Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Criminal Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication Year

Articles 151 - 180 of 338

Full-Text Articles in Criminal Law

The Anomaly Of Entrapment, Jessica A. Roth Jan 2014

The Anomaly Of Entrapment, Jessica A. Roth

Articles

Now in our second decade after 9/11, we are firmly in the prevention era of law enforcement. Faced with the unacceptable consequences of identifying threats too late, government agents are moving aggressively to identify potential terrorists before they strike. Undercover agents and confidential informants necessarily play a large role in such efforts. As a result of such operations, we have seen a number of cases brought to trial in the federal courts in which defendants have asserted the entrapment defense. To date, the defense has not succeeded. However, as a consequence of these cases, the United States Supreme Court may …


Reflections On The Indictment Of Sitting Heads Of State And Government And Its Consequences For Peace And Stability And Reconciliation In Africa, Charles Chernor Jalloh Jan 2014

Reflections On The Indictment Of Sitting Heads Of State And Government And Its Consequences For Peace And Stability And Reconciliation In Africa, Charles Chernor Jalloh

Articles

In these remarks, the author considers the most recent challenge to the application of international criminal justice in Africa: Kenya's controversial November 2013 proposal to amend the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to temporarily exempt from prosecution sitting presidents accused of involvement with international crimes. He examines several legal and practical reasons why such a proposal is untenable. Instead, citing the principle of complementarity and urging the principled use of judicial and prosecutorial discretion, he contends that much of the African Union's current concerns about the Kenya Situation can be addressed within the confines of existing Rome Law. …


Evidence-Based Sentencing And The Scientific Rationalization Of Discrimination, Sonja B. Starr Jan 2014

Evidence-Based Sentencing And The Scientific Rationalization Of Discrimination, Sonja B. Starr

Articles

This Article critiques, on legal and empirical grounds, the growing trend of basing criminal sentences on actuarial recidivism risk prediction instruments that include demographic and socioeconomic variables. I argue that this practice violates the Equal Protection Clause and is bad policy: an explicit embrace of otherwise- condemned discrimination, sanitized by scientific language. To demonstrate that this practice raises serious constitutional concerns, I comprehensively review the relevant case law, much of which has been ignored by existing literature. To demonstrate that the policy is not justified by countervailing state interests, I review the empirical evidence underlying the instruments. I show that …


Prosecutor V. Taylor, Charles Chernor Jalloh, David P. Stewart Jan 2014

Prosecutor V. Taylor, Charles Chernor Jalloh, David P. Stewart

Articles

No abstract provided.


Prosecutorial Discretion And Environmental Crime, David M. Uhlmann Jan 2014

Prosecutorial Discretion And Environmental Crime, David M. Uhlmann

Articles

Prosecutorial discretion exists throughout the criminal justice system but plays a particularly significant role for environmental crime. Congress made few distinctions under the environmental laws between acts that could result in criminal, civil, or administrative enforcement. As a result, there has been uncertainty about which environmental violations will result in criminal enforcement and persistent claims about the overcriminalization of environmental violations. To address these concerns — and to delineate an appropriate role for criminal enforcement in the environmental regulatory scheme — I have proposed that prosecutors should reserve criminal enforcement for violations that involve one or more of the following …


Rate Of False Conviction Of Criminal Defendants Who Are Sentenced To Death, Samuel R. Gross, Barbara O'Brien, Chen Hu, Edward H. Kennedy Jan 2014

Rate Of False Conviction Of Criminal Defendants Who Are Sentenced To Death, Samuel R. Gross, Barbara O'Brien, Chen Hu, Edward H. Kennedy

Articles

The rate of erroneous conviction of innocent criminal defendants is often described as not merely unknown but unknowable. There is no systematic method to determine the accuracy of a criminal conviction; if there were, these errors would not occur in the first place. As a result, very few false convictions are ever discovered, and those that are discovered are not representative of the group as a whole. In the United States, however, a high proportion of false convictions that do come to light and produce exonerations are concentrated among the tiny minority of cases in which defendants are sentenced to …


Citizen Participation: Appraising The Saiban’In System, Daniel H. Foote Jan 2014

Citizen Participation: Appraising The Saiban’In System, Daniel H. Foote

Articles

Of the many reforms affecting the Japanese judiciary that were undertaken in connection with the recommendations of the Justice System Reform Council, one reform above all attracted widespread public attention: the introduction of the so-called saiban'in system. In this system, mixed panels of professional judges and lay jurors judge guilt and assess penalties in serious criminal cases. Following a five-year preparation period, the new system went into effect for the specified categories of crimes for which indictments were issued on or after May 21, 2009, with the first trials under the new system commencing in August 2009. Pursuant to the …


The Time Has Come For A Restatement Of Child Sex Abuse, Marci A. Hamilton Jan 2014

The Time Has Come For A Restatement Of Child Sex Abuse, Marci A. Hamilton

Articles

No abstract provided.


