Criminal Law Commons^™

The Urgency Of Artificial Intelligence Code Of Ethics, Tundjung Herning Sitabuana, Dixon Sanjaya, Ibra Fulenzi Amri, Nethan Nethan

Indonesia Law Review

The era of artificial intelligence has become a characteristic of industrial era 5.0 which has been used in various aspects. Potential economic value of AI has driven various forms of AI innovation development. Exploration of AI tends to override negative impacts of such developments. The emergence of ethical issues with presence of AI encourages the need for a law-based approach to establishing ethical standards to protect entire Indonesian nation. Therefore, this research was conducted to examine urgency for an AI code of ethics. This paper will normatively describe data qualitatively to answer urgency and development of AI code of ethics …

What Is Deeply Rooted In The Constitution?, Thomas P. Crocker

BYU Law Review

In a series of cases stretching over a century, the Court made a right’s roots a constitutive feature of its identity. Highlighting the analytic centrality of deep roots to the recognition of rights, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health withdrew prior judicial recognition of a woman’s right to reproductive choice, arguing that such a right was not properly rooted in the American legal tradition. But what does it mean for a right to have deep roots? A surprising feature of American constitutionalism is that there is no single answer to the basic analytic question of what it means for a right …

The Prosecutor Vacancy Crisis, Adam M. Gershowitz

BYU Law Review

There is a prosecutor vacancy crisis in the United States. Prosecutors are quitting in droves and there are few applicants to replace them. In Houston and Los Angeles, more than 15% of prosecutor positions are open. In Detroit, the vacancy rate exceeds 20%. In Alameda, 25% of prosecutor positions are empty. And in Miami, a staggering 33% of prosecutor positions are unfilled. The situation is equally dire in many large and small counties across the nation.

Drawing on data and interviews from more than two-dozen district attorney’s offices, this Article documents how low salaries, massive caseloads, lack of remote work …

Capital Trifurcation, William W. Berry Iii

Texas A&M Law Review

The death penalty is disappearing in the United States. Annual executions remain under 25 per year, and new capital sentences per year have not exceeded 75 in over a decade.

Over the past two decades, however, a new kind of death sentence has emerged—life without parole (“LWOP”). In practice, LWOP and death sentences are functionally equivalent, as most death row inmates die of natural causes in prison, not execution. For both economic and moral reasons, most states are not actively executing prisoners.

Therefore, capital sentencing proceedings that focus on life versus death neglect the more consequential question—life without parole versus …

Massey V. Texas: Eroding The Exclusionary Rule And Incentivizing Police Misconduct, Geoffrey S. Corn, Brandon E. Beck

Texas A&M Law Review

In April 2023, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the conviction of James Calvin Massey for possession of drugs discovered as a direct result of an unconstitutional Terry frisk. Ordinarily, with limited exceptions, the exclusionary rule prohibits the prosecution from using contraband discovered as a result of unconstitutional police action, akin to the situation Mr. Massey encountered. In fact, that’s exactly why the intermediate court of appeals reversed Mr. Massey’s conviction. When the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reinstated Massey’s conviction, it broke new ground, holding that because Mr. Massey resisted the unconstitutional Terry frisk, his uncharged misdemeanor offense …

Beyond Hierarchy: Investigating The Role Of Complex-Fluid Structures In The Accountability Of Criminal Organizations, María Manuela Márquez Velásquez, Rodrigo Moreno

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Globalization and technological development have led to quick transformations in criminal organizations, adapting to new forms/degrees of control and hierarchy. Existing legal frameworks governing responsibility for atrocity crimes have developed from the experiences of Western (center) countries and their understanding of traditional warfare structures. Thus, peripheral regions have been forced to employ doctrines with weak sociological basis. New and conventional local dynamics inside organizations and their consequential fluidity challenge the applicability of traditional modes of liability when seeking their members’ accountability.

