Criminal Law Commons^™

Sex, Cells, And Sorna: Applying Sex Offender Registration Laws To Sexting Cases, Stephanie Gaylord Forbes

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Ruckus In The Caucasus: A Case Against Mikheil Saakashvili For Crimes Against Humanity In The August War, Yancy Cottrill

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

While the world's attention was focused on the fireworks display of the 2008 Olympic Games in China, the citizens of South Ossetia were watching the sky too. Only their sky was being lit up by warfare. At 7:30 p.m. on August 7, 2008, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, held a televised speech promising the Ossetians a ceasefire and unlimited autonomy.' At 11:00 p.m., Saakashvili ordered the Georgian Army to launch an offensive on Tskhinvalli, the capital of South Ossetia. Over the next five days, the civilians of South Ossetia and Abkhazia would be directly targeted by the Georgian forces and forcibly …

District Committee Of The Tel Aviv-Jaffa District Bar Association V. Halberstadt, Hanan Melcer, Ayala Procaccia, Uzi Vogelman

Translated Opinions

Facts: The Respondent, a lawyer, was convicted of drug possession in a criminal proceeding after pleading guilty to offences of possession of dangerous drugs for personal use, and the growing of a dangerous drug, in violation of sections 7(a), the end of 7(c), and 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance [New Version], 1973. The Respondent possessed a net weight of 25.68 grams of the drug cannabis, for personal use, and also unlawfully cultivated a cannabis plant weighing 5,480, and another weighing 3,420. The Respondent also admitted that he had been using cannabis for three years. As a result of the …

Summary Of State V. Lucero, 127 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 7, Brian Blaylock

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

An appeal of the Second Judicial District Court’s denial of the State’s motion to correct a reduced sentence imposed upon revocation of probation.

Statement Of David E. Aaronson In Support Of Hb 1075 To Repeal The Death Penalty, David E. Aaronson

Legislative Testimony & Comments

No abstract provided.

Summary Of Lamb V. State, 127 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 3, Erin Elliot

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appeal from a judgment of conviction by a criminal defendant convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Proper Crime Recording As An Effective Feedback Tool In Articulating A Crime Policy, Kevin A. Unter

Georgia Journal of Public Policy

Crime policy is subject to the policy process just like other governmental policies.  An effective crime policy is one that reduces the amount of crime in a police department’s jurisdiction, e.g., the city.  Accordingly, crime policy consists of the same policy components – agenda setting, formulation, implementation, and feedback.  The implementation of any crime policy depends on the information collected by police departments, often through crimes reported to the department via 9-1-1 calls or brought to a police officer’s attention through proactive police work.  The success of that police work relative to the reported crime first depends on whether the …

Provocation Manslaughter As Partial Excuse And Partial Justification, Mitchell Berman, Ian Farrell

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The partial defense of provocation provides that a person who kills in the heat of passion brought on by legally adequate provocation is guilty of manslaughter rather than murder. The defense traces back to the twelfth century and exists today, in some form, in almost every U.S. state and other common law jurisdictions. But long history and wide application have not produced agreement on the rationale for the doctrine. To the contrary, the search for a coherent and satisfying rationale remains among the main occupations of criminal law theorists.

The dominant scholarly view holds that provocation is best explained and …

Gangs, Violence, And Victims In El Salvador, Guatemala, And Honduras, Juan J. Fogelbach

San Diego International Law Journal

Country conditions in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras will require U.S. courts to address complex protection law issues involving current and former gang members, as well as their victims. For example, just three months after the Seventh Circuit's decision, the Sixth Circuit also held that former gang members were a particular social group. In order to ensure proper handling of these cases, advocates, adjudicators, government attorneys, and judges must acquire a high level of understanding of gangs and violence in the affected countries. To facilitate this process, this paper will synthesize and analyze publicly available information on gangs and violence …

Dangerous Discretion: Protecting Children By Amending The Federal Child Pornography Statutes To Enforce Sentencing Enhancements And Prevent Noncustodial Sentences, Holly H. Krohel

San Diego Law Review

This Comment argues that Congress should amend the child pornography statutes in order to prevent noncustodial sentences and to make some of the otherwise discretionary enhancements within the Guidelines mandatory. Part II of this Comment discusses the legislative history of the once-mandatory Guidelines and presents an overview of the sentencing structure for those found guilty of a child pornography offense in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252 or 2252A. Part II also briefly discusses the Supreme Court's holding in United States v. Booker, which rendered the Guidelines advisory. Part III illustrates how some district court judges exercised their newfound discretion--the …

