Criminal Law Commons^™

From White Plains To Austin: The Road From The Prison Reform Revisited Conference To The Opening Up A Closed World Conference, Michael B. Mushlin

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Opening Up A Closed World: What Constitutes Effective Prison Oversight?, Michael B. Mushlin, Michele Deitch

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Is Reasonable Cause To Believe?: The Mens Rea Required For Conviction Under 21 U.S.C. § 841, Jonathan L. Hood

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Losing Your Head In The Washer – Why The Brainwashing Defense Can Be A Complete Defense In Criminal Cases, Rebecca Emory

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mondrowitz V. State Of Israel, Ayala Procaccia, Miriam Naor, Elyakim Rubinstein

Translated Opinions

[This abstract is not part of the Court's opinion and is provided for the reader's convenience. It has been translated from a Hebrew version prepared by Nevo Press Ltd. and is used with its kind permission.] 

An appeal against the decision by the Jerusalem District Court whereby the State’s request to declare the appellant eligible for extradition to the United States, and this in order that he be criminally prosecuted for serious sex offenses against minors which he allegedly committed in the 1980s, must be granted. Until 1984, when he moved to Israel, the appellant was a resident and citizen …

Admitting Guilt By Professing Innocence: When Sentence Enhancements Bases On "Alford" Pleas Are Unconstitutional, Anne D. Gooch

Vanderbilt Law Review

A few days before Christmas in 1994, in Vineland, New Jersey, Charles Apprendi, Jr. was drunk. At 2:04 a.m., he fired several shots from a .22 caliber gun into the home of an African-American family in his neighborhood. By 3:05 a.m., he had been arrested and had admitted that he was the shooter. Apprendi was interrogated for several hours after these events. At 6:04 a.m., he apparently stated that he committed the crime because the victims were black, but he later retracted this statement. Apprendi was indicted on twenty-three counts in connection with the shooting, and eventually pleaded guilty to …

Inherent (Gender) Unreasonableness Of The Concept Of Reasonableness In The Context Of Manslaughter Committed In The Heat Of Passion, Antonia Elise Miller

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

No abstract provided.

Salvage Awards On The Somali Coast: Who Pays For Public And Private Rescue Efforts In Piracy Crises?, Geoffrey Christopher Rapp

American University Law Review

This paper, a contribution to the "Troubled Waters: Combating Modern Piracy with the Rule of Law" symposium, explores the question of who pays for rescue efforts associated with maritime piracy. The paper explores the availability of admiralty law's salvage awards to governmental and non-governmental actors who intervene to rescue vessels and crew from pirates. Such awards provide an unusual incentive to rescue, traditionally unavailable for land-based rescue, but may raise complicated questions of policy and international law. The paper concludes by comparing salvage awards to a recent trend in American states to adopt "Search and Rescue" expense statutes allowing governments …

Criminal Law And Procedure, Virginia B. Theisen, Stephen R. Mccullough

University of Richmond Law Review

The authors have endeavored to select from the many cases and bills those that have the most significant practical impact on the daily practice of criminal law in the Commonwealth. Due to space constraints, the authors have stayed away from discussing settled principles, with a focus on the "take away" for a particular case.

"I'M Going To Dinner With Frank": Admissibility Of Nontestimonial Statements Of Intent To Prove The Actions Of Someone Other Than The Speaker—And The Role Of The Due Process Clause, Lynn Mclain

All Faculty Scholarship

A woman tells her roommate that she is going out to dinner with Frank that evening. The next morning her battered body is found along a country road outside of town. In Frank’s trial for her murder, is her statement to her roommate admissible to place Frank with her that night? Since the Court’s 2004 Crawford decision, the confrontation clause is inapplicable to nontestimonial hearsay such as this.

American jurisdictions are widely divided on the question of admissibility under their rules of evidence, however. Many say absolutely not. A sizeable number unequivocally say yes. A small number say yes, but …

The Messy Reality Of Organised Crime Research, Mark Findlay, Nafis Hanif

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The analysis starts out by confronting and exposing the ideological motivations for dualism in conventional organised crime research. In order to suggest a cognitive pathway beyond this restrictive normative frame, it is essential to appreciate its potency and resilience. Law enforcement language buoyed up by popular culture representations of gangs, syndicates and crime bosses have become the accepted starting point for much research in the field. Research from this perspective, we suggest, plays its own part in organised crime mystification and as such retards the critical utility of enterprise theory. Next the paper shows how distracted and distorted theorising infects …

Changing The Sentence Without Hiding The Truth: Judicial Sentence Modification As A Promising Method Of Early Release, Cecelia Klingele

