Criminal Law Commons^™

What Real-World Criminal Cases Tell Us About Genetics Evidence, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

This Article, which is part of a symposium on "Law and Ethics at the Frontier of Genetic Technology," examines an unprecedented experimental study published in Science. The Science study indicated that psychopathic criminal offenders were more likely to receive lighter sentences if a judge was aware of genetic and neurobiological explanations for the offender’s psychopathy. This Article contends that the study’s conclusions derive from substantial flaws in the study’s design and methodology. The hypothetical case upon which the study is based captures just one narrow and unrepresentative component of how genetic and neurobiological information operates, and the study suffers from …

Waylaid By A Metaphor: A Deeply Problematic Account Of Prison Growth. Review Of Plague Of Prisons: The Epidemiology Of Mass Incarceration In America By Ernest Drucker, John F. Pfaff

Faculty Scholarship

This article reviews Ernest Drucker's recent book, "A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America," which attempts to explain the causes behind the explosion in prison growth over the past several decades. The account proves to be unsatisfying, and this review highlights four major flaws with Drucker's work. First, Drucker places too much weight on the war on drugs. While he argues it is the primary engine of prison growth, the increase in drug incarcerations explains only about 25% of the total growth since the 1970s. Second, he significantly underplays the importance of soaring crime rates between …

International Perspectives On Correcting Wrongful Convictions: The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, Lissa Griffin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this Article traces the history of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) and outlines the procedures employed by the SCCRC after an application is received, with particular attention to its extensive investigatory procedures. It also describes and analyzes the standards for referral of an application to the Scottish court. Part II briefly sets forth the statistics concerning applications, referrals, and judicial decisions. Part III includes an analysis of the SCCRC’s work by looking at the cases that have been referred and decided by the court. Those cases are divided into several categories: fresh evidence referrals, referrals …

Blanket Retroactive Amelioration: A Remedy For Disproportionate Punishments, S. David Mitchell

Faculty Publications

While statutes determine the conditions under which an individual is to be held accountable for their actions and identifies the punishment that shall attach to that conduct, they are not engraved in stone. Laws can and are changed. Legislatures will revisit whether a penalty is too harsh (or too lenient), and amend an existing statute to reflect the legislature’s evaluation of what is contemporaneously appropriate. This re-evaluation of a statutory punishment is ongoing assessment to determine whether the punishment is proportional to the conduct. Blanket retroactive amelioration allows society to correct overly harsh, overreactions and to restore the balance between …

Principled Exclusion: A Revised Approach To Article1(F)(A) Of The Refugee Convention, Jennifer Bond

Michigan Journal of International Law

The focus of this contribution is Article 1(F)(a), a section of the exclusion clause that has increased in both use and profile in recent years. Article 1(F)(a) applies to individuals who may be implicated in crimes against peace (more commonly known today as crimes of aggression), war crimes, or crimes against humanity as such crimes are defined in relevant international instruments. Where a decision maker finds that “there are serious reasons for considering that” an asylum seeker has committed one of these acts, the remainder of the Refugee Convention does not apply, and any protections to which the claimant would …

Targeting And The Concept Of Intent, Jens David Ohlin

Michigan Journal of International Law

International law generally prohibits military forces from intentionally targeting civilians; this is the principle of distinction. In contrast, unintended collateral damage is permissible unless the anticipated civilian deaths outweigh the expected military advantage of the strike; this is the principle of proportionality. These cardinal targeting rules of international humanitarian law are generally assumed by military lawyers to be relatively well-settled. However, recent international tribunals applying this law in a string of little-noticed decisions have completely upended this understanding. Armed with criminal law principles from their own domestic systems — often civil law jurisdictions — prosecutors, judges and even scholars have …

Death Eligibility In Colorado: Many Are Called, Few Are Chosen, Justin Marceau, Sam Kamin, Wanda Foglia

University of Colorado Law Review

This Article reports the conclusions of an empirical study of every murder conviction in Colorado between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2010. Our goal was to determine: (1) what percentage of first-degree murderers in Colorado were eligible for the death penalty; and (2) how often the death penalty was sought against these killers. More importantly, our broader purpose was to determine whether Colorado's statutory aggravating factors meaningfully narrow the class of death-eligible offenders as required by the Constitution. We discovered that while the death penalty was an option in over 90% of all first-degree murders, it was sought by …

A Reasonable Doubt About "Reasonable Doubt", Miller W. Shealy Jr.

