Criminal Law Commons^™

Death Penalty On Deathbed, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

Capital punishment involves killing helpless prisoners. It is uncivilized. It is wrong for the same reasons torture is wrong.

Confession And Mandatory Child Abuse Reporting: A New Take On The Constitutionality Of Abrogating The Priest-Penitent Privilege, Samuel G. Brooks

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Attempt By Omission, Michael T. Cahill

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Attempt By Omission, Michael T. Cahill

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Felon Disenfranchisement: A Call For Legislative Reform, Timothy P. Gilligan

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Felon Disenfranchisement And The Systemic Racism Of The Criminal Justice System, Matthew D. Itkin

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Does Strickland Prejudice Defendants On Death Row?, Kenneth Williams

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

New Theories Of Guilt On Appeal In Virginia Criminal Cases, Aaron C. Garrett

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gray Zones Of Modern Genocide, Megan Dale Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Italian-Jewish chemist and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi wrote in his work The Drowned and the Saved about the "Gray Zone," or holding place for all things difficult to categorize about his experiences in the Nazi camp Auschwitz. Because human tendency is to divide things in a rigid dichotomy, he argued, anything without a set role is brushed aside. I have extended this Gray Zone to include mutually shared situations from modern genocide including: the relationship of race/land to genocide, the "Forced Victim-Perpetrator" (victim forced to commit atrocities against his or her own people), and the complex international reaction to genocidal …

Examining The Impact Of Drug Court Participation For Moderate And High Risk Offenders, Kara Kobus

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of drug court participation among moderate and high risk offenders. While studies have found that intensive programs, such as drug courts, are more effective when focusing their services on high risk offenders, few studies have examined the relationship between offender risk and drug court effectiveness. Using the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) as a measure of offender risk, the study employed a quasi-experimental design to compare outcomes of drug court participants (n=228) and a matched sample of probationers (n=252). The analyses showed that drug court participants had lower rates of …

An Assessment Of Proposed Sex Offender Mobility And Residency Restrictions In Nevada, Samantha Dawn Beecher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research explores the impact of sex offender exclusion zones and residency restrictions proposed by Nevada Senate Bill 471. This law would prohibit sex offenders from being within 500 feet of places where children congregate and living within 1,000 feet of these places. Analyses conducted using Geographic Information Systems demonstrate the degree to which offender mobility, housing, employment, and access to social services may be restricted should the law be adopted and enforced. Data are also used to assess the potential impact of the law on victimization patterns. Policy implications, data limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Summary Of Sims V. Dist. Ct., 125 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 13, Kristopher Zeppenfeld

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Petitioners filed writs of mandamus challenging the district court orders denying petitioners’ requests to present evidence during competency hearings.

Summary Of Scarbo V. Dist. Ct., 125 Nev. Ad. Op. No. 12, Michelle D. Alarie

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Consolidated writs for mandamus challenging the district court’s denial of petitioners’ request for full and complete copies of competency examination reports prior to competency hearing.

Jurors’ Perceptions Of Juvenile Defendants: The Influence Of Intellectual Disability, Abuse History, And Confession Evidence, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Maria C. Vargas

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Understanding jurors’ perceptions of juvenile defendants has become increasingly important as more and more juvenile cases are being tried in adult criminal court rather than family or juvenile court. Intellectual disability and child maltreatment are overrepresented among juvenile delinquents, and juveniles (particularly disabled juveniles) are at heightened risk for falsely confessing to crimes. In two mock trial experiments, we examined the effects of disability, abuse history, and confession evidence on jurors’ perceptions of a juvenile defendant across several different crime scenarios. Abused juveniles were treated more leniently than nonabused juveniles only when the juvenile’s crime was motivated by self-defense against …

Group-Conflict Resolution: Sources Of Resistance To Reconciliation, Erin O'Hara O'Connor

Scholarly Publications

In the past few years a number of scholars in a variety of intellectual disciplines have contributed to a better understanding of dyadic conflicts and their resolution. In particular, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, lawyers, and others have explored the dynamics of apology and its role in deescalating disputes and promoting forgiveness and reconciliation. Furthermore, we have a better understanding today of the benefits to individuals from forgiveness and reconciliation. Victims who are able to forgive their transgressors have better psychological and physical health and lead richer lives.2 Because lawyers tend to focus their attentions on legal disputes, a growing body of …

He Versus She: A Gender Specific Analysis Of Legal And Extralegal Effects On Pretrial Release For Felony Defendants, Jeremy Ball, Lisa Growette Bostaph

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

The current study seeks to identify significant predictors of pretrial processing for both male and female defendants in an aggregate sample. The data used in this study is taken from the State Court Processing Statistics (SCPS), 1990-2000: Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2004). The original sample included a total of 87,437 felony cases. The relationship between relevant independent variables and five separate dependent variables (denial of bail, non-financial release, amount of bail set, making bail, and pretrial incarceration) were analyzed using both multivariate regression and Z-score comparisons within gender-specific models. Findings suggest that effects of …

