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Criminal Law Commons™

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Fordham Law School

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Articles 271 - 300 of 409

Full-Text Articles in Criminal Law

Abusing State Power Or Controlling Risk?: Sex Offender Commitment And Sicherungverwahrung, Nora V. Demleitner Jan 2003

Abusing State Power Or Controlling Risk?: Sex Offender Commitment And Sicherungverwahrung, Nora V. Demleitner

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article addresses civil commitment of sexually predatory offenders. It first outlines the most common American approaches to controlling sexual offenders, then details the German concept of Sicherungsverwahrung and greater state control, and finally proposes adopting a modified German approach that assures proportionality and public safety without sacrificing individual liberties. The article concludes by arguing that criminal penalties and safety-based detention should both be seen as elements of social control, which requires that safety measures with clearly punitive components be recognized as part of the punishment process.

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Are Collateral Sanctions Premised On Conduct Or Conviction?: The Case Of Abortion Doctors, Gabriel J. Chin Jan 2003

Are Collateral Sanctions Premised On Conduct Or Conviction?: The Case Of Abortion Doctors, Gabriel J. Chin

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Traditionally, collateral sanctions are viewed as civil measures designed to prevent undue risk by proven lawbreakers. If a collateral sanction were a criminal penalty instead, that would trigger constitutional provisions like the Ex Post Facto Clause, which would mean the sanction could not be imposed retroactively. This Article argues that collateral sanctions based on conduct and not conviction indicate a civil regulatory measure, but that when the sanctions only apply in the event of conviction, the sanction looks more like punishment. Conviction is not the only way to show risky conduct, and it is the conduct that civil sanctions should …

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Starting Over With A Clean Slate: In Praise Of A Forgotten Section Of The Model Penal Code, Margaret Colgate Love Jan 2003

Starting Over With A Clean Slate: In Praise Of A Forgotten Section Of The Model Penal Code, Margaret Colgate Love

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Convicted felons have no realistic hope of full reintegration into society when jurisdictions do not provide for eventual removal of collateral penalties and when relief mechanisms are insufficient or ineffective. Because Americans are uncomfortable with such an unforgiving system and states are considering the economic burdens of such a system, jurisdictions should take steps to limit the scope and duration of these collateral consequences. This Article proposes a legal framework aimed to fully reintegrate an offender into society post incarceration. It urges a return to the reforms of the 1960s and 70s, the ABA Standards on Collateral Sanctions, and Section …

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Determining The Retroactive Effect Of Laws Altering The Consequences Of Criminal Convictions, Nancy Morawetz Jan 2003

Determining The Retroactive Effect Of Laws Altering The Consequences Of Criminal Convictions, Nancy Morawetz

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article explores when laws altering the consequences of conviction can retroactively apply. It traces the roots of the current emphasis on plea agreements to the current confusion about how to determine retroactivity in cases involving quasi-economic transactions and those involving wrongful conduct. Using I.N.S. v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 298 (2001), it focuses on the open issue of the date against which new legal consequences are measured. Finally, the Article argues that reliance is an improper indicia of retroactivity for laws governing wrongful conduct and that the proper question is whether the offender had fair notice of the degree …

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Transformative Criminal Defense Practice: Truth, Love, And Individual Rights- The Innovative Approach Of The Georgia Justice Project, Douglas Ammar, Tosha Downey Jan 2003

Transformative Criminal Defense Practice: Truth, Love, And Individual Rights- The Innovative Approach Of The Georgia Justice Project, Douglas Ammar, Tosha Downey

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Georgia Justice Project has a unique approach to criminal defense and rehabilitation which is based on a relationship and community-oriented ethic. Focused on only accepting clients who are willing to make a serious commitment to changing their lives, the GJP ensures that the client moves beyond social, emotional and personal challenges that contributed to their legal problems. This article describes the unique factors of the GJP that have contributed to its continued success.