Criminal Securities Fraud And The Lower Materiality Standard, Wendy Gerwick Couture Jan 2013

Criminal Securities Fraud And The Lower Materiality Standard, Wendy Gerwick Couture

Articles

No abstract provided.


The Widening Maturity Gap: Trying And Punishing Juveniles As Adults In An Era Of Extended Adolescence, David Pimentel Jan 2013

The Widening Maturity Gap: Trying And Punishing Juveniles As Adults In An Era Of Extended Adolescence, David Pimentel

Articles

No abstract provided.


Criminal Mediation Has Taken Root In Idaho's Courts, Maureen Laflin Jan 2013

Criminal Mediation Has Taken Root In Idaho's Courts, Maureen Laflin

Articles

No abstract provided.


Do Sexually Violent Predator Laws Violate Double Jeopardy Or Substantive Due Process? An Empirical Inquiry, Tamara Rice Lave, Justin Mccrary Jan 2013

Do Sexually Violent Predator Laws Violate Double Jeopardy Or Substantive Due Process? An Empirical Inquiry, Tamara Rice Lave, Justin Mccrary

Articles

No abstract provided.


Empirical Fallacies Of Evidence Law: A Critical Look At The Admission Of Prior Sex Crimes, Tamara Rice Lave, Aviva Orenstein Jan 2013

Empirical Fallacies Of Evidence Law: A Critical Look At The Admission Of Prior Sex Crimes, Tamara Rice Lave, Aviva Orenstein

Articles

In a significant break with traditional evidence rules and policies, Federal Rules of Evidence 413-414 allow jurors to use the accused's prior sexual misconduct as evidence of character and propensity to commit the sex crime charged. As reflected in their legislative history, these propensity rules rest on the assumption that sexual predators represent a small number of highly deviant and recidivistic offenders. This view of who commits sex crimes justified the passage of the sex-crime propensity rules and continues to influence their continuing adoption among the states and the way courts assess such evidence under Rule 403. In depending on …


Does Living By The Sword Mean Dying By The Sword, Charles Chernor Jalloh Jan 2013

Does Living By The Sword Mean Dying By The Sword, Charles Chernor Jalloh

Articles

This article examines the right to self-representation in international criminal law, and the common challenges posed for judges effectuating that right in international criminal courts. Using a comparative law approach, the paper demonstrates how the interpretation of that right initially borrowed heavily from U.S. common law and later European civil law to address the problems caused by self-representing, disruptive, and uncooperative defendants. Although the right to self-representation is a Sixth Amendment right in U.S. law, and an equally fundamental one in international law, the author contends that this right seems better in theory than in practice. Indeed, since no self-representing …


Did Booker Increase Sentencing Disparity? Why The Evidence Is Unpersuasive, Sonja B. Starr Jan 2013

Did Booker Increase Sentencing Disparity? Why The Evidence Is Unpersuasive, Sonja B. Starr

Articles

The Sentencing Commission’s recent report on the effects of United States v.Booker makes a number of very worri- some claims.The most alarming is that the gap in sen- tences between otherwise similar Black and White men has nearly quadrupled: from 4.5 percent before Booker, to 15 percent after it, to 19.5 percent after United States v. Kimbrough and United States v.Gall. 1 The Commission further claims that interjudge disparity has increased in two-thirds of the federal districts, and that interdistrict variation has also increased.2 If its findings were accurate, and if these changes could be causally attributed to Booker and …


Deferred Prosecution And Non-Prosecution Agreements And The Erosion Of Corporate Criminal Liability, David M. Uhlmann Jan 2013

Deferred Prosecution And Non-Prosecution Agreements And The Erosion Of Corporate Criminal Liability, David M. Uhlmann

Articles

On April 5, 2010, a massive explosion killed twenty-nine miners at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal, West Virginia. Following the explosion, President Barack Obama vowed that the U.S. Department of Labor would conduct "the most thorough and comprehensive investigation possible" and work with the U.S. Department of Justice ("Justice Department" or the "Department") to address any criminal violations. Later in the month, the President and Vice President flew to West Virginia to eulogize the victims and comfort their families. It was the nation's worst coal mining disaster in forty years. The tragic loss of life at the …