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 …

Respect And Resistance In Punishment Theory, Alice Ristroph

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Towards A More Reasonable Approach To Free Will In Criminal Law, Stephen O'Hanlon

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

This paper questions criminal law's strong presumption of free will. Part I assesses the ways in which environment, nurture, and society influence human action. Part II briefly surveys studies from the fields of genetics and neuroscience which call into question strong assumptions of free will and suggest explanations for propensities toward criminal activity. Part III discusses other "causes" of criminal activity including addiction, economic deprivation, gender, and culture. In light of Parts I through III, Part IV assesses criminal responsibility and the legitimacy ofpunishment. Part V considers the possibility of determiningpropensity for criminal activity based on assessing causal factors and …

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.

Using Criminal Punishment To Serve Both Victim And Social Needs, Erin O'Hara O'Connor, Maria Mayo Robbins

Scholarly Publications

The criminal offender often commits two distinct wrongs with each criminal act. First, the offender commits a wrong against the victim, who is left feeling both aggrieved and vulnerable. Second, the offender wrongs society by engaging in conduct that violates social norms, thereby undermining others’ senses of personal security. The two wrongs are often addressed in different ways, and an exclusive or even primary focus on one can interfere with effective redress of the other.

For example, “criminal justice” in early western legal systems often began with vigilante justice, which was left entirely to victims and their allies. Even when …

Parents, Children, And The Law Of Assault, Hamish Stewart

Dalhousie Law Journal

The debate concerning the constitutionality and the possible repeal of s. 43 of the Criminal Code, the so-called "spanking" provision, has raised an important issue: when a parent touches a child without the child's consent, under what conditions is the parent's conduct an assault? Supporters of the'repeal of s. 43 have suggested that parents are protected from inappropriate prosecutions by the exercise of prosecutorial discretion and by the common law defences of de minimis non curat lex and necessity But prosecutorial discretion is not a suitable substitute for a proper definition of the scope of criminal liability,and the defences ofde …

Murder Felony Is Felony Murder: How The Nevada Supreme Court's Decision In Nay V. State Reflects The Growing Misconception Surrounding "Afterthought" Robbery, Joshua P. Gilmore

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Supranational Criminology: Towards A Criminology Of International Crimes (Alette Smeulers & Roelof Haveman Eds., 2008), Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

Not available.

The Detainees' Dilemma: The Virtues And Vices Of Advocacy Strategies In The War On Terror, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The State Of Rule 3.8: Prosecutorial Ethics Reform Since Ethics 2000, Niki Kuckes

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Empirical Look At Atkins V. Virginia And Its Application In Capital Cases, John H. Blume, Sheri Lynn Johnson, Christopher Seeds

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In Atkins vs. Virginia, the Supreme Court declared that evolving standards of decency and the Eighth Amendment prohibit the death penalty for individuals with intellectual disability (formerly, "mental retardation"). Both supporters and opponents of the categorical exemption, however, have criticized the Atkins opinion. The Atkins dissent, for example, urged that the decision would open the gates of litigation to a flood of frivolous claims. Another prominent criticism, heard from those more supportive of the Court's ruling, has been that the language the Court used communicating that states must "generally conform" to the clinical definitions of mental retardation is ambiguous enough …

Criminal Law—No Right To Revoke And Avoid Search-Ninth Circuit Rules That Consent To Airport Screening Cannot Be Revoked In An Administrative Search. United States V. Aukai, 497 F.3d 955 (9th Cir. 2007)., Bethany A. Gulley

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Outsourcing And Insourcing Crime: The Political Economy Of Globalized Criminal Activity, Tomer Broude, Doron Teichman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Globalization is on the rise. The last few decades have been marked by dramatic reductions in transaction costs that have helped bring together local markets. Technological advances such as wireless telecommunications and the Internet have connected buyers and sellers of goods and services across the planet through transactions that were not even feasible, let alone cost-effective, as little as a decade ago. No less importantly, the systematic removal of regulatory barriers to international trade has facilitated economic globalization. At the forefront of international economic liberalization, the creation of the World Trade Organization ("WTO") in 1995 extended multilateral trading rules beyond …

Privacy, Accountability, And The Cooperating Defendant: Towards A New Role For Internet Access To Court Records, Caren M. Morrison

Vanderbilt Law Review

Now that federal court records are available online, anyone can obtain criminal case files instantly over the Internet. But this unfettered flow of information is in fundamental tension with many goals of the criminal justice system, including the integrity of criminal investigations, the accountability of prosecutors, and the security of witnesses. It has also altered the behavior of prosecutors intent on protecting the identity of cooperating defendants who assist them in investigating other targets. As prosecutors and courts collaborate to obscure the process by which cooperators are recruited and rewarded, Internet availability risks degrading the value of the information obtained …