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"Forgive Me Victim For I Have Sinned": Why Repentance And The Criminal Justice System Do Not Mix - A Lesson From Jewish Law, Cheryl G. Bader Jan 2003

"Forgive Me Victim For I Have Sinned": Why Repentance And The Criminal Justice System Do Not Mix - A Lesson From Jewish Law, Cheryl G. Bader

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This essay will critique the Georgia Justice Project's encouragement of confessions in the context of the secular American justice system via comparison with the treatment of confessions under ancient Jewish law. Specifically, this essay posits that the absolute prohibition on the use of confessions in a legal system firmly rooted in religious values recognizes the danger inherent in combining the act of speaking of one's sins for religious penance with the use of such confessions in the criminal adjudication process. The Jewish legal system avoids these inherent dangers by completely devaluing the accused's confession. The GJP, in contrast, merges the …

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Fifteen Years After The Federal Sentencing Revolution: How Mandatory Minimums Have Undermined Effective And Just Narcotics Sentencing Perspectives On The Federal Sentencing Guidelines And Mandatory Sentencing, Ian Weinstein Jan 2003

Fifteen Years After The Federal Sentencing Revolution: How Mandatory Minimums Have Undermined Effective And Just Narcotics Sentencing Perspectives On The Federal Sentencing Guidelines And Mandatory Sentencing, Ian Weinstein

Faculty Scholarship

Federal criminal sentencing has changed dramatically since 1988. Fifteen years ago, judges determined if and for how long a defendant would go to jail. Since that time, changes in substantive federal criminal statutes, particularly the passage of an array of mandatory minimum penalties and the adoption of the federal sentencing guidelines, have limited significantly judicial sentencing power and have remade federal sentencing and federal criminal practice. The results of these changes are significantly longer federal prison sentences, as was the intent of these reforms, and the emergence of federal prosecutors as the key players in sentencing. Yet, at the same …

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Who Is Andrea Yates? A Short Story About Insanity, Deborah W. Denno Jan 2003

Who Is Andrea Yates? A Short Story About Insanity, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

On June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her four children in a bathtub. At Andrea’s trial, in Harris County, Texas, the prosecution’s star expert, Patrick Dietz, appeared particularly adept at persuading the jury to accept the prosecution’s assertion that Andrea was sane and acting intentionally when she killed her children. This Article analyzes the problematic aspects of Dietz's testimony in an effort to contribute some balance to the Andrea Yates story. Despite the long history of expert witnesses in criminal trials, the justice system should question the fairness and efficacy of such an unregulated storytelling process. Part I of this …

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Criminal Neglect: Indigent Defense From A Legal Ethics Perspective Ethics Symposium What Do Clients Want: Practice Contexts, Bruce A. Green Jan 2003

Criminal Neglect: Indigent Defense From A Legal Ethics Perspective Ethics Symposium What Do Clients Want: Practice Contexts, Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

Most criminal defendants in the United States cannot afford to pay for a lawyer's services, and as a result their lawyers are government funded. Unfortunately, some state and local governments drastically under-fund indigent defense services. Criminal defense lawyers serving in these jurisdictions typically carry grossly excessive caseloads and are therefore severely restricted in how much time they can devote to individual clients. Commentators have targeted the under-funding of indigent defense systems as a problem of criminal justice, constitutional law, and civil rights. That is certainly true, but the under-funding of indigent defense also raises a serious and inadequately recognized problem …

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A Mind To Blame: New Views On Involuntary Acts, Deborah W. Denno Jan 2003

A Mind To Blame: New Views On Involuntary Acts, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the legal implications linked to recent scientific research on human consciousness. The article contends that groundbreaking revelations about consciousness expose the frailties of the criminal law's traditional dual dichotomies of conscious versus unconscious thought processes and voluntary versus involuntary acts. These binary doctrines have no valid scientific foundation and clash with other key criminal law defenses, primarily insanity. As a result, courts may adjudicate like individuals very differently based upon their (often unclear) understanding of these doctrines and the science that underlies them. This article proposes a compromise approach by recommending that the criminal law's concept of …

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Why The Model Penal Code's Sexual Offense Provisions Should Be Pulled And Replaced, Deborah W. Denno Jan 2003

Why The Model Penal Code's Sexual Offense Provisions Should Be Pulled And Replaced, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

