Criminal Law Commons^™

Performing Discretion Or Performing Discrimination: An Analysis Of Race And Ritual In Batson Decisions In Capital Jury Selection, Melynda J. Price

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Research shows the mere presence of Blacks on capital juries--on the rare occasions they are seated--can mean the difference between life and death. Peremptory challenges are the primary method to remove these pivotal participants. Batson v. Kentucky developed hearings as an immediate remedy for the unconstitutional removal of jurors through racially motivated peremptory challenges. These proceedings have become rituals that sanction continued bias in the jury selection process and ultimately affect the outcome of capital trials. This Article deconstructs the role of the Batson ritual in legitimating the removal of African American jurors. These perfunctory hearings fail to meaningfully interrogate …

Advancing The Study Of Violence Against Women: Evolving Research Agendas Into Science, Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Decades of research produced by multiple disciplines has documented withering rates of violence against women in the United States and around the globe. To further an understanding of gendered violence, a field of research has developed, but recent critiques have highlighted weaknesses that inhibit a full scientific exploration of these crimes and their impacts. This review extends beyond prior reviews to explore the field’s unique challenges, its community of scientists, and the state of its written knowledge. The review argues for moving beyond “research agendas” and proposes creation of a transdisciplinary science for the field of study of violence against …

Advancing The Study Of Violence Against Women: Response To Commentaries And Next Steps, Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

No abstract provided.

Judicially Fusing The Pinkerton Doctrine To Rico Conspiracy Litigation Through The Concept Of Mediate Causation, Dean Browning Webb

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Drug Law Reform--Retreating From An Incarceration Addiction, Robert G. Lawson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Jurisdictional Entrapment Defense: An Analytic Framework For Claims Of Manufactured Jurisdiction In Child Exploitation Prosecutions, Leonid Feller

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Denial Of Emergency Protection: Factors Associated With Court Decision Making, Carol E. Jordan, Adam J. Pritchard, Pamela Wilcox, Danielle Duckett-Pritchard

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Despite the importance of civil orders of protection as a legal resource for victims of intimate partner violence, research is limited in this area, and most studies focus on the process following a court’s initial issuance of an emergency order. The purpose of this study is to address a major gap in the literature by examining cases where victims of intimate partner violence are denied access to temporary orders of protection. The study sample included a review of 2,205 petitions that had been denied by a Kentucky court during the 2003 fiscal year. The study offers important insights into the …

Pfo Law Reform, A Crucial First Step Towards Sentencing Sanity In Kentucky, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this article is to engage in some analysis and discussion of the part of this sentencing law that cries out loudest for reform (the state's persistent felony offender law), reform that in short order would begin to deflate the population that has our prisons and jails grossly overcrowded. In this analysis and discussion, there is some brief consideration of the justifications used to support repeat offender laws (Part I), a segment on the history and evolution of Kentucky's law (Part II), an examination of a selection of repeat offender laws from other states (Part III), a report …

Fencing In The Frontier: A Look Into The Limits Of Mail Fraud, Kristen Kate Orr

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Sad, Sad Story Of Lula Viers, Richard H. Underwood, Sharon Ray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In this article, Professor Richard H. Underwood explores the murder ballad entitled Lula Viers. Lula Viers was from the Appalachia region of Kentucky.

Balancing Lives: Individual Accountability And The Death Penalty As Punishment For Genocide (Lessons From Rwanda), Melynda J. Price

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this Article is not to answer the question of whether the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for genocide. One could safely argue that there is an emerging norm in international law against the death penalty, but individual countries have maintained their right to use the death penalty and continue to do so in code and in practice. This Article, using Rwanda as a case study, evaluates the real outcomes of such discrepancies in punishment at the domestic and international level, and the ability of both approaches to bring justice to the victims of genocide. Both domestic …