William & Mary Law Review

Last year, as the State of California struggled with a $42 billion budget deficit, its financial inability to correct constitutionally deficient prison conditions led a federal court to order the release of 40,000 state prisoners. In Oregon, Michigan, Connecticut, Vermont, and Delaware, spending on corrections now exceeds spending on higher education. Across the nation, more than one of every one hundred Americans is behind bars. When the financial crisis of 2008 dealt its blow, state correctional budgets were already nearing a breaking point. Now, in the wake of unprecedented budget shortfalls, state governments have been forced to confront a difficult …

"I'M Going To Dinner With Frank": Admissibility Of Nontestimonial Statements Of Intent To Prove The Actions Of Someone Other Than The Speaker - And The Role Of The Due Process Clause, Lynn Mclain

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Remodeling The Classified Information Procedures Act (Cipa), Afsheen John Radsan

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Balancing Liberty, Dignity, And Safety: The Impact Of Domestic Violence Lethality Screening, Margaret E. Johnson

Cardozo Law Review

This Article undertakes the first ever analysis of the consequences of the justice and legal system's extensive use of lethality assessment tools for women subjected to abuse. An increasing number of states are now requiring their police, prosecutors, civil attorneys, advocates, service providers, and court personnel to assess women in order to obtain a score that indicates the woman's lethality risk because of domestic violence. The mandated danger assessment screen of all women subjected to violence focuses only on the risk of homicide and thereby limits the definition of what is domestic violence. In addition, the accompanying protocol for the …

In Drag On Drugs, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

Since commentators generally assert that the war on illegal and illicit drugs has been a failure, we should evaluate the assertion and, then, opine on why there is a war, winnable or not.

Returning Prosecutions To The States: A Proposal For A Criminal Justice Restoration Act, John A. Humbach

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The expensive and largely redundant Federal justice bureaucracy could be reduced to a fraction of its size by restoring to the states their traditional role of prosecuting crimes that fall under state jurisdiction. Returning criminal justice functions to the states can not only reduce the impact and effective reach of Federal power but can also achieve a surprisingly substantial decrease in Federal spending.

A small change in the wording of an existing Federal statute could accomplish the restoration.

This essay sets out and briefly analyses such a proposal.

Summary Of Hoagland V. State, 126 Nev. Adv. Op. 37, Meredith Still

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The district court rejected appellant Richard William Hoagland’s argument that necessity is a defense to driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). The judge did not permit Hoagland to submit jury instructions on the defense or to present evidence to the jury to support the defense. In this case, the Nevada Supreme Court considered whether a defendant may assert a necessity defense to DUI.

Preventable Error: A Report On Prosecutorial Misconduct In California 1997–2009, Kathleen M. Ridolfi, Maurice Possley, Northern California Innocence Project

Northern California Innocence Project Publications

Preventable Error: A Report on Prosecutorial Misconduct in California 1997–2009 is the most comprehensive, up-to-date, quantitative and actionable study on the extent of prosecutorial misconduct in California, how the justice system identifies and addresses it, and its cost and consequences, including the wrongful conviction of innocent people. By shining a light on prosecutorial conduct, this groundbreaking research, the work of leading experts in the field from the highly respected legal resource, NCIP, will serve as a catalyst for reform.

A Modest Appeal For Decent Respect, Jessica Olive, David C. Gray

Faculty Scholarship

In Graham v. Florida, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits imposing a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release for nonhomicide crimes if the perpetrator was under the age of eighteen at the time of his offense. In so holding, Justice Kennedy cited foreign and international law to confirm the Court’s independent judgment. In his dissent, Justice Thomas recited now-familiar objections to the Court’s reliance on these sources. Those objections are grounded in his originalist jurisprudence. In this short invited essay, which expands on prior work, we argue that Justice Thomas should abandon these …

Sex And The Supremes: Towards A Legal Theory Of Sexuality, Elaine Craig

PhD Dissertations

This thesis examines how the Supreme Court of Canada, across legal contexts, has tended to conceptualize sexuality. It focuses primarily on areas of public law including sexual assault law, equality for sexual minorities, sexual harassment and obscenity and indecency laws. There were a number of trends revealed upon reviewing the jurisprudence in this area. First, the Court’s decisions across legal contexts reveal a tendency to conceptualize sexuality as innate, as a pre-social naturally occurring phenomenon and as an essential element of who we are as individuals. This is true whether one is speaking of the approach to gay and lesbian …

Israel, Palestine, And The Icc, Daniel Benoliel, Ronen Perry

Michigan Journal of International Law

In the wake of the Israel-Gaza 2008-09 armed conflict and recently commenced process at the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Court will soon face a major challenge with the potential to determine its degree of judicial independence and overall legitimacy. It may need to decide whether a Palestinian state exists, either for the purposes of the Court itself, or perhaps even in general. The ICC, which currently has 113 member states, has not yet recognized Palestine as a sovereign state or as a member. Moreover, although the ICC potentially has the authority to investigate crimes which fall into its subject-matter …