By all accounts, the Model Penal Code is enormously respected and influential. Yet, relatively soon after the Code's 1962 publication, the Code's sexual offense provisions and even its 1980 revised Commentaries were already considered outdated. The rapid onslaught of the sexual and feminist revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s brought an intense momentum to change rape laws that the Code had, in part, either mirrored or inspired. Only because of the passage of time, the Code's sexual offense provisions and Commentaries now misrepresent the progressive thinking of the Code's reporters. For these reasons, I think the Model Penal Code's sexual …

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Crime And Consciousness: Science And Involuntary Acts , Deborah W. Denno Jan 2002

Crime And Consciousness: Science And Involuntary Acts , Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

This Article confronts this clash between legal and scientific perspectives on consciousness by proposing new ways to structure the voluntary act requirement so that it incorporates the insights of modern science on the human mind. Part I examines the criminal law's voluntary act requirement, particularly in the context of the MPC's influential provision, which reflects the law and psychology of the era in which the MPC was originally developed--the 1950s. Part II analyzes the new science of “consciousness,” a term that typically refers to the sum of a person's thoughts, feelings, and sensations, as well as the everyday circumstances and …

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The Hyde Amendment And Prosecutorial Investigation: The Promise Of Protection For Criminal Defendants, Lynn R. Singband Jan 2001

The Hyde Amendment And Prosecutorial Investigation: The Promise Of Protection For Criminal Defendants, Lynn R. Singband

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Comment first describes federal prosecutors' broad charging discretion and the resulting potential for abuse. It then discusses how current interpretations of the Hyde Amendment have failed to establish a standard of conduct for federal prosecutors different from that established by preexisting laws, internal regulations, and ethics rules. Finally, it argues that the Hyde Amendment offers the courts an important opportunity to issue opinions detailing how federal prosecutors should exercise their charging discretion. This Comment concludes that courts should take advantage of this opportunity to establish a more exact standard of conduct for prosecutors conducting investigations and thereby offer defendants …

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Forgiveness And Public Trust, Linda Ross Meyer Jan 2000

Forgiveness And Public Trust, Linda Ross Meyer

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A discussion of forgiveness and its relation to the community as a whole. The author argues that forgiveness is not merely personal, emotional, nor private, but rather that forgiveness grounds the basic trust which binds the community together.

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Is There A Place For Forgiveness In The Justice System?, Everett L. Worthington, Jr. Jan 2000

Is There A Place For Forgiveness In The Justice System?, Everett L. Worthington, Jr.

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article discusses the role of forgiveness in the criminal justice system, and explores related concepts of empathy, restorative justice, and truth and reconciliation.

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Forgiveness And The Law - A Redemptive Opportunity, Douglas B. Ammar Jan 2000

Forgiveness And The Law - A Redemptive Opportunity, Douglas B. Ammar

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A discussion of the role of forgiveness in criminal law. The author relates the approach of the Georgia Justice Project, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide justice to indigent criminal defendants and help them become productive citizens.

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Forgiveness In The Criminal Law, Ian S. Weinstein (Moderator) Jan 2000

Forgiveness In The Criminal Law, Ian S. Weinstein (Moderator)

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A discussion of the role of forgiveness in criminal law, and the extent to which forgiveness should impact prosecutorial discretion. Includes a question and answer session with audience.

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Forgiveness And The Law - A Redemptive Opportunity, Douglas B. Ammar Jan 2000

Forgiveness And The Law - A Redemptive Opportunity, Douglas B. Ammar

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A discussion of the role of forgiveness in criminal law. The author relates the approach of the Georgia Justice Project, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide justice to indigent criminal defendants and help them become productive citizens.

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Forgiveness As A Problem-Solving Tool In The Courts: A Brief Response To The Panel On Forgiveness In Criminal Law, Derek A. Denckla Jan 2000

Forgiveness As A Problem-Solving Tool In The Courts: A Brief Response To The Panel On Forgiveness In Criminal Law, Derek A. Denckla

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article is a response to Panel on Forgiveness in Criminal Law, and attempts to answer the following questions: Is there room for forgiveness in the criminal courts? If so, how does forgiveness manifest itself there? The article explores this issue in terms of the opportunities for forgiveness provided by "problem-solving" courts.