On Estimating Disparity And Inferring Causation: Sur-Reply To The U.S. Sentencing Commission Staff, Sonja B. Starr, M. Marit Rehavi Jan 2013

On Estimating Disparity And Inferring Causation: Sur-Reply To The U.S. Sentencing Commission Staff, Sonja B. Starr, M. Marit Rehavi

Articles

In this Essay, Professors Starr and Rehavi respond to the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s empirical staff’s criticisms of their recent article, which found, contrary to the Commission’s prior work, no evidence that racial disparity in sentences increased in response to United States v. Booker. As Starr and Rehavi suggest, their differences with the Commission perhaps relate to differing objectives. The Commission staff’s reply expresses a lack of interest in identifying Booker’s causal effects; in contrast, that is Starr and Rehavi’s central objective. In addition, Starr and Rehavi’s approach also accounts for disparities arising throughout the post-arrest justice process, extending beyond the …


Mandatory Sentencing And Racial Disparity, Assessing The Role Of Prosecutors And The Effects Of Booker, Sonja B. Starr, M. Marit Rehavi Jan 2013

Mandatory Sentencing And Racial Disparity, Assessing The Role Of Prosecutors And The Effects Of Booker, Sonja B. Starr, M. Marit Rehavi

Articles

This Article presents new empirical evidence concerning the effects of United States v. Booker, which loosened the formerly mandatory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, on racial disparities in federal criminal cases. Two serious limitations pervade existing empirical literature on sentencing disparities. First, studies focus on sentencing in isolation, controlling for the “presumptive sentence” or similar measures that themselves result from discretionary charging, plea-bargaining, and fact-finding processes. Any disparities in these earlier processes are excluded from the resulting sentence-disparity estimates. Our research has shown that this exclusion matters: pre-sentencing decision-making can have substantial sentence-disparity consequences. Second, existing studies have used loose causal inference …


Interpersonal Power In The Criminal System, Kimberly A. Thomas Jan 2013

Interpersonal Power In The Criminal System, Kimberly A. Thomas

Articles

This Article identifies the workings of interpersonal power in the criminal system and considers the effect of these cases on criminal theory and practice. By uncovering this phenomenon, this Article hopes to spark a legal academic dialogue and inquiry that has, until now, been unspoken. This Article has roots in my former work as a Philadelphia public defender and in my current work as a clinical professor with students who appear in criminal and juvenile court. As an advocate for the poor in a busy courthouse, one of a lawyer's tasks is to discover the multiple "real" stories behind the …


Distinguished Brief: People Of The State Of Michigan V. David Mark Cole, J.J. Prescott, Mirian J. Aukerman, Michael J. Steinberg, Kary Moss, John Minock Jan 2013

Distinguished Brief: People Of The State Of Michigan V. David Mark Cole, J.J. Prescott, Mirian J. Aukerman, Michael J. Steinberg, Kary Moss, John Minock

Articles

This amicus brief on behalf of the Criminal Defense Lawyers of Michigan and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan argues that defendants accused of first- or second-degree criminal sexual conduct in Michigan must be made aware that pleading guilty will result in mandatory, lifetime electronic monitoring after their release in order for any plea to be valid under Michigan law and the U.S. Constitution. To be lawful, guilty pleas must be knowing and voluntary, which requires that defendants be informed of any punishment that would be a direct consequence of their guilty plea. Lifetime electronic monitoring is a …


Finding The Proper Measure For Conditions Of Pretrial Confinement, Alexander A. Reinert Jan 2013

Finding The Proper Measure For Conditions Of Pretrial Confinement, Alexander A. Reinert

Articles

Comment in response to Catherine T. Struve, The Conditions of Pretrial Detention, 161 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1009 (2013).