Oklahoma Law Review

The Supreme Court has failed to define the concept of “reasonable doubt” with any precision. The Court tolerates conflicting definitions of “reasonable doubt.” It permits some jurisdictions to forbid any definition of “reasonable doubt,” while giving others wide latitude to define the concept in ways that are contradictory. If the Court truly regards the “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” standard to be an “ancient and honored aspect of our criminal justice system,”1 a “bedrock ‘axiomatic and elementary’ principle whose ‘enforcement lies at the foundation of the administration of our criminal law,’”2 then the Court cannot continue to tolerate the current …

Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places: A Call To Reform State Law On Sex Trafficking, Kristian Bryant Rose

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prosecuting The Undead: Federal Criminal Law In A World Of Zombies, Michael L. Smith

Faculty Articles

Adam Chodorow's recent essay, Death and Taxes and Zombies, has alerted the legal world to the dangers posed by the looming zombie apocalypse. Chodorow successfully demonstrates that existing tax laws are woefully inadequate in a world where the undead outnumber the taxpaying living. In this Essay, I argue that while tax law may be ill suited to address the zombie apocalypse, federal criminal law offers an alternative approach to solving the problems that Chodorow identifies. In fact, the only plausible explanation for the existence of seemingly pointless features of federal criminal law is that these features are precautions for this …

Addressing Sexual Violence Against Youth In Custody: Youth Workers’ Handbook On Identifying And Addressing Sexual Violence In Juvenile Justice Settings, Brenda V. Smith, Jaime M. Yarussi

Research Reports & White Papers

From 1999 to 2012, The Project on Addressing Prison Rape (the Project) at American University’s Washington College of Law had a cooperative agreement with the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) to provide training to high-level correctional decisionmakers on key issues in addressing and investigating staff sexual misconduct. In 2003, with the enactment of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), the Project’s focus shifted to addressing prison rape—both staff sexual misconduct and offender-on-offender sexual abuse. In 2006, Smith Consulting began a collaborative effort with the Project and NIC to focus efforts on addressing sexual abuse of youth in custody. This handbook …

A Quite Principled Conceit, Kiel Brennan-Marquez

Faculty Articles and Papers

A Response to Jed Rubenfeld, The Riddle of Rape-by­ Deception and the Myth of Sexual Autonomy, 122 Yale L J 1372 (2013).

From Peer-To-Peer Networks To Cloud Computing: How Technology Is Redefining Child Pornography Laws, Audrey Rogers

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article traces the history of the child pornography laws and sentencing policy in Part I. Part II explains the technologies that have caused some of the current controversies, and then Part III describes how these technologies have blurred the offenses. Finally, Part IV makes suggestions as to how the law could better reflect technology and comport with a refined harm rationale. Courts, legal scholars, and medical experts have explained the harm includes the sexual abuse captured in the images and the psychological injury the victim endures knowing the images are being viewed. This Article further develops the harm rationale …

A Good Name: Applying Regulatory Takings Analysis To Reputational Damage Caused By Criminal History, Jamila Jefferson-Jones

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Efforts To Fix A Broken System: Brown V. Plata And The Prison Overcrowding Epidemic, Lauren Salins, Shepard Simpson

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Excessive incarceration is a national problem. Across the country, prisons face dangerous levels of overcrowding, which has led to unconstitutional conditions of confinement and the inability of states to effectively rehabilitate their inmates. Ardent public support of “tough on crime” policies inhibits state legislatures from enacting successful reforms. In turn, states spend large percentages of their budget to sustain failing and ineffective corrections systems. By some estimates, states could save hundreds of millions of dollars annually if they reduced prison populations through proactive reforms, such as early release programs and diversionary tactics. In light of these factors, a consideration of …

International Criminal Law In 2013: The Most Significant Developments (Proceedings Of The Asil Annual Meeting), Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Presentations and Testimony

While many events have shaped the development of international criminal law over the past year, the most significant ones, in my view, included the Special Court for Sierra Leone's appellate confirmation of the Charles Taylor verdict, as well as the United Nations Security Council's failure to refer the Syrian situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Juvenile Pirates: "Lost Boys" Or Violent Criminals?, Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has flourished over the past decade, and has both caused a global crisis in maritime shipping and destabilized regional security in East Africa. In addition, piracy attacks have spread more recently to the coast of West Africa, and in particular, the Gulf of Guinea. Thus, piracy is an ongoing global issue that should continue to occupy many maritime nations in the near future, and one that should command continuous scholarly attention.

