in paradoxes, so Joseph figuratively wanders through lawyerland in an unreal time, but in a very real space-Manhattan-conversing with his thinly fictionalized friends, all of whom happen to be lawyers, about their lives and practices in law. As Joseph's lawyers talk with him about the law they practice, they uncover, through White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat-like illogical precision, a chaotic, unkempt, unconscionably reckless, often cruel, and sometimes pathological legal wilderness. The legal terrain these lawyers occupy is not an inviting …


Two Fallacies About Dna Data Banks For Law Enforcement, David H. Kaye Jan 2001

Two Fallacies About Dna Data Banks For Law Enforcement, David H. Kaye

Faculty Scholarship

This commentary on the article Legal and Policy Issues in Expanding the Scope of Law Enforcement DNA Data Banks, 67 Brook. L. Rev. 127 (2001), by Mark Rothstein and Sandra Carnahan, argues that the case for confining law enforcement DNA databases to noncoding loci and to samples from individuals convicted of violent crimes is quite weak.

It describes alternative approaches, including the possibility of a population-wide database; the privacy implications of the loci now used in forensic identification; the law governing DNA dragnets; and the limits on DNA databases imposed by recent cases on searches and seizures. It notes the …


The Constitutionality Of Dna Sampling On Arrest, David H. Kaye Jan 2001

The Constitutionality Of Dna Sampling On Arrest, David H. Kaye

Faculty Scholarship

Every state now collects DNA from people convicted of certain offenses. Law enforcement authorities promote offender DNA databanking on the theory that it will identify offenders who commit additional crimes while or probation or parole, or after they have finished serving their sentences. Even relatively small databases have yielded such dividends. As these database searches uncover the perpetrators of rapes, murders, and other offenses, the pressure builds to expand the coverage of the databases.

Recent proposals call for extending not merely the scope of crimes for which DNA databanking would be used, but also the point at which the samples …


Defining Proof Beyond A Reasonable Doubt For The Criminal Jury: The Third Circuit Accepts An Invitation To Tolerate Constitutionally Inadequate Phraseology, Melissa Corwin Jan 2001

Defining Proof Beyond A Reasonable Doubt For The Criminal Jury: The Third Circuit Accepts An Invitation To Tolerate Constitutionally Inadequate Phraseology, Melissa Corwin

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.


The Perils Of Courtroom Stories, Stephan Landsman May 2000

The Perils Of Courtroom Stories, Stephan Landsman

Michigan Law Review

As Janet Malcolm1 tells it, Sheila McGough was a middle-aged single woman living at home with her parents and working as an editor and administrator in the publications department of the Carnegie Institute when she decided to switch careers and go to law school. She applied and was admitted to the then recently accredited law school at George Mason University. After graduation, she began a solo practice in northern Virginia that involved a significant amount of stateappointed criminal defense work. In 1986, approximately four years after her graduation from law school, McGough received a call requesting assistance from an incarcerated …


Assessing Proposals For Mandatory Procedural Protections For Sentencings Under The Guidelines, Steven D. Clymer Feb 2000

Assessing Proposals For Mandatory Procedural Protections For Sentencings Under The Guidelines, Steven D. Clymer

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The federal sentencing guidelines have received sustained criticism from scholars, judges, and practitioners. Critics claim that the guidelines unwisely shift sentencing discretion from federal judges to prosecutors and probation officers; often mandate undeservedly harsh sentences; are complex, mechanistic, and bureaucratic; fail to achieve their goal of reducing sentencing disparity; and clog both district and appellate courts with litigation. Despite the attacks, some critics acknowledge that the guidelines will remain in force for the foreseeable future. While some nonetheless continue to urge abolition, others propose less ambitious reform, including enhancing the procedural protections available to criminal defendants at sentencing. Recommendations include …


Kumho Tire Co. V. Carmichael: The Supreme Court Follows Up On The Daubert Test, Martin A. Schwartz Jan 2000

Kumho Tire Co. V. Carmichael: The Supreme Court Follows Up On The Daubert Test, Martin A. Schwartz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.


Here Today, Gone Tomorrow - Three Common Mistakes Courts Make When Police Lose Or Destroy Evidence With Apparent Exculpatory, Elizabeth A. Bawden Jan 2000

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow - Three Common Mistakes Courts Make When Police Lose Or Destroy Evidence With Apparent Exculpatory, Elizabeth A. Bawden

Cleveland State Law Review

Part I of this Article examines the first question, what does it mean for evidence to have "apparent exculpatory value?" Part II of this Article answers the second question, when does Youngblood's bad faith requirement apply in failure to preserve evidence cases? Part III then seeks to determine the substance of Youngblood's bad faith requirement and identify the best approach to defining it. Ultimately, this Article argues that there are three common mistakes that courts make when applying Trombetta and Youngblood.


Newly Available, Not Newly Discovered, Penny J. White Jan 2000

Newly Available, Not Newly Discovered, Penny J. White

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

Advances in science have made it possible to discover new evidence. This newly discovered evidence is not always admissible as evidence. This essay suggests methods by which appellate courts may approach a balance between the rigid application of limitation periods in serious criminal cases and admitting evidence that proves innocence.


The Response To Brecheen V. Reynolds: Oklahoma’S System For Evaluating Extra-Record Constitutional Claims In Death Penalty Cased, Jeremy B. Lowrey Jan 2000

The Response To Brecheen V. Reynolds: Oklahoma’S System For Evaluating Extra-Record Constitutional Claims In Death Penalty Cased, Jeremy B. Lowrey

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

This article attempts to define the “abuse of discretion” standard of review. The article begins by distinguishing the three types of appellate review. It then focuses on review of discretion. Articles written by Professors Maurice Rosenburg, Robert C. Post, and Judge Henery J. Friendly are next analyzed in order to further evaluate judicial discretionary decisionmaking. Caselaw is next used to discuss how courts have attempted to define and apply the abuse of discretion standard. Primary cases considered include Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Pierce v. Underwood, Cooter & Gell v. Hartmarx Corp., and Koon v. United States. Finally, …