Criminal Law Commons^™

Why Is It A Crime To Stomp On A Goldfish? Harm, Victimhood And The Structure Of Anti-Cruelty Offenses, Luis E. Chiesa

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In the article it is argued that, contrary to what prominent animal law scholars such as Gary Francione claim, we have decided to criminalize harm to animals primarily because we are concerned about the wellbeing of such creatures, not because doing so furthers some other human interest. I do so in four parts.

Part I provides a brief historical analysis of animal cruelty laws that will show that, although many of these statutes were originally enacted as a way to protect private property, there has been a marked trend, specially in recent times, to punish animal cruelty regardless, and sometimes …

Small Claim Mass Fraud Actions: A Proposal For Aggregate Litigation Under Rico, Leah Bressack

Vanderbilt Law Review

Assume that, tomorrow, a large company advertises a "miracle pill" that it claims will cure all forms of cancer. The company uses a sophisticated national marketing campaign to convey a strong health assurance message, which it tailors to specific audiences: women with breast cancer, men with prostate cancer, older adults with intestinal cancer, and children with leukemia. In response to the national campaign, consumers across the country purchase the pill, which costs $10. Only then do consumers discover that the pill is worthless and that the company intentionally defrauded them.

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ("RICO") statute provides a …

Confronting Evil: Victims' Rights In An Age Of Terror, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

This Article examines a unique facet of the victims' rights movement: the use of victim impact evidence in the prosecution of individuals accused of mass killings. The Article provides the first detailed analysis of victim impact evidence employed in the capital trials of those responsible for the bombings in Oklahoma City (168 deaths) and the U.S. Embassy in Kenya (213 deaths), as well as the events of September 11 (almost 3000 deaths), and explores the many difficulties its use presents. These difficulties, the Article argues, warrant attention not only with respect to future U.S. mass killing trials in civilian courts, …

Vigilant Or Vigilante? Procedure And Rationale For Immunity In Defense Of Habitation And Defense Of Property Under The Official Code Of Georgia Annotated §§ 16-3-23, -24, -24.1, And -24.2, Robert Christian Rutledge

Mercer Law Review

Georgia law provides statutory immunity for a person charged with an assault that arose in defense of property including habitation and real property. Such a defense would apply to the scenario above. The procedure for utilizing those immunities, however, is not clear in the applicable statutes, Official Code of Georgia Annotated ("O.C.G.A.") sections 16-3-23, -24, -24.1, and -24.2 (the "Immunity Statutes"), or in recent cases applying those statutes. This Article proposes a procedure for using those immunities as efficiently as possible. While seeking an efficient procedure, this Article also attempts to ascertain the rationale and policies behind the Immunity Statutes. …

Addressing The Real Problem Of Racial Profiling In Seattle, Washington, Whitney Rivera

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

The Trafficking In Victims Protection Act: A Feasibility Assessment, Kristina Cummings, M.A.

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Forgive Me Father For I Have Sinned: The Victims, The Abusers, The Church And The Law, Stephanie M. Adduci, M.A.

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Regulating Intrastate Crime: How The Federal Kidnapping Act Blurs The Distinction Between What Is Truly National And What Is Truly Local, Colin V. Ram

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Women, Re-Entry And Everyday Life: Time To Work?, Dina R. Rose, Venezia Michalsen, Dawn R. Wiest, Anupa Fabian

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study focuses on women at various stages of re-entry into the community after involvement with the criminal justice system. In particular, it takes a close look at how the participants in the study manage their time in the face of the types of competing demands that are all too common to most people.

Juror Comprehension And The Hard Case: Making Forensic Evidence Simpler, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The complexity/comprehension nexus as it impacts on juror decision-making is addressed in the particular context of prosecution-led DNA evidence. Such evidence is for jurors the subject of pre-trial preconceptions, and is notoriously difficult to present and argue before a jury. The article looks at the comprehension of forensic evidence by jurors, a task qualified by the opinion of legal professionals whose responsibility it is to present and interpret such evidence in adversarial contexts.Jurors were surveyed post-verdict in trials where forensic evidence featured in circumstantial cases. These insights into comprehension were qualified by contesting views of legal professionals, and critical reflections …

Are Journalists Privileged?: Panel Discussion, Anthony Lewis, Max Frankel, Victor Kovner

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Reporter Keeping Confidences: More Important Than Ever, David Rudenstine

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reconceiving Civil Protection Orders For Domestic Violence: Can Law Help End The Abuse Without Ending The Relationship?, Sally F. Goldfarb

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Redefining The Question: Applying A Hierarchical Structure To The Mens Rea Requirement For Section 875(C), Karen Rosenfield

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Implementation Of The U.S. Department Of Justice’S Special Counsel Regulations: Hearing Before The Subcomm. On Commercial And Administrative Law Of The H. Comm. On The Judiciary, 110th Cong., Feb. 26, 2008 (Statement Of Professor Neal Kumar Katyal, Geo. U. L. Center), Neal K. Katyal

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

Death And Harmless Error: A Rhetorical Response To Judging Innocence, Colin Starger

All Faculty Scholarship

Professor Garrett’s impressive empirical analysis of the first 200 post conviction DNA exonerations in the United States (“Garrett Study”) has the potential to affect contemporary debates surrounding our nation’s criminal justice system. This Response explores this potential by harnessing the Study’s data in support of arguments for and against a contested doctrinal proposition — that guilt-based harmless error rules should never apply in death penalty appeals. My analysis starts with the premise that the Study’s real world impact will necessarily depend on how jurists, politicians, and scholars extrapolate the explanatory power of the data beyond the 200 cases themselves. While …

Summary Of Hooks V. State, 124 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 50 , Nevada Law Journal

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

No abstract provided.

