Criminal Law Commons^™

Stories That Kill: Masculinity And Capital Prosecutors' Closing Arguments, Pamela A. Wilkins

Articles

The American death penalty is a punishment by, for, and about men: Both historically and today, most capital prosecutors are men, most capital defendants are men, and killing itself is strongly coded male. Yet despite—or perhaps because of—the overwhelming maleness of the institution of capital punishment, the subject of masculinity is largely absent from legal discourse about the death penalty. This Article addresses that gap in the legal discourse by applying the insights of masculinities theory, an offshoot of feminist theory, to capital prosecutors’ closing arguments. This Article hypothesizes that capital prosecutors’ masculinity is strongly influenced both by white Southern …

Vega V. Tekoh, Elizabeth M. Hudson

Tennessee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Forensic Science; Far From "Scientific Certainty", Kathleen Dewitt

Hofstra Law Student Works

No abstract provided.

As Long As There Is Money Involved In Justice, There Will Be No Justice: The United States' Criminalization Of Poverty And The Need To Demonitize Our Criminal "Justice" System, Amanda Piccione

Hofstra Law Student Works

This paper will show how the United States will fail to achieve a criminal “justice” system if money is involved. The cyclical impacts of poverty and marginalization on communities of color throughout our nation’s history will continuously perpetuate an unequal and unfair criminal system. Section II begins by delving into the history of poverty in the United States. It then analyzes poverty and its impacts today while specifically discussing the effects on communities of color and the intersections with crime. Section III examines the legal issue, exploring our monetized legal system and discussing how we can change our criminal legal …

Grandma Got Arrested: Police, Excessive Force, And People With Dementia, Rashmi Goel

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Recent events have shone a light on the particular vulnerability of people with dementia to police violence. Police are arresting people with dementia and using excessive force to do it—drawing their firearms, deploying tasers, and breaking bones.

To date, little attention has been paid to the burgeoning number of people with dementia, one of society’s most vulnerable populations, and their experiences with the criminal justice system. This Article examines how dementia leads people to engage in activity that appears criminal (shoplifting (forgetting to pay), and trespass (wandering), for instance) and the disproportionate response of police. In several cases where people …

Aesthetics Of Perpetration And Perpetrators In International Criminal Trials, Shannon Fyfe

Scholarly Articles

In Invisible Atrocities: The Aesthetic Biases of International Criminal Justice, Randle DeFalco argues that aesthetic, rather than legal, considerations play a role in shaping our understanding of international crimes. He claims that international criminal justice is focused on atrocities that constitute the most horrific spectacles of violence—and largely ignores “aesthetically unfamiliar forms of mass harm causation – those that are slow, attritive, banal, and hence generally unspectacular in nature.” DeFalco makes a compelling case in two senses: descriptively, that we do in fact consider spectacular atrocities to be more worthy of international criminal prosecution, and also normatively, in that …

White-Collar Crime, Sentencing Gender Disparities Post-Booker, And Implications For Criminal Sentencing, Sarah Turner

JCLC Online

“White-collar crime” is an amorphous term that has yet to be conclusively defined since its first use in 1939. This category of criminal activity results in what can be characterized as either economic harm or an impediment to the government’s ability to run successfully while minimizing conflicts of interest. Sentencing of white-collar crimes came into question in the late twentieth century due to a perception that white-collar offenders were receiving much lower sentences than offenders committing more traditional crimes. Additionally, the relationship between sentencing outcomes and status characteristics like race, age, citizen status, and gender were cause for concern. Different …

The Role Of Information On Contentious Firearm Policy: In An Examination Of Students Attending A Historically Black University, Justin J. Joseph, Shantae Motley, Alexander Aguado, Marlee Mcabee

Politics, Justice, Law, and Philosophy

Following highly publicized mass shootings on college campuses, more attention has been placed on making people feel safer at places of higher learning. In response, several states have passed campus carry policies, which permit conceal carry holders to carry their firearms on campus. Lawmakers have pursued these policies while ignoring the fact that most students and employees at college and universities are unsupportive of campus carry policies. The study aims to add to the campus carry literature by investigating the role of information concerning campus carry and its source of influence on support and perceptions of S.B. 11 amongst Black …

Lessons In Movement Lawyering From The Ferguson Uprising, Maggie Ellinger-Locke

Human Rights Brief

Michael Brown was killed by Officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. That day, I was on vacation in Michigan with my family, hanging on the beach and playing in the water. My father passed away from liver cancer exactly four months before, and I made the decision to close down his law practice in the St. Louis, Missouri area, and move to Washington, DC, where my longterm partner had taken a job. The trip to Michigan was supposed to be a stopover on my way to DC; my car was packed to the brim.

Abolishing Police Consent Searches Through Legislation: Lessons From Scotland, Josephine Ross

American University Law Review

Why have U.S. civil rights organizations omitted the abolition of consent searches from the panoply of recommended police reforms? As over 90% of all searches of cars and pedestrians in the United States are based on consent, this begs the question. The Supreme Court created the consent loophole so that police who lacked probable cause could nevertheless search pockets and cars. In the American context, consent searches bolster racial profiling and enable police harassment.