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Forgiveness In Psychology And Law: The Meeting Of Moral Development And Restorative Justice, Robert D. Enright, Bruce A. Kittle Jan 2000

Forgiveness In Psychology And Law: The Meeting Of Moral Development And Restorative Justice, Robert D. Enright, Bruce A. Kittle

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article discusses the psychological meaning of forgiveness and its relation to the criminal justice system. Includes a discussion of the four phases of the development progression of forgiveness.

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Restorative Justice And The Prosecutor, Frederick W. Gay Jan 2000

Restorative Justice And The Prosecutor, Frederick W. Gay

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A discussion of restorative justice and its relation to prosecutorial discretion. The article gives examples of the restorative alternatives to traditional criminal punishment and argues that such alternatives are an effective means of providing justice.

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Teshuva: A Look At Repentance, Forgiveness And Atonement In Jewish Law And Philosophy And American Legal Thought, Samuel J. Levine Jan 2000

Teshuva: A Look At Repentance, Forgiveness And Atonement In Jewish Law And Philosophy And American Legal Thought, Samuel J. Levine

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A discussion of the Jewish concept of "Teshuva," which provides the possibility of atonement for wrongdoings. The article explores the process of "Teshuva" in depth and describes its relationship and significance to modern criminal law.

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Forgiveness And The Law, Martha Minow Jan 2000

Forgiveness And The Law, Martha Minow

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A discussion of the role of forgiveness in the law, substituting forgiveness for the law, and whether or not the law can or should pursue higher moral ambitions

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Forgiveness And Public Trust, Linda Ross Meyer Jan 2000

Forgiveness And Public Trust, Linda Ross Meyer

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A discussion of forgiveness and its relation to the community as a whole. The author argues that forgiveness is not merely personal, emotional, nor private, but rather that forgiveness grounds the basic trust which binds the community together.

Go to article

Forgiveness In Psychology And Law: The Meeting Of Moral Development And Restorative Justice, Robert D. Enright, Bruce A. Kittle Jan 2000

Forgiveness In Psychology And Law: The Meeting Of Moral Development And Restorative Justice, Robert D. Enright, Bruce A. Kittle

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article discusses the psychological meaning of forgiveness and its relation to the criminal justice system. Includes a discussion of the four phases of the development progression of forgiveness.

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Forgiveness In The Criminal Justice System: If It Belongs, Then Why Is It So Hard To Find?, David M. Lerman Jan 2000

Forgiveness In The Criminal Justice System: If It Belongs, Then Why Is It So Hard To Find?, David M. Lerman

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This essay advocates the role of forgiveness within the criminal justice system, particularly from a prosecutor's perspective, and discusses common impediments to its increased presence and the leadership needed to allow it to develop within the system.

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Teshuva: A Look At Repentance, Forgiveness And Atonement In Jewish Law And Philosophy And American Legal Thought, Samuel J. Levine Jan 2000

Teshuva: A Look At Repentance, Forgiveness And Atonement In Jewish Law And Philosophy And American Legal Thought, Samuel J. Levine

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A discussion of the Jewish concept of "Teshuva," which provides the possibility of atonement for wrongdoings. The article explores the process of "Teshuva" in depth and describes its relationship and significance to modern criminal law.

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Is There A Place For Forgiveness In The Justice System?, Everett L. Worthington, Jr. Jan 2000

Is There A Place For Forgiveness In The Justice System?, Everett L. Worthington, Jr.

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article discusses the role of forgiveness in the criminal justice system, and explores related concepts of empathy, restorative justice, and truth and reconciliation.

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Forgiveness And The Law, Martha Minow Jan 2000

Forgiveness And The Law, Martha Minow

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A discussion of the role of forgiveness in the law, substituting forgiveness for the law, and whether or not the law can or should pursue higher moral ambitions

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Forgiveness And The Criminal Law: Forgiveness Through Medicinal Punishment, Dennis M. Cariello Jan 2000

Forgiveness And The Criminal Law: Forgiveness Through Medicinal Punishment, Dennis M. Cariello

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article discusses the role of forgiveness in criminal law, focusing specifically on the nature of forgiveness, how and when society should forgive wrongdoers, and the nature of punishment.

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