Criminal Law Commons^™

The Role Of Courts In Preventing International Child Abduction, Deborah M. Zawadzki

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The note argues that international child abduction is a growing issue exacerbated by globalization, with existing legal frameworks like the Hague Convention and the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act (IPKCA) proving insufficient to address the problem. It advocates for a more proactive role for U.S. courts in preventing abductions through legislative support and comprehensive preventative measures, emphasizing the need for state-level reforms, such as Texas’s H.B. 1899, to fill gaps in current laws and protect children at risk

Hate Crime Law In West Virginia, Paul R. Sheridan

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—The Fourth Amendment Challenge To Dna Sampling Of Arrestees Pursuant To The Justice For All Act Of 2004: A Proposed Modification To The Traditional Fourth Amendment Test Of Reasonableness, Kimberly A. Polanco

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Paper Tiger Of Gideon V. Wainwright And The Evisceration Of The Right To Appointment Of Legal Counsel For Indigent Defendants, Amanda Myra Hornung

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The note examines the disparity between the Sixth Amendment's promise of counsel for indigent defendants and the realities of its implementation, arguing that while landmark cases like Gideon v. Wainwright established the right to appointed counsel in state criminal proceedings, significant gaps remain in ensuring effective representation. The analysis highlights systemic issues such as inadequate funding, excessive caseloads, and limited access to resources, which undermine the fairness of criminal trials. The note advocates for increased funding, reduced caseloads, and clearer standards for effective assistance of counsel to fulfill the constitutional guarantee of equal justice.

Causing Constitutional Harm: How Tort Law Can Help Determine Harmless Error In Criminal Trials, Jason M. Solomon

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Liberty Takings: A Framework For Compensating Pretrial Detainees, Jeffrey Manns

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Interrogation Warrants, Russell D. Covey

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lagrand And Avena Establish A Right, But Is There A Remedy? Brief Comments On The Legal Effect Of Lagrand And Avena In The U.S., Malvina Halberstam

Articles

No abstract provided.

Envy And Outsider Trading: The Case Of Martha Stewart, Jeanne L. Schroeder

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cleaning Up The Eighth Amendment Mess, Tom Stacy

ExpressO

This article criticizes the Court’s interpretation of the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause and proposes its own understanding. The Court’s jurisprudence is plagued by deep inconsistencies concerning the text, the Court’s own role, and a constitutional requirement of proportionate punishment.

In search of ways to redress these fundamental shortcomings, the article explores three alternative interpretations: 1) A textualist approach; 2) Justice Scalia’s understanding that the Clause forbids only punishments unacceptable for all offenses; and 3) a majoritarian approach that would consistently define cruel and unusual punishment in terms of legislative judgments and penal custom. As evidenced by the …

The Dormant Commerce Clause And State Regulation Of The Internet: Are Laws Protecting Minors From Sexual Predators Constitutionally Different Than Those Protecting Minors From Sexually Explicit Materials?, Chin Pann

Duke Law & Technology Review

Several states have enacted statutes to protect minors from harmful or obscene materials disseminated over the Internet, as well as from pedophiles seeking to use the Internet to lure them into sexual conduct. State and federal courts have diverged in their analysis of the Dormant Commerce Clause's impact on state regulation in these areas. While state courts have held that the Dormant Commerce Clause does not invalidate state luring statutes, federal courts have been consistent in finding state dissemination statutes unconstitutional. This iBrief summarizes recent state and federal jurisprudence in this area and concludes that state courts have not been …

Purposeless Restraints: Fourteenth Amendment Rationality Scrutiny And The Constitutional Review Of Prison Sentences, Michael P. Oshea

ExpressO

This Article presents an analysis and defense of the Supreme Court's current Eighth Amendment case law on prison sentencing. I argue that in the pivotal cases of Ewing v. California and Harmelin v. Michigan, a plurality of the Supreme Court has assimilated Eighth Amendment review of individual prison sentences to rationality review of state action under the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause. When the cases are read rightly, it becomes clear that Eighth Amendment review does not really ask whether a sentence is "grossly disproportionate," as the Court has asserted; rather, it seeks to identify arbitrary and capricious prison sentences …

Reports Of Batson's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated: How The Batson Doctrine Enforces A Normative Framework Of Legal Ethics, Laura I. Appleman