Honest Services After Skilling: Judicial, Prosecutorial And Legislative Responses, Iris E. Bennett, Jessie K. Liu, Cynthia J. Robertson, Govind C. Persad

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

In Skilling v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court substantially narrowed the reach of the “honest services fraud” statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1346, by holding that it applies only to “bribery and kickback schemes,” not to “undisclosed self-dealing by a public official or private employee.” Skilling v. United States, 130 S. Ct. 2896 (2010). Two companion cases also were decided the same day. See Black v. United States, 130 S. Ct. 2963 (2010); Weyhrauch v. United States, 130 S. Ct. 2971 (2010). These decisions have major significance for federal fraud prosecutions.

Case For Overseas Article Iii Courts: The Blackwater Effect And Criminal Accountability In The Age Of Privatization, The, Alan F. Williams

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

A series of high-profile cases involving the alleged murders of Iraqi civilians by U.S. contractors operating overseas has highlighted the longstanding problem of how best to address crimes committed overseas by civilian employees, dependents, or contractors of the U.S. government. Among the most notorious of these incidents is the alleged killing of seventeen Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad on September 16, 2007 by employees of Blackwater Worldwide, a private corporation specializing in military operations that has subsequently renamed itself "Xe."2News reports of this incident prompted embarrassment and outrage as many Americans learned that U.S. civilian contractors like the …

Designing Bespoke Transitional Justice: A Pluralist Process Approach, Jaya Ramji-Nogales

Michigan Journal of International Law

Although many scholars agree that contemporary transitional justice mechanisms are flawed, a comprehensive and unified alternative approach to accountability for mass violence has yet to be propounded. Like many international lawyers, transitional justice theorists have focused their assessment efforts on the successes and failures of established institutions. This Article argues that before we can measure whether transitional justice is working, we must begin with a theory of what it is trying to achieve. Once we have a coherent theory, we must use it ex ante, to design effective transitional justice mechanisms, not just to assess their effectiveness ex post. Drawing …

Protecting Victims From Themselves, But Not Necessarily From Abusers: Issuing A No-Contact Order Over The Objection Of The Victim-Spouse, Robert F. Friedman

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Contextual And Organizational Factors Influencing Police Use Of Force: A Multilevel Model, Hoon Lee, Hyunseok Jang, Ilhong Yun, Hyeyoung Lim, David W. Tushaus

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

The current study attempts to bridge this gap in research between contextual factors and police use of force. It also deepens our understandings of the association between organizational factors and use of force by incorporating police training into the analytical model. Finally, this study expands prior research by including multiple police agencies in the sample, thus producing research findings that can be more easily generalized.

The Faces Of Student Cell Phone Regulations And The Implications Of Three Clauses Of The Federal Constitution, Joseph O. Oluwole, William Visotsky

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The article examines the constitutionality of school district regulations on student cell phones, focusing on the Due Process Clause, the Free Speech Clause, and the Fourth Amendment. It argues that while schools have the authority to regulate cell phones to maintain an educational environment, such regulations must comply with legal standards to avoid infringing on students' rights. The analysis concludes that schools can enforce cell phone policies but must adhere to constitutional protections, particularly the Tinker test for speech and the T.L.O. test for searches.

Fighting Piracy With Private Security Measures: When Contract Law Should Tell Parties To Walk The Plank, Jennifer S. Martin

American University Law Review

This Article addresses the following question: when should contract law permit parties to discontinue performance under a private security contract aimed to combat piracy? Piracy has been 'on the rise' off Somalia and in East Asia, with serious attacks escalating. Some shipping companies have responded by drafting 'best management practices', hiring security companies to advise on countering the threat and hiring armed or unarmed security protection. After presenting representative factual situations involving pirate attacks, the Article describes the traditional approach to defining the obligations of parties and the performance issues that arise during contractual performance. This approach takes into account …

"Why Rebottle The Genie?": Capitalizing On Closure In Death Penalty Proceedings, Jody L. Madeira

Indiana Law Journal

Closure, though a term with great rhetorical force in the capital punishment context, has to date evaded systematic analysis, instead becoming embroiled in ideological controversy. For victims who have rubbed the rights lamp for years, inclusion in capital proceedings and accompanying closure opportunities are perceived as a force with the potential to grant wishes of peace and finality. Scholars, however, argue for rebottling the closure genie lest closure itself prove false or its pursuit violate a defendant's constitutional rights. In order to effectively appraise the relationship of closure to criminal jurisprudence, however, and thus to decide whether and to what …