This paper inquires about the suitability of two modes of liability under ICL –perpetration through an organization and superior …

Assembling Pieces Of Accountability For The Srebrenica Genocide, Annick Pijnenburg, Nataša Nedeski

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The Srebrenica genocide has been the subject of multiple legal proceedings against various actors before different courts, at both the national and international level. Amongst others, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has sentenced various individual perpetrators, the International Court of Justice has ruled on the responsibility of the Serbian state, and Dutch courts have been asked to rule on the liability of the Dutch state and the United Nations. This raises the following question: to what extent have multiple adjudicatory mechanisms across legal regimes managed to deliver accountability for the Srebrenica genocide and what are the remaining …

Foia Vs. Fair Trial: How The Freedom Of Information Act Limits The Ability To Uncover Brady Material In Federal Post-Conviction Proceedings, Anna Marchiony

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Issues Raised By The Civil-Criminal Dichotomy Of The Maine Oui Law, Bruce W. Smith

Maine Law Review

Moving to the forefront of a national trend, the Maine Legislature undertook a thorough reform of its operating under the influence (OUI) law in 1981. The new statute was billed "the toughest in the nation," largely because of a provision for mandatory prison sentences. The statute's most radical provision is not the mandatory prison term, however, but a section which gives prosecutors the option to treat less egregious first offenses as civil infractions rather than crimes. The section generates the broad issue addressed by this Comment: may trial by jury and other constitutional protections formerly afforded OUI defendants be denied …

The Obsolescence Of Voluntary Confessions In Maine, John C. Sheldon

Maine Law Review

The would-be assassin lurks in the crowd that gathers outside the campaign headquarters building. In anticipation of the candidate's appearance, the television technicians hoist their videotape cameras and illuminate the scene with floodlights, as the gunman nervously fingers the automatic concealed in the pocket of his field jacket. Moments later, the candidate emerges from the doorway; the assassin rushes into the floodlit view of the cameras, takes aim at the startled politician, and hollers: "I've been planning this for years, and now I'm going to give you what's coming to you." His shots ring out as Secret Service agents converge …

Examining State Statutory Selection Methods, Term Limits, And Required Qualifications For Appellate Judges As A Model For Reform, Angelo Brown, Wesley Mccann, Ruibin Lu, Brenda I. Rowe, Craig Hemmens

Journal of Criminal Justice and Law

Several reform proposals have been pushed forward for the federal judiciary- namely the United States Supreme Court- in recent years, including term limits, changes in judicial selection, and qualification criteria. Such changes could ostensibly apply to all federal appellate judges as well. The purpose of this study is to determine if states can provide a roadmap for Supreme Court reform discussions. This study utilizes a state-level legal content analysis of all statutes pertaining to judicial selection and qualification criteria for appellate-level judges. Specifically, selection mechanisms, age limits, term limits, and qualifications for selection are examined. Whether state statutory schemes can …

An Exploratory Study Of Academic Self-Efficacy In High School Education Completion Among A Group Of Former Juvenile Offenders, Deneil D. Christian, Joshua L. Adams

Journal of Criminal Justice and Law

A primary goal of the United States (U.S.) juvenile criminal justice system is to foster an environment where a juvenile offender can complete a high school education or equivalent. Extant literature has explored persistence in obtaining a high school credential. However, little is known about the role of self-efficacy in such attainment, and research is further scant that involves the geographic region of Pennsylvania, U.S. This study aimed to explore how former juvenile offenders perceived their academic self-efficacy while pursuing their education in a juvenile correctional facility in Pennsylvania. This study was guided by the following research question: How do …

Cyr V. Michaud: Correction Of Clerical Errors With Juror Affidavits, William S. Kany

Maine Law Review

Cyr v. Michaud, a civil suit to recover for personal injuries, was tried before a jury and resulted in a verdict which included specific answers to five interrogatories. After a unanimous verdict for the plaintiff was entered and the jury was discharged, the defendant obtained affidavits from all of the jurors which indicated that the jury had made a mistake. The trial court rejected a motion to correct the error and the defendant appealed. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, ruled that juror affidavits are not admissible to correct errors in the recording of verdicts. The …

The Parent-Child Privilege And The Parent-Child Crime: Observations On State V. Delong And In Re Agosto, Ellen Kandoian

Maine Law Review

Should a child be compelled to testify against his parent under threat of criminal punishment? Ignoring for a moment the applicable legal doctrines, there are several reasons why one might answer no. First, if we value the idea of family loyalty, and believe that loyalty of a child to his parent is particularly important for traditional, moral, and practical reasons, then measures taken by a state to undermine such loyalty must be viewed critically. Second, children tend to accumulate tremendous amounts of information about their parents' activities and are party or witness to many communications made by their parents with …

Corpus Linguistics At The U.S. Patent And Trademark Office, Tabrez Y. Ebrahim

BYU Law Review

This Article examines the intersection of corpus linguistics and patent law. It introduces the foundations of corpus linguistics and its application to the law and advances the potential for its application to patent examination at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Historically, the disciplines of corpus linguistics and patent law did not intersect until scholars began to consider the application of corpus linguistics to patent litigation for interpretation of terms in patent claims. Interpretation of legal language provided by corpus linguistics and applied to patent examination at the USPTO has yet to be addressed and is a novel …