Amicus Curiae Brief Relating To The Appeal Challenging The Order Of Provisional Detention Of 14 November 2007, Mahdev Mohan, Vinita Mohan

2008 Asian Business & Rule of Law initiative

No abstract provided.

Presidential Authority And The War On Terror, Joseph W. Dellapenna

Working Paper Series

Immediately after the attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush claimed, among other powers, the power to launch preemptive wars on his own authority; the power to disregard the laws of war pertaining to occupied lands; the power to define the status and treatment of persons detained as “enemy combatants” in the war on terror; and the power to authorize the National Security Agency to undertake electronic surveillance in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. With the exception of the power to launch a preemptive war on his own authority (for which he …

Targeted Interventions Could Ease Maine's Prison And Jail Populations, Mark Rubin

Justice Policy

Overcrowding and rising costs in Maine’s corrections system have become a serious problem. In the past twenty years, the average daily population in state prisons has grown 74 percent, while county jails have grown 193 percent. To accommodate this growth, Maine, in 2004, spent $127,343,971, not including debt service, to operate the prisons and county jails. This brief examines state prison, county jail, and probation population trends since 2004 and identifies key factors driving the number of prisoners

Arbitrary And F^@#$*! Capricious: An Analysis Of The Second Circuit's Rejection Of The Fcc's Fleeting Expletive Regulation In Fox Television Stations, Inc. V. Fcc (2007), Justin Winquist

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Speech: Latinas And Their Families In Detention: The Growing Intersection Of Immigration Law And Criminal Law, Sandra Guerra Thompson

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

In this article, Professor Sandra Guerra Thompson explores the growing enforcement of immigration law within the interior of the United States and the growing intersection of the criminal justice system and immigration law. Through the use of worksite enforcement sweeps and immigration screening by state and local law enforcement, growing numbers of undocumented persons are being taken into custody by federal immigration officials. She examines the plight of women and families held in detention centers under what are often deplorable conditions. Ironically, immigration detention centers offer fewer resources than those available in most state prisons. The immigration law judicial system …

Beyond A Conceivable Doubt: The Quest For A Fair And Constitutional Standard Of Proof In Death Penalty Cases, Robert M. Hardaway

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The death penalty remains the most contentious issue in criminal law jurisprudence, and continues to be challenged on both constitutional and moral grounds. What is most remarkable about American death penalty jurisprudence is that it has traditionally focused on purely technical and procedural aspects of the imposition of the death penalty, despite the fact that the most vulnerable plank in the arsenal of death penalty defenders is evidence that innocent people have been, and will continue to be, executed. Perhaps no legal principle is more difficult to explain to the layman or first-year law student than that of all the …

Depoliticizing Individual Criminal Responsibility, Bartram Brown

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Karen E. Woody, Putting Pandora On Trial, 98 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 699 (2008) (Reviewing Mark A. Drumbl, Atrocity, Punishment, And International Law (2007)), Karen E. Woody

Scholarly Articles

In the wake of increasing globalization over the past fifty years, international criminal law has transformed from a toothless shadow into a concrete reality; the International Criminal Court is the most recent and impressive institutional accomplishment. Unfortunately, international criminal law has enjoyed this progress on the heels of increasingly horrific international crimes. International adjudicatory institutions have taken many forms and the sentences they deliver have varied widely. In Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law, Mark Drumbl reviews the strides made in international criminal law from the Nuremberg trials through present-day trials, particularly those related to the crimes committed in Rwanda and …

Finding A Happy And Ethical Medium Between A Prosecutor Who Believes The Defendant Didn't Do It And The Boss Who Says That He Did, Melanie D. Wilson

Scholarly Articles

The increasing prevalence of DNA testing has proven that, at times, our criminal justice system renders wrongful convictions. Extrapolating from such significant errors, we can infer that smaller mistakes also occur. Because criminal prosecution is not an exact science, like DNA evidence, prosecutors can disagree about aspects of a case-whether to reward a cooperating defendant with a sentence reduction, whether to indict a defendant under a mandatory minimum statute, and even whether a defendant is guilty of a crime. This Essay examines the tension that arises when the prosecutor handling a case disagrees with her boss about one or more …

The Return Of Reasonableness: Saving The Fourth Amendment From The Supreme Court, Melanie D. Wilson

Scholarly Articles

Although there is no recipe for defining Fourth Amendment reasonableness, the Supreme Court produces its most anomalous Fourth Amendment outcomes when it decides "mixed" questions of reasonableness, assessing issues that turn on how ordinary, prudent citizens think and behave. The Court treats these mixed issues, combinations of fact and law, as if they raise purely legal questions. But mixed issues are more complex and require someone to determine historical facts, apply those facts to principles of Fourth Amendment law, and consider the totality of the circumstances, including taking into account community and cultural influences. The Supreme Court will take its …

Mothers, Babies And Jail, Rebecca Johnson

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

“Whites Only Tree,” Hanging Nooses, No Crime?: Limiting The Prosecutorial Veto For Hate Crimes In Louisiana And Across America, Tamara F. Lawson

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Coordinating In The Shadow Of The Law: Two Contextualized Tests Of The Focal Point Theory Of Legal Compliance, Richard H. Mcadams, Janice Nadler

Faculty Working Papers

In situations where people have an incentive to coordinate their behavior, law can provide a framework for understanding and predicting what others are likely to do. According to the focal point theory of expressive law, the law's articulation of a behavior can sometimes create self-fulfilling expectations that it will occur. Existing theories of legal compliance emphasize the effect of sanctions or legitimacy; we argue that, in addition to sanctions and legitimacy, law can also influence compliance simply by making one outcome salient. We tested this claim in two experiments where sanctions and legitimacy were held constant. Experiment 1 demonstrated that …