Delimiting The Culture Defense, James M. Donovan, John Stuart Garth

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This essay builds upon the arguments of Alison Dundes Renteln in her influential book, The Cultural Defense (2004), in which she argues persuasively for a uniformly recognized culture defense in certain litigations. Critiquing some of her details, we recast her three-prong culture defense test to more effectively balance the competing interests of minority culture members to have their ways of life taken seriously by the courts, and of members of the dominant tradition who wish to preserve the rule of law with its necessary perception as treating all parties equally. The offered formulation now includes the following five elements:

1. …

Litigating Salvation: Race, Religion And Innocence In The Karla Faye Tucker And Gary Graham Cases, Melynda J. Price

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The cases of Karla Faye Tucker and Gary Graham represent two examples of the renewed public debate about the death penalty in the State of Texas, and how religion and race affect that debate. This article explores how the Tucker and Graham cases represent opposing possibilities for understanding contemporary narratives of the death penalty. Though the juxtaposition of these two cases is not completely symmetrical, if viewed as a kaleidoscope—a complex set of factors filtered through the shifting identities of the person who is at the center of the immediate case—the hidden operations of race and religion can be examined. …

Turning Jails Into Prisons—Collateral Damage From Kentucky's War On Crime, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The primary purpose of this article is to scrutinize Kentucky's ever-increasing reliance on local jails for the incarceration of state prisoners. This objective cannot be achieved without an examination of the problems that compel counties and cities to allow (and even encourage) the state to capture their jails for this use. The first half of the article (Parts I-IV) provides general information about jails (including some pertinent history), contains a detailed description of jail functions (including some that have descended upon jails by default), and concludes with a discussion of what the state has done over two decades to convert …

Turning Jails Into Prisons--Collateral Damage From Kentucky's "War On Crime", Robert G. Lawson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Stella Kenney: A Little Problem In Evidence, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In this article, Professor Richard H. Underwood explores the murder ballad entitled Stella Kenney. Stella Kenney (whose real name was Kinney) was from Carter County, Kentucky.

Achieving Batterer Accountability In The Child Protection System, Leigh Goodmark

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Criminal Prosecution And Civil Remedies For Victims Of Sexual Offenses: Amendment Of The Rape Shield Law, Carol E. Jordan, Elizabeth S. Hughes, Mary Jo Gleason

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

In 2003, the Kentucky Supreme Court adopted the amended KRS 412, effectively making the language of KRE 412 consistent with the analogous Federal Rule of Evidence 412. Now, as in federal court, the provisions of the Rape Shield Law apply in both criminal and civil cases to govern when and how evidence of a victim's alleged sexual behavior or sexual predisposition may be introduced. The article describes the intent of the original Rape Shield Law and the implications of its amended version in both civil and criminal cases.

Difficult Times In Kentucky Corrections—Aftershocks Of A "Tough On Crime" Philosophy, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The objective of this article is to cast some light on corrections system problems brought on by elevated (and possibly unnecessary) levels of incarceration, and especially on problems that trouble the Kentucky corrections system and threaten to undermine the effectiveness of the state's justice system. Part II describes how the country came to embrace sentencing policies and practices capable of producing "a penal system of a severity unmatched in the Western world.” Part III describes Kentucky's embrace of equally harsh sentencing policies and practices and the inmate population explosion that has occurred as a direct result of those policies and …

Intimate Partner Violence And The Justice System: An Examination Of The Interface, Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Women entering the court system face a challenging experience, in part, because a courtroom can be an intimidating and difficult place for any person, and in part because women victimized by crimes in which the offender is known to them face distinctive difficulties when they seek the court’s remedies. The interface is also made more challenging for women as the literature offers disparate findings as to the efficacy of criminal justice responses and civil remedies. This article briefly explores the unique characteristics of intimate partner violence cases that influence the interface of these victims with the court system.Areviewis provided of …

Toward A National Research Agenda On Violence Against Women: Continuing The Dialogue On Research And Practice [Part Two], Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

No abstract provided.