ExpressO

In this article, I aim to explain how the Batson procedure enforces a normative framework of legal ethics, a theory which I hope will be of use to both criminal law professors and scholars of legal ethics. Despite many recent prudential attacks against the Batson procedure and the peremptory challenge, I contend that Batson has a largely unarticulated ethical component, one that invokes a lawyer’s professional responsibility. Accordingly, using legal ethics as a lens through which to interpret Batson sheds new light on the doctrine. Batson’s ethical imperative affects the norms of the legal profession itself. By fostering a non-discrimination …

Teaching And Learning About Terrorism, William C. Banks

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Paul Bergman

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The Ethics Of Cause Lawyering: An Examination Of Criminal Defense Lawyers As Cause Lawyers, Margareth Etienne

ExpressO

Criminal defense attorneys are often motivated by an intricate set of moral and ideological principles that belie their reputations as amoral (if not immoral) “hired guns” who would do anything to get their guilty clients off. Using empirical data from interviews with forty criminal defense attorneys I explore the motivations that inform their decisions to enter the field of criminal defense and the values that influence the manner in which they do their jobs. I conclude that many criminal defense attorneys are in fact cause lawyers who are committed to individual clients but also the “cause” of legal reform in …

Book Review: Forensic Linguistics, Dru Stevenson

ExpressO

Review of John Gibbons' text "Forensic Linguistics"

A Brief Look At Broward County Lawyers’ And Judges’ Attitudes Toward Plea Bargaining As A Tool Of Courtroom Efficiency, Mohammad A. Faruqui

ExpressO

Even the most rigidly ideological prosecutors acknowledge that they need to plea out most of the less serious criminal charges to ensure justice without incurring an unmanageable backlog of cases. But what do most criminal lawyers and judges think about the plea arrangment system? Is it fair to defendants? Do lawyers use plea bargains to better serve their clients by finding the best deal, or do they use plea bargains to cut their case load for what some call "garbage cases?" This paper surveys a small sample to see how 21st century Broward County criminal lawyers feel about the plea …

Jury Trials In Japan, Robert M. Bloom

ExpressO

The Japanese are seeking to involve their citizens in the judicial system. They are also establishing a check on the power of the judiciary. Towards these goals, they have enacted legislation to create jury trials. These remarkable ambitions envision adopting a mixed-jury system, slated to take effect in 2009. In this mixed-jury system, judges and citizens participate together in the jury deliberation.

This article first explores the differences between mixed-juries and the American jury system. It then suggests why the Japanese opted for a mixed-jury system. The article explores psychological theories surrounding collective judgment and how dominant individuals influence group …

Plugging The “Phishing” Hole: Legislation Versus Technology, Robert Louis B. Stevenson

Duke Law & Technology Review

This iBrief analyzes the Anti-Phishing Act of 2005, legislation aimed at curbing the problem of "phishing." Phishing is the sending of fraudulent emails which appear to be from legitimate businesses and thereby fooling the recipients into divulging personal information such as credit card numbers. While this legislation may provide some assistance in the fight against phishing, it is limited by the global nature of the Internet and the ease with which phishers can hide and avoid judgments. This iBrief therefore concludes that although the Anti-Phishing Act can play a supporting role in the battle, technological solutions are the most effective …

Evaluating Sex Offenders Under Sexually Violent Predator Laws: How Might Mental Health Professionals Conceptualize The Notion Of Volitional Impairment?, Cynthia Calkins Mercado, Robert F. Schopp, Brian H. Bornstein

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This paper examines the significance of the Supreme Court’s Hendricks and Crane decisions, with focus given to how mental health professionals may conceptualize the notion of volitional impairment. The Hendricks decision authorized postsentence civil commitment for sex offenders having a mental abnormality or personality disorder, rendering them likely to engage in future acts of sexual violence. In the Supreme Court’s majority opinion, Justice Thomas implied that the Kansas Act was legitimized by limiting the class of offenders eligible for this specialized form of commitment to those who are “unable to control” their dangerousness. In Crane, the Court ruled that …

Neo-Colonial Relationships Gone Wrong: French Leaders Should Be Held Legally Responsible For Their Role In The Rwandan Genocide, Kirsten T. Bowman

ExpressO

This article explores the role of outside government intervention in civil war conflicts and the ability of these government actors to be held responsible for crimes committed by association and assistance to war criminals. By using the example of the French/Rwandan relationship and the criminal responsibility that France may have for its association and assistance to the Hutu majority government, it looks to the pitfalls that many western countries could find themselves in by assuming similar roles with other repressive and unstable regimes. This analysis proves particularly timely as lawyers for six Rwandan citizens recently filed a lawsuit with the …

Trial Distortion And The End Of Innocence In Federal Criminal Justice, Ronald F. Wright

ExpressO

This article starts with a troubling and unnoticed development in federal criminal justice: acquittals have virtually disappeared from the system in the last 15 years, and for all the wrong reasons. It seems likely that prosecutors have increased the “trial penalty” so much that defendants with meaningful defenses feel compelled to plead guilty, undermining the truth-finding function of the criminal process.

