Criminal Law Commons^™

The Dilemma Of Piratical Ransoms: Should They Be Paid Or Not: On The Human Rights Of Kidnapped Seamen And Their Families, Barry H. Dubner, Kimberly Chavers

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Empirical Fallacies Of Evidence Law: A Critical Look At The Admission Of Prior Sex Crimes, Aviva A. Orenstein, Tamara Rice Lave

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In a significant break with traditional evidence rules and policies, Federal Rules of Evidence 413-414 allow jurors to use the accused's prior sexual misconduct as evidence of character and propensity to commit the sex crime charged. As reflected in their legislative history, these propensity rules rest on the assumption that sexual predators represent a small number of highly deviant and recidivistic offenders. This view of who commits sex crimes justified the passage of the sex-crime propensity rules and continues to influence their continuing adoption among the states and the way courts assess such evidence under Rule 403. In depending on …

Pharmageddon: A Statutory Solution To Curb Ohio's Prescription Abuse Problem, Ed Woodworth

Journal of Law and Health

Prescription abuse in Ohio continues to be a serious and complex issue that should be addressed. Accordingly, Part II of this Note examines the background of prescription drug abuse generally. It identifies the dangers of prescription drug abuse, the cost drug abuse places on society, some reasons for prescription drug abuse, sources of prescription drugs, and discusses the current state and federal laws regarding prescription drug abuse and prescription reporting. Part III discusses the positive and negative aspects of H.B. 93 and Medical Rule 4731-11-11 and then offers proposals to more effectively prevent prescription drug abuse. Part IV discusses various …

Do You Know Where Your Dna Is? The Need For Dna Legislation In Ohio, Elizabeth Collins

Journal of Law and Health

This Note examines the several privacy and safety issues stemming from DNA theft. Part II discusses constitutional and common law regarding the abandonment of property, particularly under the Fourth Amendment, and explains how the Fourth Amendment does not protect individuals from DNA theft. Part III details the many consequences resulting from DNA theft. These risks, among countless others, include employment and insurance discrimination, family turmoil caused by paternity testing which is often inaccurate and conducted without consent, genetic stalking, security risks, and the unauthorized publication of personal medical information and ancestral information. Part IV examines DNA theft legislation adopted by …

Making The Fair Sentencing Act Retroactive: Just Think Of The Savings . . . Clause, Jeff Lazarus

Cleveland State Law Review

This article advocates for the retroactive application of the Fair Sentencing Act. Part II of this Article will detail the history of the federal crack cocaine sentencing laws, from 1986 through the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act. Part III will detail the recent cases dealing with attempts at retroactivity in the lower courts. Part IV outlines the Supreme Court’s holding in United States v. Dorsey, which was a ground-breaking step towards the FSA’s retroactive effect. Part V offers arguments in support of retroactivity. Part VI offers legal challenges in which inmates can seek relief in the courts. In Part …

Striking A Balance: Why Ohio's Felony-Arrestee Dna Statute Is Unconstitutional And Ripe For Legistlative Action, Brendan Heil

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note argues that Ohio’s felony-arrestee DNA statute violates Article I, section 14 of the Ohio Constitution and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The initial physical swab and the subsequent database searches of an arrestee’s DNA sample, while the arrestee is in custody or being prosecuted, do not violate the Fourth Amendment. However, the inclusion of an innocent person’s DNA in Ohio’s DNA database, subject to repeated searches over time, violates both the Ohio and federal constitutional protections against unreasonable searches. Broadly written DNA statutes trample people’s civil rights, and more carefully drawn legislation could meet the …

Maritime Piracy: A Sustainable Global Solution, Paul Williams, Lowry Pressly

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Maritime piracy is a complex transnational security concern characterized by emerging international finance operations and organization, an oversupply of labor, and a low cost of market entry. This article provides a realistic picture of the driving forces behind maritime piracy in areas such as Southeast Asia, the Gulf of Aden, and the Gulf of Guinea. By examining some of the assumptions and proposed solutions in counter-piracy literature and policy, this article exposes some piracy illusions and proposes a sustainable, global response that addresses the persistent threat of modern maritime piracy. Today's manifold piracy challenges call for a multifaceted approach. Accordingly, …

International Law Weekend, American Branch Of The International Law Association Perspectives On Crimes Of Sexual Violence In International Law, Susana Sacouto

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Hamdan V. United States: A Death Knell For Military Commissions?, Jennifer Daskal

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In October 2012, a panel of the D.C. Circuit dealt a blow to the United States’ post- September 11, 2001 decade-long experiment with military commissions as a forum for trying Guantanamo Bay detainees. Specifically, the court concluded that prior to the 2006 statutory reforms, military commission jurisdiction was limited to violations of internationally-recognized war crimes; that providing material support to terrorism was not an internationally-recognized war crime; and that the military commission conviction of Salim Hamdan for material support charges based on pre-2006 conduct was therefore invalid. Three months later, a panel of the D.C. Circuit reached the same conclusion …