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word: The Fair Sentencing Act Of 2010, Crack, And Methamphetamine, Kyle Graham

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Making The Best Of Felony Murder, Guyora Binder

Journal Articles

Although scorned as irrational by academics, the felony murder doctrine persists as part of our law. It is therefore important that criminal law theory show how the felony murder doctrine can be best justified, and confined within its justifying principles. To that end, this Article seeks to make the best of American felony murder laws by identifying a principle of justice that explains as much existing law as possible, and provides a criterion for reforming the rest. Drawing on the moral intuition that blame for harm is properly affected by the actor’s aims as well as the actor’s expectations, this …

And Death Shall Have No Dominion: How To Achieve The Categorical Exemption Of Mentally Retarded Defendants From Execution, J. Amy Dillard

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Provocation Manslaughter As Partial Justification And Partial Excuse, Mitchell N. Berman, Ian P. Farrell

William & Mary Law Review

The partial defense of provocation provides that a person who kills in the heat of passion brought on by legally adequate provocation is guilty of manslaughter rather than murder. The defense traces back to the twelfth century and exists today, in some form, in almost every U.S. state and other common law jurisdictions. But long history and wide application have not produced agreement on the rationale for the doctrine. To the contrary, the search for a coherent and satisfying rationale remains among the main occupations of criminal law
theorists.

The dominant scholarly view holds that provocation is best explained and …

And Death Shall Have No Dominion: How To Achieve The Categorical Exemption Of Mentally Retarded Defendants From Execution, J. Amy Dillard

All Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the Court’s categorical exclusion of mentally retarded defendants from execution and explores how trial courts should employ procedures to accomplish heightened reliability in the mental retardation determination; it maintains that if a mentally retarded defendant is subjected to a death sentence then the Atkins directive has been ignored. To satisfy the Atkins Court’s objective of protecting mentally retarded defendants from the “special risk of wrongful execution,” the article explores whether trial courts should engage in a unified, pre-trial competency assessment in all capital cases where the defendant asserts mental retardation as a bar to execution and how …

United States V. Wise: Is Failure To Stop For The Police A Sentence-Enhancing Crime Of Violence?, Edan Burkett

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Such Visible Fiction: The Expansion Of Scott V. Harris To Prisoner Eighth Amendment Excessive Force Claims, Nina Frank

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Guns, Crime Control, And A Systemic Approach To Federal Sentencing, David E. Patton

Cardozo Law Review

Recent scholarship about the role of sentencing reform in reducing high levels of incarceration has focused on evidence-based, offender-specific solutions, such as how to better assess offenders' risk of recidivism and their amenability to diversionary programs. This Article proposes a new, systemic approach. In particular, it suggests that in cases where the primary rationale for steep sentences is crime reduction, as opposed to retributive notions of harm and blameworthiness, judges ought to engage in an evidence-based examination of how the government is making "use" of the sentences it seeks in its law enforcement efforts. And where the government's efforts fall …

My Brother's Keeper: An Empirical Study Of Attorney Facilitation Of Money-Laundering Through Commercial Transactions, Lawton P. Cummings, Paul T. Stepnowsky

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, various “gatekeeping initiatives” have been introduced through inter-governmental standard-setting organizations, such as the Financial Action Task Force, as well as through federal legislation in the United States, which seek to apply the mandatory customer due diligence, record keeping, and suspicious activity reporting obligations contained in the existing anti-money laundering regime to lawyers when they conduct certain commercial transactions on behalf of their clients. The organized bar has argued against such attempts to regulate it, in part, due to the lack of empirical data showing that, as a threshold matter, lawyers unwittingly aid money laundering in a significant …

Conceptualizing The Law From A Gender Perspective: Conceptions Regarding Victim And Accused, Gladys Acosta Vargas

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Illinois V. Wardlow

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Erasing The Non-Judicial Narrative: Victim Testimonies At The Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Mahdev Mohan, Vani Sathisan

2008 Asian Business & Rule of Law initiative

No abstract provided.