The article examines these federal developments in light of a proposed “trial distortion theory.” The theory I develop here evaluates the quality of plea negotiation practices in a jurisdiction by asking whether the system produces outcomes (convictions, acquittals and …

Deterrence And Crime Results, Marcelo Ferrante

ExpressO

This article offers a comprehensive study of the merits of the legal practice of punishing accomplished crimes more severely than attempted crimes all other things being equal (Differential Punishment) vis-à-vis the alternative of punishing them with equal sanctions (Equal Punishment). Unlike the overwhelming majority of the literature on the issue—which focuses on which practice better mirrors the offenders’ relative moral deserts—the article evaluates both practices from a consequentialist, deterrence-based point of view. In particular, it shows first that traditional economic theories of the criminal law should yield the conclusion that differential punishment is not superior to equal punishment. The few …

Calling On The Legislature: Dixon V. State And Georgia's Statutory Scheme To Protect Minors From Sexual Exploitation, Jed D. Manton

Mercer Law Review

In Dixon v. State, the Georgia Supreme Court analyzed Georgia's statutory scheme to protect children from sexual exploitation. A jury convicted Marcus Dixon of statutory rape and aggravated child molestation, for which he received the mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years to serve ten. The Georgia Supreme Court reversed Dixon's conviction for aggravated child molestation. As a result of the reversal, Dixon was released from prison because he had already served the requirements for his statutory rape conviction. The majority and concurring opinion urged the Legislature to clarify Georgia's statutes to expressly distinguish statutory rape from child molestation. The …

A Meaningful Criminal Justice System For The Future—An English Perspective, Baroness Scotland Of Asthal Qc

Mercer Law Review

The Fourth Annual John E. James Distinguished Lecture
Walter F. George School of Law
Mercer University
Macon, Georgia, September 21, 2004

Judge-Jury Agreement In Criminal Cases: A Partial Replication Of Kalven And Zeisel's The American Jury, Theodore Eisenberg, Paula L. Hannaford-Agor, Valerie P. Hans, Nicole L. Waters, G. Thomas Munsterman, Stewart J. Schwab, Martin T. Wells

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This study uses a new criminal case data set to partially replicate Kalven and Zeisel's classic study of judge-jury agreement. The data show essentially the same rate of judge-jury agreement as did Kalven and Zeisel for cases tried almost 50 years ago. This study also explores judge-jury agreement as a function of evidentiary strength (as reported by both judges and juries), evidentiary complexity (as reported by both judges and juries), legal complexity (as reported by judges), and locale. Regardless of which adjudicator's view of evidentiary strength is used, judges tend to convict more than juries in cases of "middle" evidentiary …

Bougainville Community Crime Trends: A Survey Of Crime In Arawa And Buka, Mark Findlay, Gerard Guthrie, Fiona Hukula, James Laki

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The fundamental difference in the role of the state in the recent histories of Arawa and Buka is critical to understanding community attitudes to crime and policing. In Arawa, the state was entirely absent for over 10 years during the civil war and community-based agencies provided the sole source of authority and social control. In Buka, the state remained in control in difficult circumstances. The peace process was based around indigenous dispute resolution techniques and now a role for the state is being gradually reintroduced into post-conflict Bougainville, including of policing services to Arawa. The differences in the recent histories …

The Innocence Protection Act Of 2004: A Small Step Forward And A Framework For Larger Reforms, Ronald Weich

All Faculty Scholarship

Passage of the Innocence Protection Act in the closing days of the 108th Congress was a watershed moment. To be sure, the bill that finally became law was a shadow of the more ambitious criminal justice reforms first championed five years earlier by Senator Pat Leahy, Congressman Bill Delahunt and others. But the enactment of legislation designed to strengthen — not weaken — procedural protections for death row inmates was rich in symbolic importance and promise.

Writing in the April 2001 issue of THE CHAMPION (Innocence Protection Act: Death Penalty Reform on the Horizon), I said optimistically: "The criminal justice …

"How Do You Plead, Guilty Or Not Guilty?": Does The Plea Inquiry Violate The Defendant's Right To Silence?, Robert F. Cochran Jr.

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.