Criminal Law Commons^™

Exonerations For Wrongfully Convicted Disabled Inmates: The Path To Salvation Is Paved With Bad Intentions, Marc Consalo

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Continuing Unevolving Model Of Decency, Kennedy V. Louisiana In Peril, Patrick S. Metze

Criminal Law Practitioner

Professor Metze reflects on Kennedy v. Louisiana in its part in the development of Eighth Amendment jurisprudence and how the Supreme Court initially used Kennedy to further our understanding of the limits of the Eighth Amendment. The Court recently avoided a meaningful discussion of how our society is maturing and evolving by acknowledging a purposeful effort of some to reflect modern beliefs in opposition to those who would interpret everything through an 18th-century prism. After a case-by-case analysis of how the Court has used Kennedy, it is apparent the conservative majority now on the Court has decided there is no …

Legitimacy Throughlines In The Structural Design Of International & "Internationalized" Criminal Tribunals, Michael J. Kelly

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Today, the rather surprising and sudden surfeit of prosecutions for international crimes by states utilizing universal jurisdiction as we open the second decade of the 21^st Century may represent a preference for domestic over international criminal prosecution altogether. Yet, the legitimacy quotient remains a key part of the discussion. For example, as discussed in section V below, with respect to the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine, opinion is divided as to whether prosecution for this crime should proceed from a newly created international tribunal or from an “internationalized” court within the Ukrainian judicial system.[1] Ukraine backs the …

Beautiful Means For Nefarious Ends, Eric Wahoff

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

This note will attempt to address the laws of art dealers and banks in a way that draws parallels with the past struggles of banks and today’s struggle in the art world to keep bad actors out. It will begin with surveying how art is currently used as a tool of criminals and the current regulatory regimes in the EU, New York, and California – the states with the most art brokers.Then the note will analyze relevant laws from the US banking industry. Finally, the note will discuss ways that banking laws that have been used to address money -laundering …

Volume 15, Issue 1 - Full Issue, Notre Dame Journal Of International & Comparative Law Volume 15

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

“17 Going On 23”: Sentencing Young People To Life In Canada, Debra Parkes

Dalhousie Law Journal

Canada is one of 67 countries worldwide that allows young people—those under the age of 18—to be sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized the presumption of diminished moral blameworthiness of young people as a constitutional principle of fundamental justice and invalidated a law that presumed youth should be sentenced as adults for some serious crimes, including murder. The burden is, therefore, always on the Crown to rebut the presumption and prove that a youth sentence would not be long enough to hold the young person accountable for their behaviour. Where the presumption can be …

Criminal Law, Thomas D. Church, Whitney Baker

Mercer Law Review

This Article provides a brief examination of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s most important criminal law opinions in 2024. Rather than engage in an exhaustive review of the facts and laws in each case, we focus on the key holdings from only the most noteworthy, published decisions. Section II of this Article addresses substantive criminal offenses, such as economic crimes, drug offenses, and firearm offenses, while Section III covers criminal procedure, the rules of evidence, and constitutional issues arising in criminal prosecutions. Section IV deals with the federal sentencing guidelines and other sentencing issues, and …

The Emerging Danger Of Ai-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material And An Unprepared Criminal Code, Jessica L. Terkovich

Northern Illinois University Law Review

The development and dissemination of child sexual abuse material (“CSAM”) using artificial intelligence (“AI”) is becoming easier and easier with technological advancements. This Article argues that traditional child pornography statutes should be extended to encompass fully AI-generated images. The Article outlines the history of the nation’s current federal CSAM laws and details the results of a nationwide survey of statutes which determined that few states have effective laws on the books regarding AI-generated CSAM. This Article also offers recommendations for constructing effective laws against AI-generated CSAM and concludes that harm comes from the very existence of CSAM, no matter how …

All-American Crime: Reflections On Welcome The Wretched By César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, Kit Johnson

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

In his 2024 book, Welcome the Wretched, Professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández questions why it is that non-citizens who have committed crimes are slated for removal from this country. After all, he notes, “Migrants don’t bring crime here. It’s already here. It always has been and always will be.”

We may not readily admit it, but crime in the United States is truly All-American. Section I of this Essay tries to shed light on the widespread nature of criminality in the United States by recounting my own crimes and those of family and friends, with the goal of pushing the …

Criminalization Of Immigration Through State Enforcement: Lessons From Texas’S Latest Efforts To Criminalize Immigration Through Senate Bill 4, A. Regenold Bright

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Immigration Interference: How Immigration Law Creates A Shadow Criminal Legal System, Matthew Vogel

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Wretched All Around, César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Punitive Desire, Belief In Redeemability, And Support For Rehabilitation: A Comparison Of Victimized And Non-Victimized Individuals' Attitudes Toward Criminal Offenders, Caleb Linder