Perspectives On Crimes Of Sexual Violence In International Law, Susana Sacouto

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

INTRODUCTION: Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) during conflict and periods of repression has been a problem in every region of the globe.' Historically, these crimes were rarely prosecuted, particularly when government leaders were responsible for tolerating, encouraging, or orchestrating these crimes. However, the last two decades have seen an incredible transformation in the treatment of SGBV under international law. Great strides have been made in the investigation and prosecution of sexual and gender-based crimes, particular by the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone This essay examines the way …

"I Am Ronald Cotton": Teaching Wrongful Convictions In A Criminal Law Class, Cynthia E. Jones

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Transcending The Criminal Law's "One Size Fits All" Response To Domestic Violence, Hannah Brenner

Faculty Scholarship

Domestic violence is no longer a private matter confined within the four walls of the home. The shift from private to public is connected with marked progress within the legal system, which strives to protect victims and hold batterers accountable through a myriad of specific responses that have ranged from attitudinal and logistical shifts from law enforcement to increased attention within legal education to a general acknowledgment of the impact of domestic violence on individual victims, children, families, and the broader community to the passage of federal and state legislation.

The state legislative landscape has historically centered around a very …

On The 'Considered Analysis' Of Collecting Dna Before Conviction, David H. Kaye

Faculty Scholarship

For nearly a decade, DNA-on-arrest laws eluded scrutiny in the courts. For another five years, they withstood a gathering storm of constitutional challenges. In Maryland v. King, however, Maryland's highest court reasoned that usually fingerprints provide everything police need to establish the true identity of an individual before trial and that the state's interest in finding the perpetrators of crimes by trawling databases of DNA profiles is too "generalized" to support "a warrantless, suspicionless search." The U.S. Supreme Court reacted forcefully. Chief Justice Roberts stayed the Maryland judgment, writing that "given the considered analysis of courts on the other side …

Culpability, Deterrence, And The Exclusionary Rule, Kit Kinports

Faculty Scholarship

This Article discusses the Supreme Court’s use of the concepts of culpability and deterrence in its Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, in particular, in the opinions applying the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule. The contemporary Court sees deterrence as the exclusionary rule’s sole function, and the Article begins by taking the Court at its word, evaluating its exclusionary rule case law on its own terms. Drawing on three different theories of deterrence – economic rational choice theory, organizational theory, and the expressive account of punishment – the Article analyzes the mechanics by which the exclusionary rule deters unconstitutional searches and questions …

The Enemy Within: Sexual Assault And Rape In The Us Armed Forces, Dahlia D'Arge

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

This paper follows my personal journey in learning about this problem, its legal repercussions for individual soldiers, its history within the United States, the actions which are being taken to remedy it, and its cost to the US military as a whole. By taking a more personal approach and by using my personal experience as an intern as a US Army Judge Advocate Corps office, this paper intends to educate the wider college populace about this issue and its current handling by the US Army from the perspective of an insider.

Applicability Of Combatant Status To Pirates, The Pilpg

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

Investing In Cannabis: Inconsistent Government Regulation And Constraints On Capital, Adrian A. Ohmer

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

This note’s focus is on the future of investing in the growing legalized cannabis industry. In Part II, it will provide a brief history of federal and state regulation of cannabis. Part III will discuss the current role of the federal government in regulating the cannabis industry. Part IV will explore the current avenues of access to capital for the cannabis industry. Lastly, Part V will provide suggestions for the federal government and state governments to reduce investment risk that exists in the cannabis industry.

Channel Checking And Insider Trading Liability, Michael Byun

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

This note addresses the potential legality or illegality of channel checking in the context of a private equity buyout. In Part II, this note uses a hypothetical to demonstrate a situation in which a private equity acquirer might engage in a channel check. In Part III, this note analyzes federal judicial and SEC cases that have developed various categories of insider trading liability, and provides a framework for insider trading liability. In Part IV, this note applies the analysis from Part III to the hypothetical described in Part II. Part IV attempts to reach a conclusion about whether the private …

Evidence-Based Sentencing And The Scientific Rationalization Of Discrimination, Sonja B. Starr

Law & Economics Working Papers

This paper critiques, on legal and empirical grounds, the growing trend of basing criminal sentences on actuarial recidivism risk prediction instruments that include demographic and socioeconomic variables. I argue that this practice violates the Equal Protection Clause and is bad policy: an explicit embrace of otherwise-condemned discrimination, sanitized by scientific language. To demonstrate that this practice should be subject to heightened constitutional scrutiny, I comprehensively review the relevant case law, much of which has been ignored by existing literature. To demonstrate that it cannot survive that scrutiny and is undesirable policy, I review the empirical evidence underlying the instruments. I …

"Off With His __": Analyzing The Sex Disparity In Chemical Castration Sentences, Zachary Edmonds Oswald

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Societies around the world have performed castration, in its various forms, on their male and female members for thousands of years, for numerous reasons. Even within the United States, prisoners have been sentenced to castration (as a form of punishment or crime prevention) since the early twentieth century. In recent years, legislatures have perpetuated this practice but with a modern twist. Now, states use chemical injections to castrate their inmates. It turns out, however, that systemic problems plague the chemical castration sentencing regime. These problems arise from the nature of the crimes eligible for chemical castration sentences, the manner of …