Corpus Linguistics And The Original Meaning Of The Sixth Amendment, Wesley White

BYU Law Review

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right of an accused to have the assistance of counsel in a criminal prosecution. Put simply, under the U.S. Supreme Court’s current framework, an accused does not enjoy this right until the government has brought a formal charge. Thus, an accused who engages in plea bargaining before being formally charged is not guaranteed the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Many critics of this framework focus on the purpose of the Sixth Amendment to argue that the right to counsel should be guaranteed in pre-charge plea bargaining. Others point to policy concerns.

This Note is among …

The Mass Murder Epidemic Of The United States: Policy, Reflections, And The Way Through, Isaiah Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This work is an in-depth look at American culture and how the culture has shaped gun policies in the U.S. I also examine various policies that could be used to mitigate mass shootings in the United States, as well as some of the reasons these incidents have become so prevalent.

State V. Curlew: Assessing The Sufficiency Of Evidence Under The Corpus Delicti Rule, Brett D. Baber

Maine Law Review

In State v. Curlew, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, reversed a conviction for unlawful sexual contact. The court predicated reversal upon a reaffirmation of both the substantive aspect and the evidentiary aspect of the corpus delicti rule. The substantive aspect of the corpus delicti rule requires the state "to produce, exclusive of any confession or admission by the defendant, such credible evidence as will create a substantial belief that the crime charged has been committed by some person." The evidentiary aspect of the corpus delicti rule requires proof of the corpus delicti prior to the …

A Quarter Of A Century Of Rulemaking With Particular Attention To The Federal Rules Of Criminal Procedure, Frank J. Remington

Maine Law Review

It is a happy coincidence that Edward Thaxter Gignoux completes twenty-five years on the bench at about the same time that the present rulemaking procedures in the federal system reach their twenty-fifth anniversary. In the quarter of a century of the present system for rulemaking there have been three distinguished chairmen of the Standing Committee—the committee to which there is delegated overall responsibility for rulemaking by the Judicial Conference of the United States. The three chairmen are Senior Circuit Judge Albert Maris, generally thought of as the modern "Father" of federal rulemaking, Senior District Judge Rozell Thomson and the present …

Deadlocked Juries And The Allen Charge, Karen Pelletier O'Sullivan

Maine Law Review

Juries in cases requiring a unanimous verdict have three alternatives: a guilty verdict, a not guilty verdict, or no verdict for lack of unanimity. Deadlocked juries have long created a problem for efficient judicial administration. Early common law judges carried hung jurors around in oxcarts until a verdict "bounced out." More recent methods of forcing jurors to reach verdicts have included requiring them to deliberate all night and threatening to deprive them of water and heat. A more subtle method of encouraging jurors to reach verdicts is a trial judge's supplemental instruction to deadlocked jurors. A verdict-urging instruction is commonly …

Restraining The Prosecutor: Restrictions On Threatening Prosecution For Civil Ends, James A. Trowbridge

Maine Law Review

Prosecutors in some cases agree to dismiss criminal charges, admit a defendant to a diversion program, or enter a nolle prosequi in exchange for the defendant signing a waiver of any civil claims against law enforcement agents, governments, or private persons. The practice of a prosecutor bargaining for the release of law enforcement personnel or others from civil liability raises serious questions concerning the independence of the prosecutorial function, the relationship of prosecutors to other legal institutions, and the application of rules of professional responsibility. Generally, courts have been critical of these arrangements. The Model Code of Professional Responsibility (Code) …

State V. Durepo: Toward A Principled Maine Version Of The Impeachment Exception To The Exclusionary Rule, Andre D. Bouffard

Maine Law Review

As one might have anticipated, the broad substantive mandates of the major Warren Court exclusionary rule decisions have not been left completely intact by later Supreme Court decisions. Instead, the scope of the evidentiary exclusionary doctrine established by the Warren Court has been significantly narrowed by later Supreme Court decisions that have created numerous exceptions to the general command of the exclusionary rule that evidence obtained through unconstitutional means is inadmissible in a criminal trial. Although some members of the present Court argue that the exceptions to the exclusionary rule are consistent with the purposes of the rule, and therefore …