Custom, General Principles And The Great Architect Cassese, Mary Fan Dec 2012

Custom, General Principles And The Great Architect Cassese, Mary Fan

Articles

Major advances in international criminal law and procedure rose on the trusses of judicially elucidated sources of international law—custom and general principles. These sources depend on the crucial art of derivation advanced by the architect of modern international criminal justice, President Antonio Cassese. What has transformed international criminal justice into flourishing law able to address changing configurations of violence is the development of the art of finding law in the dark and wilds of murky unwritten norms. [para] President Cassese pioneered paths through a perilous bog. "[T]he law lives in persons," and to understand the law one must study the …


Notice-And-Comment Sentencing, Richard A. Bierschbach, Stephanos Bibas Nov 2012

Notice-And-Comment Sentencing, Richard A. Bierschbach, Stephanos Bibas

Articles

The article argues that criminal sentencing, often perceived as a singular, justice-focused moment, is in reality a complex, fragmented process heavily influenced by prosecutorial discretion and plea bargaining. It contends that public participation, inspired by principles of administrative law, could enhance the fairness, transparency, and legitimacy of sentencing and related processes, such as charging and plea bargaining. By integrating public input and structured decision-making, the criminal justice system could better align with democratic values and address systemic disparities.


Revisiting "Special Needs" Theory Via Airport Searches, Alexander A. Reinert Jul 2012

Revisiting "Special Needs" Theory Via Airport Searches, Alexander A. Reinert

Articles

Controversy has raged since the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) introduced Advanced Imaging Technology, capable of producing detailed images of travelers' bodies, and "enhanced" pat frisks as part of everyday airport travel. In the face of challenges in the courts and in public discourse, the TSA has justified the heightened security measures as a necessary means to prevent terrorist attacks. The purpose of this Essay is to situate the Fourth Amendment implications of the new regime within a broader historical context. Most germane, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) introduced sweeping new screening of air travelers in the 1960s and 1970s …


From The Thief In The Night To The Guest Who Stayed Too Long: The Evolution Of Burglary In The Shadow Of The Common Law, Helen A. Anderson Jun 2012

From The Thief In The Night To The Guest Who Stayed Too Long: The Evolution Of Burglary In The Shadow Of The Common Law, Helen A. Anderson

Articles

Burglary began evolving from the common law crime almost as soon as Lord Coke defined it in 1641 as breaking and entering a dwelling of another in the night with the intent to commit a crime therein. But sometime between the Model Penal Code in 1962 and today, burglary lost its core actus reus, “entry.” In the majority of jurisdictions, burglary can now be accomplished by simply remaining in a building or vehicle with the intent to commit a crime. Not only does such an offense cover a wide range of situations, but it allows burglary to be attached to …


The Death Penalty And The Mentally Ill: A Selected And Annotated Bibliography, Jean Mattimoe Jan 2012

The Death Penalty And The Mentally Ill: A Selected And Annotated Bibliography, Jean Mattimoe

Articles

The United States Supreme Court over the last decade has selectively whittled away at the scope and availability of the death penalty by exempting certain groups from execution under the Eighth Amendment. In 2002 the court ruled that executing mentally retarded criminals violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In 2005 the court ruled that the Constitution forbids the execution of individuals who were under the age of 18 when they committed their crimes. Currently there is an active debate on whether to extend the categorical exemptions created by the Court to the mentally ill. At the forefront …


Criminal Child Neglect And The Free Range Kid: Is Overprotective Parenting The New Standard Of Care?, David Pimentel Jan 2012

Criminal Child Neglect And The Free Range Kid: Is Overprotective Parenting The New Standard Of Care?, David Pimentel

Articles

No abstract provided.


Confronting The Invisible Witness: The Use Of Narrative To Neutralize Capital Jurors’ Implicit Racial Biases, Pamela A. Wilkins Jan 2012

Confronting The Invisible Witness: The Use Of Narrative To Neutralize Capital Jurors’ Implicit Racial Biases, Pamela A. Wilkins

Articles

How can capital defense lawyers craft narratives that neutralize jurors’ unconscious racial and ethnic biases? A well-developed body of research in cognitive psychology indicates that despite even the best of intentions and the absence of conscious prejudice, most Americans harbor unconscious biases against African Americans. These biases influence what we actually perceive, how we interpret what we perceive, and how we act. For reasons related to the content and structure of capital sentencing trials, these unconscious biases are particularly likely to influence capital jurors. In effect, unconscious racial bias acts as an invisible witness against the African American defendant, buttressing …


Africa And The International Criminal Court, Charles C. Jalloh Jan 2012

Africa And The International Criminal Court, Charles C. Jalloh

Articles

No abstract provided.


Requiring Miranda Warnings For The Christmas Day Bomber And Other Terrorists, Malvina Halberstam Jan 2012

Requiring Miranda Warnings For The Christmas Day Bomber And Other Terrorists, Malvina Halberstam

Articles

No abstract provided.