Americans do not have to wait for the Court to change the law. States and cities have the power to close off this loophole through legislative …

Is It Science Or Storytime? Expert Testimony Evaluating Child Witness Credibility In Sexual Assault Cases, Elizabeth I. Boals

American University Law Review

While jurors struggle with determining any witnesses’ credibility, an even more arduous task is determining the credibility of a child victim in a sexual assault case. Due to developmental immaturity, children lack important recall and communication skills, and the well-established procedures of direct and cross examination are ineffective at producing accurate and complete trial testimony. Despite the adversarial system being proven ineffective in these contexts, American courts remain hesitant to admit expert testimony based on established psychology tools. Specifically, courts have questioned the application of Statement Validity Assessments (“SVAs”), to assist jurors in evaluating witness credibility, as they believe such …

The Slippery Concept Of "Object And Purpose" In International Criminal Law, Patrick J. Keenan

American University International Law Review

In little more than twenty-five years, the field of international criminal law has grown from a small slice of public international law into a functioning system of international justice, complete with multiple juridical bodies and substantial scholarly attention. Building on the legacy of the Nuremberg Tribunals and drawing from international humanitarian law, human rights law, and domestic criminal law principles, international criminal law has become its own discipline. Creating any new field of law is a complicated endeavor; this is especially true when the field affects and is affected by so many politically sensitive issues. Throughout this doctrinal experiment, one …

Hostility Is In The Eye Of The Beholder: Why Congress Should Decriminalize Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment In The Military, Adam J. Crane

Criminal Law Practitioner

In 2022, for the first time in American history, Congress enacted legislation criminalizing hostile work environment sexual harassment. More serious types of sexual harassment have long been criminal under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but hostile work environment harassment is a civil wrong, not a crime, and should not have been made into one. Section 539D of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (now listed under Article 134, UCMJ (Sexual Harassment), is both unconstitutional and counterproductive. It violates the Fifth Amendment for vagueness by failing to provide fair notice of what is prohibited, and the First …

Victims Of Coercive Plea Bargaining: Defendants Who Give False Testimony For False Pleas, Lucian E. Dervan, Vanessa A. Edkins, Thea Johnson

American University Law Review

The last decade has seen a significant growth in academic research and literature related to coercive plea bargaining. One thread that emerges from this research is how coercive plea practices encourage innocent defendants to falsely condemn themselves, and sometimes even other innocent people to get the benefit of a “good” deal. This Article compiles and synthesizes this research to highlight how and why typical plea bargaining can lead to false guilty pleas. It also frames those who falsely plead guilty in the face of coercive bargains and those who are subject to false testimony as a result as victims of …

Vulnerable Fraudsters: Reverse Affinity Fraud In Cases Of Public Hoaxes, Caroline E. Vordtriede

Criminal Law Practitioner

This Article examines reverse affinity fraud, which is affinity fraud in the context of public hoaxes. In traditional affinity fraud the fraudster targets a vulnerable group, whereas in cases of public hoaxes the fraudster portrays herself as part of a vulnerable group and targets the well-meaning and sympathetic general public. This Article explores the mindset and characteristics of vulnerable fraudsters in reverse affinity frauds by analyzing the cases of Sherri Papini and Lacey Spears. Both Papini and Spears utilized social media and online giving sites to defraud the public, and their cases highlight the unique challenges prosecutors have in proving …

Woke Capital Revisited, Jennifer S. Fan

Seattle University Law Review

Inclusive corporate leadership is now at the forefront of discussions related to corporate governance. Two corporate theories help to explain the rise in prominence of diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) efforts in corporate leadership. First, an expanded definition of corporate purpose which elevated the idea of the importance of stakeholders, contributed to the momentum from business and legal quarters for broader corporate inclusion. Second, the increasing publicness of corporations—the social expectation of how large, typically public corporations should act given their position of power—also led to corporations becoming more active in the DEI space. It is against this backdrop that …

When Congress Passes The Buck: How Russia’S Invasion Of Ukraine Exposed Flaws In Granting The President Sanctioning Powers, Artem M. Joukov, Samantha M. Caspar

Seattle University Law Review

The United States (U.S.) Constitution provides few limitations on endowing the Executive Branch with powers to govern foreign trade, which was initially granted to the Legislature. In a world where global trade dominates, the power over foreign trade can be more important than the power over domestic matters. Leaving unrestrained trade authority to the Executive Branch may cause hazards for Americans and foreigners alike. Russia’s war in Ukraine demonstrates the flaws in permitting the Executive Branch to unilaterally sanction foreign states. This Article demonstrates how reactive Executive Branch policies infringed on the welfare and safety of American citizens and foreigners …