Sticky Metaphors And The Persistence Of The Traditional Voluntary Manslaughter Doctrine, Elise J. Percy, Joseph L. Hoffman, Steven J. Sherman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article begins with a curious puzzle: Why has the traditional voluntary manslaughter doctrine in criminal law-the so-called "heat of passion" defense to a charge of murder-proven so resistant to change, even in the face of more than a half-century of seemingly compelling empirical and normative arguments in favor of doctrinal reform? What could possibly account for the traditional doctrine's surprising resilience? In this Article, we propose a solution to this puzzle. The Article introduces a new conceptual theory about metaphor-the "sticky metaphor" theory-that highlights an important aspect of metaphorical language and metaphorical thought that has been almost completely overlooked …

Clarity And Confusion: Rico's Recent Trips To The United States Supreme Court, Randy D. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

The complicated structure of the Racketeer and Corrupt Organization Act has bedeviled courts courts and litigants since its adoption four decades ago. Two questions have recurred with some frequency. First, is victim reliance an element of a civil RICO claim predicated on allegations of fraud? Second, what is the difference between an illegal association-in-fact and an ordinary civil conspiracy? In a series of three recent cases, the United States Supreme Court brought much needed clarity to the first question. But in another recent case, the Court upended decades of circuit-court precedent holding that an actionable association-in-fact must be embody a …

Summary Of Dieudonne V. State, 126 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 1, Charles Gianelloni

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appeal from a criminal defendant claiming an absolute right to be sentenced by the same judge who accepted his plea deal. Defendant also objects to victim impact statements that were given at his sentencing trial, but were not properly sworn.

Violence Against Women In The United States And The State’S Obligation To Protect: Civil Society Briefing Papers On Community, Military And Custody Submitted To The United Nations Special Rapporteur On Violence Against Women, Rashida Manjoo, In Advance Of Her Mission To The United States Of America, Brenda V. Smith, Ashley Prather, Jaime M. Yarussi

Research Reports & White Papers

The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences visited the United States of America from 24 January to 7 February 2011. In the present report, she broadly examines the situation of violence against women in the country, including such issues as violence in custodial settings, domestic violence, violence against women in the military and violence against women who face multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination, particularly native American, immigrant and African-American women.

The Special Rapporteur highlights the positive legislative and policy initiatives undertaken by the Government to reduce the prevalence of violence against women, including the enactment and …

Genetic And Environmental Influences In Delinquent Peer Affiliation: From The Peer Network Approach, Ilhong Yun, Jinseong Cheong, Anthony Walsh

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mainstream criminologists have long maintained that delinquent peer group formation is largely a function of family-environmental variables, and have ignored self-selection into peer groups because of genetic proclivities. A small number of recent studies, however, suggest that genes are implicated in delinquent peer affiliation. Given the potentially far-reaching implication of such research findings, the authors replicate Beaver, Wright, & DeLisi's (2008) study, among others, using a direct measure of peer delinquency. That is, the authors analyze the Add Health genetic data employing a measure of peer delinquency which is based on the delinquency counts reported by peers themselves rather than …

The Crime Victim’S Expanding Role In A System Of Public Prosecution: A Response To The Critics Of The Crime Victims’ Rights Act, Paul G. Cassell, Steven Joffee

NULR Online

The American criminal justice system is often envisioned as one in which public prosecutors pursue public prosecutions on behalf of the public—leaving no room for crime victims’ involvement. However, state and federal statutes and state constitutional amendments have challenged this vision. Perhaps the best example of such a challenge comes from the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (“CVRA”), a federal statute passed by Congress in 2004 that guarantees victims a series of rights in federal criminal proceedings.

The Evolving International Judiciary, Karen J. Alter

Faculty Working Papers

This article explains the rapid proliferation in international courts first in the post WWII and then the post Cold War era. It examines the larger international judicial complex, showing how developments in one region and domain affect developments in similar and distant regimes. Situating individual developments into their larger context, and showing how change occurs incrementally and slowly over time, allows one to see developments in economic, human rights and war crimes systems as part of a longer term evolutionary process of the creation of international judicial authority. Evolution is not the same as teleology; we see that some international …

The Oberlin Fugitive Slave Rescue: A Victory For The Higher Law, Steven Lubet

Faculty Working Papers

This article tells the story of the Oberlin fugitive slave rescue and the ensuing prosecutions in federal court. The trial of rescuer Charles Langston marked one of the first times that adherence to "higher law" was explicitly raised as a legal defense in an American courtroom. The article is adapted from my book -- Fugitive Justice: Runaways, Rescuers, and Slavery on Trial -- which tells this story (and several others) in much more detail.

In the fall of 1859, John Price was a fugitive slave living in the abolitionist community of Oberlin, Ohio. He was lured out of town and …