Student Theses

This study examined the attitudes of victimized and non-victimized individuals toward criminal offenders, investigating whether the supportive attitudes observed in Spoo et al. (2018) extend beyond sexual offenses to other types of crime. The study also explored how the perpetrator’s relationship to the victim (family member vs. stranger) and participants’ previous exposure to the justice system influenced their perceptions of offenders. Contrary to our hypothesis, punitive attitudes did not differ between participants with a history of victimization and those without. Additionally, there was no significant difference in punitive attitudes toward stranger offenders compared to offenders known to the victim. Furthermore, …

Belonging Against The Odds: Exploring Restorative Justice Practices As Pathways To Foster Belonging In New York City Transfer Schools, Miguel Rodriguez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The U.S. education system perpetuates structural inequities that disproportionately affect Black students with the School-to-Prison Pipeline (STPPL) criminalizing them through Zero-Tolerance policies. Transfer schools are often a last resort for students pushed out of traditional schools provide a lens to examine the impact of Restorative Justice Practices (RJP) and Black student representation on belonging. This quantitative dissertation study analyzes secondary data from the NYC Department of Education using multivariate models to explore the relationship between RJPs and sense of belonging (SOB). Model 1 found that discussing feelings and emotions at school (Tier 1 RJP) had the strongest association with SOB …

Law Enforcement Privilege, Rebecca Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

You can’t question a secret you haven’t been told. The criminal legal system depends on fair and open proceedings to expose and regulate unlawful and unconstitutional police conduct through the courts. If police can use claims of secrecy to systematically thwart criminal defendants’ access to evidence, judicial review will fail. And yet that is exactly what is happening under a common-law doctrine called the “law enforcement privilege.” The privilege empowers police and prosecutors to rely on the results of secret investigative methods while withholding information from the defense about how those methods work. It risks perpetuating unconstitutional conduct, enabling wrongful …

Culpable Kids, Cara H. Drinan

Texas A&M Law Review

When a child commits a crime, how do states determine if that child is culpable? There are procedural rules that determine the forum for a minor’s trial and doctrines that limit children’s exposure to the most severe sentencing. But when it comes to culpability, states employ the same substantive law whether the defendant is 50 or 15. As this Article explains, that approach is profoundly flawed. In the early 21st century, in a series of cases known as the Miller trilogy, the United States Supreme Court established that youth are fundamentally different from adults and state sentencing practices must recognize …

The Real Impact Of General Deterrence: Empirical Insights From The Robbery Data Of Three American Cities, Andrew W. Eichner

Catholic University Law Review

General deterrence theory relies on the critical assumption that prospective offenders will be deterred from committing crimes when they are aware of the apprehension and punishment of others. This idea has been reiterated across thousands of years of Western political thought and has significant implications in modern American criminal sentencing, though it has not been historically subjected to rigorous testing. The recent availability of voluminous crime data permits a deeper examination of the real impact of sentencings on crime trends and allows the opportunity for previously impossible analyses regarding the efficacy of general deterrence.

To examine whether there is evidence …

Utilizing Equitable Remedies Via The Defend Trade Secrets Act's Extraterritorial Reach To Enforce Judgments Against Foreign Defendants, Marty Ishmael

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law School News: From The State House To The Court House 4-22-2025, Andrew Clark, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Deterrence Dilemma: Is It Time For Canada To Abandon General Deterrence As A Sentencing Objective?, Caitlin Salvino

Dalhousie Law Journal

When Canada first codified its sentencing framework in the Criminal Code, Parliament included deterrence as a sentencing objective. The sentencing objective of deterrence encompasses two aspects: specific deterrence for the individual offender and general deterrence for other potential offenders. I engage with the concept of general deterrence and its incorporation into Canadian sentencing law throughout this article. I argue that Parliament should abandon general deterrence as a sentencing objective under the Criminal Code. After reviewing the jurisprudence on general deterrence and conducting a systematic review of its current application in Ontario sentencing decisions, I argue that general deterrence should be …

Felony Offenders' Perceptions Of Effective Rehabilitation And Reintegration Programs In Northern Colorado, Burnes Marjorie

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Criminal justice reform programs in the U.S. have grown and developed as studies have found that older methods of criminal punishment are ineffective in terms of reducing the likelihood of an inmate being reincarcerated after release, referred to as “recidivism.” With the growth of these reforms, ground-breaking systems have been integrated into prisons in the form of rehabilitation and reintegration programs which serve to reduce recidivism. However, with the development of numerous new unique and powerful programs, determining which rehabilitation and reintegration programs are most effective in reducing recidivism in felony offenders in the U.S. is critical. Past research …

Imposing Restrictions On The First Step Act’S Retroactive Application To Vacated Sentences, Isabelle M. Carbajales, Lauren O’Neil Hamilton

University of Miami Law Review

The First Step Act has been called “the most significant criminal justice reform bill in a generation.” Until recently, the Eleventh Circuit had not weighed in on whether Section 403 of the First Step Act’s sentencing reforms applies to defendants whose initial sentences were vacated and who face resentencing after the Act’s enactment. On July 2, 2024, the Supreme Court agreed to squarely consider this issue, despite the Department of Justice siding with defendants yet calling the issue “shallow.” On July 8, 2024, the Eleventh Circuit held these defendants are not entitled to the benefits of the First Step Act …

What’S In A Name? How The Eleventh Circuit Ignored The Fourth Amendment To Hold That A Warrant For One Person Authorizes The Detention Of Others, Jared Mcclain, Dylan Moore

University of Miami Law Review

Odds are, your name isn’t all that unique. Most people share the same first and last name with hundreds, if not thousands, of other Americans. The frequency with which people share a name raises an important question of civil rights: What happens when officers arrest and detain an innocent person based on an arrest warrant that was issued for someone else with the same name?