Pedaling Backwards: Examining The King County Board Of Health’S Choice To Repeal Its Bicycle Helmet Law, Schuyler M. Peters

Seattle University Law Review

In Part I, this Comment will explain the Helmet Law itself and the timeline that ultimately led to its repeal. Part II will focus on the positive impact of the Helmet Law, the dangers associated with the repeal, why the repeal should not have occurred in the manner it did, and what societal costs stem from the BOH’s decision. Part III will address the actions that must be taken to revoke this repeal and the reasons behind these alternative pathways, including an Equity Impact Review study specifically on the consequences of repeal, a collaborative outreach program to bring helmets to …

Ukraine's Push To Prosecute Aggression: Implications For Immunity Ratione Personae And The Crime Of Aggression, Rebecca Hamilton

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Unwinding “Law And Order”: How Second Look Mechanisms Resist Mass Incarceration And Increase Justice, Destiny Fullwood, Cecilia Bruni

Human Rights Brief

For decades, the United States has used incarceration to achieve a particularized version of safety. Amidst the civil rights movement, presidential candidate Barry Goldwater wielded the phrase “law and order” against the masses of Black men, women, and children in their fight for equitable treatment. This came at a time when “[i]t was no longer socially permissible for polite White people to say they opposed equal rights for Black Americans. Instead, they began ‘talking about the urban uprisings’” and “attaching [those] to street crime, to ordinary lawlessness[.]” The result was a decades-long, persistent campaign to maintain order by arresting and …

Politics And The Criminal Enforcement Of The Toxic Substances Control Act, Dr. Joshua Ozymy, Dr. Melissa Jarrell Ozymy, Dr. Danielle Mcgurrin

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

Environmental crimes related to chemical substances are governed under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). When these violations involve significant harm or culpable conduct they may be remedied through criminal prosecution. While Democratic and Republican presidents have offered historically varied support for criminal enforcement, we know very little about how politics affects TSCA enforcement outcomes or TSCA criminal enforcement generally. To address these issues, we performed a content analysis of 2,728 criminal prosecutions from 1983-2021 that derive from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) criminal investigations and select all TSCA prosecutions. Results show 75 prosecutions were adjudicated, involving 137 …

The War In Ukraine: A Case Study In Modern Atrocity Crimes Documentation, Dr. Paul R. Williams, Nicole Carle

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Prosecuting Atrocities Committed In Ukraine: A New Era For Universal Jurisdiction?, Yvonne M. Dutton

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The Ukraine Crisis And The Future Of International Courts And Tribunals, Milena Sterio

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Prosecuting Russian Leaders For War Crimes (Oct. 24, 2021 Broadcast), Talking Foreign Policy

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

No-Knock Warrants: Protective Or Predatory For North Carolinians?, Micah Mooring

Campbell Law Review

Much ink has been spilled on arguments for restraining law enforcement’s use of no-knock warrants. In 2020, the issue was thrust into the national spotlight with the tragic death of Breonna Taylor at the hands of the Louisville Metro Police Department. While national attention focused on the federal response, Oregon, Florida, Virginia, and other states sprang into action by critically reexamining the justifications offered for the use of no-knock warrants and, in some cases, finding these justifications wanting. The Comment suggests that the justification of safety that no-knock warrants share with their predecessor, the venerable knock-and-announce rule, is not borne …

The First Offense Is Just A Ticket? How Culture And Lobbying Shaped Wisconsin's Drunk Driving Law, And What To Do About It, Noah Wolfenstein

Marquette Law Review

Wisconsin is known for, and proud of, its heavy drinking culture. The Badger State also acts as a safe haven for drunk drivers, of which there are many. Most notably, Wisconsin is the only member of the fifty states which does not criminally punish first-time drunk driving offenders. If the Wisconsin legislature has any interest in the public safety of its constituents, then new drunk driving prevention measures must be implemented.

Sovereign, Employer, Community: A Theory Of Military Justice Beyond Discipline, Obedience, And Efficiency, Dan Maurer

Marquette Law Review

Unfortunately, when we look for such a theory to understand or legitimate the structure, foundational premises, and evolutionary path of the U.S. military’s separate criminal justice system, we find only a mirage—the blurry image of a super-rationale that simply evaporates the closer we inspect it. There is no theory that sheds light on why the system is what it is, nor how or why it could change further. This Article proposes such a theory. Aside from breaking ground as the first comprehensive theory of military justice in the field’s storied history, it aims to contribute to legislators’, the courts’, commanders’, …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Women In Shareholder Activism, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

Even a cursory review of the history of American environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) shareholder activism reveals the presence of women leaders. This Article sketches some of this history and interrogates the role of women in the shareholder activism movement. That movement typically has involved claims by minority shareholders to corporate power; activists are nearly always on the margins of power, though minority shareholders may, collectively, represent a majority interest. This Article ascribes women’s leadership in shareholder activism to their longstanding position as outsiders to corporate organization. Women’s participation in shaping corporate policy—even from the margins—has provided women with …