Toward A National Research Agenda On Violence Against Women: Continuing The Dialogue On Research And Practice [Part One], Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

No abstract provided.

Prosecutorial Misconduct In Capital Cases In The Commonwealth Of Kentucky: A Research Study 1976-2000, Roberta M. Harding, Bankole Thompson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The prosecutor wields tremendous power within the American criminal justice system. When that power is misused-particularly in capital cases-tremendous injustices are perpetrated. Yet, occurrences of prosecutorial misconduct seem to occur with distressing regularity. An exhaustive study covering appeals from 1973-95 revealed that two-thirds of overturned death penalties in the United States resulted from overzealous police and prosecutors who withheld exculpatory evidence. Our study covered 55 Kentucky cases from 1976-2000 and found evidence of prosecutorial misconduct in nearly one-half of them, often with several instances per case.

Crimesong: Some Murder Ballads And Poems Revisited, Richard H. Underwood, Carol J. Paris

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This short Article, by a law professor and a law librarian, was written because of our personal interest in the old ballads, and because of the professor's desire to spice up the “meals-ready-to-eat” diet of problems and cases fed to students in law school courses. But more than anything else, this Article was written for the fun of it. To the extent that we appear to be advancing the occasional high-sounding hypothesis, we want the reader to understand that our speculations are offered only as an invitation to the sociologists, musicologists, and historians. Our backgrounds are limited, and we do …

4th Annual Computer & Technology Law Institute, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law

Continuing Legal Education Materials

Materials from the 4th Annual Computer & Technology Law Institute held by UK/CLE in November 2002.

Gallery Of The Doomed: An Exploration Of Creative Endeavors By The Condemned, Roberta M. Harding

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article examines creative expressions produced by the death row faction of the incarcerated population. Looking at these works provide insights about what it means to live as a condemned person in our society, and about the people who occupy the death rows across our nation. After reviewing and analyzing a substantial amount of the enormous body of work of this genre, it became apparent that the condemned's creative endeavors reflect how they address and handle serious issues such as their executions and the ways spirituality influences their life. When the individual issues are examined, two general themes are evident: …

Stalking: Cultural, Clinical, And Legal Considerations, Carol E. Jordan, Karen Quinn, Bradley O. Jordan, Celia R. Daileader

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Crimes of violence against women are unique in their treatment by our culture and our system of legal justice. Both culturally and statutorily, victims of crimes which have historically been perpetrated against women, such as rape, domestic violence, and stalking have received significant focus. This article highlights cultural considerations and provides a statutory and case law analysis.

Capital Punishment As Human Sacrifice: A Societal Ritual As Depicted In George Eliot's Adam Bede, Roberta M. Harding

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this article is to identify, describe, and analyze the historic and contemporary connection between the practices of capital punishment and human sacrifice. After describing how human sacrifice constitutes an integral component of capital punishment, it will be argued that the institutionalization of this antiquated barbaric ritual, vis-a-vis the use of capital punishment, renders the present use of the death penalty in the United States incompatible with "the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society"; and that consequently, this facet of capital punishment renders the penalty at odds with the Eighth Amendment's prohibition …

Perjury! The Charges And The Defenses, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Perjury is the most hotly debated topic in America today. In this witty and instructive article, the author explains what constitutes the crime of perjury, provides examples of how defendants have sometimes avoided conviction, and discusses the impact of federal and state statutes on prosecutors, defendants, witnesses, the judiciary, the legislature, and society.

Cyberlaundering: The Risks, The Responses, Sarah N. Welling, Andy G. Rickman

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article discusses the potential use of electronic cash for money laundering and possible government responses to the problem. Parts I and II provide an overview of electronic cash. Part III explores the effects that electronic cash can have on money laundering. Part IV explains through a series of hypotheticals how "cyberlaundering" can occur. Part V analyzes the federal government's response to the threat of money laundering with electronic cash. Part VI concludes the Article with suggestions.