In the Eleventh Circuit, the answer is almost always “nothing.” So long as a mistaken detention lasts three days or fewer, officers are free from accountability for apprehending the innocent—even if those officers have good …

State Right To Appeal: Has Maine Been Too Cautious?, David J. Corson

Maine Law Review

The Legislature of the State of Maine recently passed an act relating to appeals by the State on questions of law in criminal cases. The Governor's approval of the act on January 29, 1968, was the culmination of some three years of research and debate. The purpose of this comment is to examine the form and scope of the act in light of the continuing controversy in other jurisdictions over the conflict of interests between the people and the accused in what may be characterized as a trend toward more comprehensive state appeal laws, to the end of concluding whether …

How Post Is Post-Conviction Relief In Maine?, Charles L. Cragin Iii

Maine Law Review

In a recent case the Maine Supreme Judicial Court delineated the prerequisites for relief under Maine's post-conviction relief statute. The court declared that actual or constructive custody is necessary for relief. In Thoresen v. State, petitioner was convicted of a felony in Maine in 1959. He had been represented by retained counsel, and had elected to plead guilty to an information charging him with grand larceny. His sentence was suspended by probation and he was permitted to leave the state. Formally complying with all the regulations of his probation, he was given a total discharge in 1961. In 1967, he …

Right To Jury Trial: Lemieux V. Robbins, Stephen R. Sunenblick

Maine Law Review

A sagacious English liveryman named Tobias Hobson allowed each customer to choose the horse nearest the door, thereby presenting these customers with no real alternative. The State of Maine made a like proposition in Lemieux v. Robbins by implementing a novel criminal procedure whereby a defendant has a "choice" of either accepting his district court misdemeanor conviction as final, or appealing for a de novo trial by jury in superior court and possibly being convicted of a felony for contravening the same statute under which he was originally charged. The implementation of this procedure began with a complaint filed in …

Bernier V. State - The Right To Counsel In Entrustment Revocation Proceedings, Peter J. Detroy

Maine Law Review

Theodore Bernier was adjudicated a juvenile offender in September, 1966, and was subsequently committed to the Boys Training Center (BTC) for the term of his minority. In February, 1968, he was released on entrustment to his parents. Almost a year and a half later, Bernier was questioned by local police regarding his possible involvement in the theft of greenstamps from a local store. Although he was released without the police taking further action, they notified an aftercare and placement worker assigned to the BTC of the questioning. As a result, the BTC revoked the entrustment, and the police took him …

Extending The Smith V. Hooey Duty To The Holding Jurisdiction, Ronald D. Russell

Maine Law Review

The right to a speedy trial has been an integral part of the Anglo-American legal system since its foundation. The first statement of this guarantee seems to be in the codification of basic rights included in the Magna Charta. It was incorporated into the earliest laws of colonial America and later expressed in the sixth amendment to the Constitution. In Klopfer v. North Carolina, the United States Supreme Court stated, "The history of the right to a speedy trial and its reception in this country clearly establish that it is one of the most basic rights preserved by our Constitution." …

De Novo Juries, Misdemeanor Counsel, And Other Problems: Changes Ahead For The Maine District Courts?, Pierce B. Hasler

Maine Law Review

The Maine judicial system has two levels of criminal courts, the superior court having exclusive trial jurisdiction over felony prosecutions and the district court operating with concurrent trial jurisdiction for misdemeanors. The district court also processes the preliminary phases of felony cases; included in this function are bail hearings, initial appearances (arraignments), and preliminary hearings. To provide jury trials in misdemeanor prosecutions state law permits all district court convictions to be appealed to the superior court for trial de novo to a jury. The accepted reason for unlimited de novo trials is that the state constitution requires a jury in …

Extending The Smith V. Hooey Duty To The Holding Jurisdiction, Ronald D. Russell

Maine Law Review

The right to a speedy trial has been an integral part of the Anglo-American legal system since its foundation. The first statement of this guarantee seems to be in the codification of basic rights included in the Magna Charta. It was incorporated into the earliest laws of colonial America and later expressed in the sixth amendment to the Constitution. In Klopfer v. North Carolina, the United States Supreme Court stated, "The history of the right to a speedy trial and its reception in this country clearly establish that it is one of the most basic rights preserved by our Constitution." …