Beyond Seduction: Lessons Learned About Rape, Politics, And Power From Dominique Strauss-Kahn And Moshe Katsav, Hannah Brenner

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

n the last decade, two influential international political figures, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, and Moshe Katsav, former President of Israel, were accused of engaging in extreme and ongoing patterns of sexual violence. The collection of formal charges against the two men included rape, forcible indecent assault, sexual harassment, and obstruction of justice. The respective narratives surrounding the allegations against Katsav and Strauss-Kahn have their own individual characteristics, and each of the cases unfolded in diverging ways. Yet, the actions of these two men taken together, and the corresponding response of the legal systems in France, …

Courts Of Appeal And Colonialism In The British Caribbean: A Case For The Caribbean Court Of Justice, Ezekiel Rediker

Michigan Journal of International Law

In recent years, a public debate on law and the colonial legacy has engaged people of all walks of life in the English Speaking Caribbean (ESC), from judges and politicians to young people in the streets. Throughout the ESC, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC)—based in London and composed of British jurists—has been the highest court of appeal since the colonial era. In the past decade, however, Caribbean governments have sought greater control over their legal systems. In 2005, they created the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to supplant the British Privy Council as the Supreme Court for …

The Michigan Guidelines On The Exclusion Of International Criminals

Michigan Journal of International Law

With a view to promoting a shared understanding of the proper approach to Article 1(F)(a) exclusion from refugee status, we have engaged in sustained collaborative study and reflection on relevant norms and state practice. Our research was debated and refined at the Sixth Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law, convened in March 2013 by the University of Michigan’s Program in Refugee and Asylum Law. These Guidelines are the product of that endeavor, and reflect the consensus of Colloquium participants on how decision makers can best ensure the application of Article 1(F)(a) in a manner that conforms to international legal …

Transcending Victimhood: Child Soldiers And Restorative Justice, In Victims Of International Crimes: An Interdisciplinary Discourse (Thorsten Bonacker & Christoph Safferling Eds., 2013), Mark A. Drumbl

Books and Chapters

The international community strives to eradicate the scourge of child soldiering. Mostly, though, these efforts replay the same narratives and circulate the same assumptions. This chapter, which takes a second look at these efforts, aspires to refresh law and policy so as to improve preventative, restorative, and remedial initiatives while also vivifying the dignity of youth. As a starting point, this chapter proposes that the dominant language used to characterise child soldiers—that of passive victimhood—be revisited so as to better recognise the potentiality of child soldiers to participate in and lead post-conflict reconstructive efforts. This chapter suggests a variety of …

Do Sexually Violent Predator Laws Violate Double Jeopardy Or Substantive Due Process? An Empirical Inquiry, Tamara Rice Lave, Justin Mccrary

Articles

No abstract provided.

Empirical Fallacies Of Evidence Law: A Critical Look At The Admission Of Prior Sex Crimes, Tamara Rice Lave, Aviva Orenstein

Articles

In a significant break with traditional evidence rules and policies, Federal Rules of Evidence 413-414 allow jurors to use the accused's prior sexual misconduct as evidence of character and propensity to commit the sex crime charged. As reflected in their legislative history, these propensity rules rest on the assumption that sexual predators represent a small number of highly deviant and recidivistic offenders. This view of who commits sex crimes justified the passage of the sex-crime propensity rules and continues to influence their continuing adoption among the states and the way courts assess such evidence under Rule 403. In depending on …

Summary Of Brass V. State, 128 Nev. Adv. Op. 68, Joseph Sakai

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

An appeal addressing whether a district court committed reversible error by dismissing a prospective juror before conducting a Batson2 hearing, and whether there was evidence to support a kidnapping conviction.

Military Veterans, Culpability, And Blame, Youngjae Lee

Faculty Scholarship

Recently in Porter v. McCollum, the United States Supreme Court, citing “a long tradition of according leniency to veterans in recognition of their service,” held that a defense lawyer’s failure to present his client’s military service record as mitigating evidence during his sentencing for two murders amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel. The purpose of this article is to assess, from the just deserts perspective, the grounds to believe that veterans who commit crimes are to be blamed less by the State than offenders without such backgrounds. Two rationales for a differential treatment of military veterans who commit crimes are …

Knowledge Of Juvenile Sex Offender Registration Laws As A Predictor Of Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Margaret C. Stevenson, Tisha Ra Wiley

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Because juveniles can now be registered as sex offenders, we conducted a pilot study to investigate awareness of these policies and sexual behavior histories in a convenience sample of 53 young adults (ages 18 to 23, 79% women). These preliminary data revealed that 42% percent of participants were unaware that youth under the age of 18 can be registered as sex offenders, and when informed that they can be, participants were unaware of the breadth of adolescent sexual behavior that warrants registration. Furthermore, those unaware of juvenile registration policies, compared to those who were aware, were marginally more likely to …

Applying The Lockerbie Model To A Proposed Extraterritorial Somali Anti-Piracy Court, The Pilpg

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.