State V. Farnham: The Defendant's Exercise Of The Right To Stand Trial As Negative Character Evidence, Richard F. Buckley

Maine Law Review

A defendant in a criminal case may not receive a more severe sentence because he exercised his sixth amendment right to stand trial. However, determining when a court has more severely sentenced a defendant for exercising his constitutional right to a jury trial is a difficult task. Some argue that a defendant's choice to stand trial is relevant to the sentencing process as character evidence. The decision to stand trial, the argument goes, indicates a defendant's lack of remorse and an unwillingness to take the first step toward redemption by admitting his guilt. Others take the position that consideration in …

State V. Boilard: Are Jury Instructions On Statutory Defenses Essential To A Fair Trial?, Kristin A. Gustafson

Maine Law Review

In State v. Boilard, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, recently addressed the question of when the failure to instruct the jury regarding a defense available under the Maine Criminal Code constitutes error. The court held that the trial court's failure to give an instruction on the defense of justification did not rise to the level of obvious error. The court reasoned that because the instruction conflicted with the defendant's theory of defense, and because counsel for the defendant did not claim error at trial or on appeal, any argument that the defendant had been prejudiced …

State V. Harding: Municipal Police Authority And The Fresh Pursuit Statute, David S. Schuman

Maine Law Review

As early as 1551, during the reign of King Edward VI, courts held at common law that, except in cases of fresh pursuit, the power of a sheriff or justice of the peace does not extend beyond his jurisdiction. Recognizing the importance of jurisdictional boundaries as limits on a sheriff's authority, the Barons of the Exchequer denounced the possibility of "two several sheriffs in one same county," observing that "in this realm there are divers authorities, and none may exceed his limits or bounds." Modern state statutes setting forth the powers of local police continue to limit the extra-jurisdictional authority …

The Denial Of Bail Under Maine's "Proof Evident Or Presumption Great" Standard, Maureen Dea

Maine Law Review

When the framers of the Maine Constitution gathered in Portland in the fall of 1819, they decided that the document, unlike the Massachusetts Constitution on which it was based, should guarantee a right to bail pending trial. The convention adopted, apparently without debate or dissent, the following provision as part of the Declaration of Rights in article I . . .

Ad Hoc Constructions Of Penal Statutes, Joel S. Johnson

Notre Dame Law Review

The Supreme Court construed penal statutes in forty-three cases from the 2013 Term through the 2022 Term. In those cases, the Court tended to adopt narrow constructions, a preference consistent with several substantive canons of construction, such as the rule of lenity and the avoidance of constitutional vagueness concerns. Substantive canons were routinely included in party briefs, frequently raised during oral argument, and occasionally explicated in concurring opinions. Yet the Court did not rely on substantive canons in the vast majority of the narrow-construction cases. For example, the Court never firmly relied upon the rule of lenity—the substantive canon most …

Roving Extraterritoriality: The Murky Doctrine On State Laws Regulating Absent Citizens, Leo Schlueter

Notre Dame Law Review

It is generally agreed that sovereigns have the power to punish the crimes of their citizens abroad, at least in some situations. But sovereigns rarely exercise this power, and its contours are not well understood. This is especially true in the context of American federalism. It is unclear to what degree states have retained their sovereign extraterritorial powers, and the Supreme Court has never had occasion to fully explain their limits. Recent political developments, however, make it plausible that the question will soon arise. This Note attempts to provide some insight into the future debate over state criminal extraterritorial jurisdiction …

Criminal Law, K. David Cooke Jr., Andrew M. Healy

Mercer Law Review

The purpose of this Article is to review a selection of recent opinions from appellate courts that affect the practice of criminal law in a few important categories. This Article seeks to give guidance to both prosecutors and the defense bar in these areas, with an eye towards highlighting statements in opinions, concurrences, and dissents that display the Justices’ concerns of the current state and application of the law or projections of where the law can and should be.

Debunking Criminal Restitution, Lula A. Hagos

Michigan Law Review

Criminal restitution—the money paid by a defendant to a victim—is often overlooked amidst growing scholarly consensus about the adverse impact of criminal court fines and fees. Restitution receives less attention because it is perceived as a fair and unobjectionable sanction with legitimate goals, while fines and fees are now widely condemned as primarily serving as a funding source for local and state governments. Consequently, the animated and extensive discourse around financial punishment largely excludes criminal restitution.

Though criminal restitution may appear to have legitimate penological purposes, it serves to perpetually punish defendants who are poor—the vast majority of those in …