This article examines the issue of juvenile piracy, with a specific focus on the treatment of juvenile piracy suspects by both the capturing …

Child Sexualization In The Media: A Need For Reform, Punam Panchal Alam

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Vulnerability And Just Desert: A Theory Of Sentencing And Mental Illness, E. Lea Johnston

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article analyzes risks of serious harms posed to prisoners with major mental disorders and investigates their import for sentencing under a just deserts analysis. Drawing upon social science research, the Article first establishes that offenders with serious mental illnesses are more likely than non-ill offenders to suffer physical and sexual assaults, endure housing in solitary confinement, and experience psychological deterioration during their carceral terms. The Article then explores the significance of this differential impact for sentencing within a retributive framework. It first suggests a particular expressive understanding of punishment, capacious enough to encompass foreseeable, substantial risks of serious harm …

Crapping Out With Crime Statistics, Robert Steinbuch

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Brady, Arkansas Rule 17.1, And Disclosure Of Scientific Evidence And Expert Opinion, J. Thomas Sullivan

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Furman, After Four Decades, J. Thomas Sullivan

Law Faculty Scholarship

Problems of racial discrimination in the imposition of capital sentences, disclosure of misconduct by prosecutors and police, inconsistency in the quality of defense afforded capital defendants, exoneration of death row inmates due to newly available DNA testing, and, most recently, controversies surrounding the potential for cruelty in the execution process itself continue to complicate views about the morality, legality, and practicality of reliance on capital punishment to address even the most heinous of homicide offenses. Despite repeated efforts by the Supreme Court to craft a capital sentencing framework that ensures that death sentences be imposed fairly in light of the …

The Growing Pains Of Graham V. Florida: Deciphering Whether Lengthy Term-Of-Years Sentences For Juvenile Defendants Can Equate To The Unconstitutional Sentence Of Life Without The Possibility Of Parole, Therese A. Savona

St. Thomas Law Review

This article will provide a basic understanding of Eighth Amendment jurisprudence and then explores how the most recent United States Supreme Court cases of Graham v. Florida and Miller v. Alabama affect juvenile resentencing. Additionally, this article addresses the most recent trend presented in juvenile cases where the juvenile defendant is charged as an adult, tried as an adult, and sentenced accordingly. Specifically, the issue of a lengthy term-of-years sentence in states such as California and Florida appear to be the battleground of diverse opinions, more so perhaps than other states.

Powerless Against Police Brutality: A Felon's Story, Tamara F. Lawson

St. Thomas Law Review

Imagine driving to the store with friends, but while en route, you are shot and beaten by the police so severely that random citizen witnesses intervene to stop the police brutality. Next, envision recovering from those injuries and awakening from a coma chained to your hospital bed informed that you are under arrest for attempted murder of a police officer. Then, consider waiting over five years for the opportunity to tell your story to the court, believing justice will be served, but instead you discover that the trial is more influenced by the revelation of your prior criminal record than …

Pre-Apprendi Sentencing: Issues Surrounding The Retroactivity Of An Unconstitutional Sentence, Priscilla S. Zaldivar

St. Thomas Law Review

This comment ventures to provide a manageable resolution to the issues that have arisen from the implementation and subsequent limitations of the federal sentencing guidelines. Part II discusses the sentencing guidelines' history, creation, and evolution. This part also reviews the pertinent cases that have shaped the relevance and application of the sentencing guidelines by the U.S. Supreme Court. Part III details the successful retroactivity of the Boggs Act as a real-world example of the feasibility of retroactivity. Finally, Part IV provides an administrative solution to the problems with retroactive application of the Booker/Fanfan decision in order to remedy the unconstitutional …

The Movement Of U.S. Criminal And Administrative Law: Processes Of Transplanting And Translating, Toby S. Goldbach, Benjamin Brake, Peter Katzenstein

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article examines the transplanting and translating of law in the domains of criminal procedure and administrative law. The transnational movement of law is full of unexpected twists and turns that belie the notion of the United States as a legal behemoth. Furthermore, the movement of legal procedures which occurs both within and across countries with common and civil law legal traditions challenges preconceived notions of an orderly divide between legal families. While the spread of elements of the U.S. jury system and methods of plea bargaining reveals the powerful influence of U.S. legal ideas, the ways that these procedures …

Strange Traffic: Sex, Slavery & The Freedom Principle, Anders Walker

All Faculty Scholarship

This article uses the recent prosecution of a sex trafficking case in rural Missouri to argue three points. One, the federal law of trafficking is currently being used in unanticipated ways, including the apprehension of individuals who pay for sex. Two, trafficking invites creative use precisely because it provides prosecutors with a more salient justification for punishment than either legal moralism or harm; a rhetorical plea to anti-slavery that enjoys a longstanding but under-theorized role in criminal law rhetoric. Three, anti-slavery’s recurrence in criminal law rhetoric underscores a larger doctrinal point, namely that H.L.A. Hart’s version of the harm principle …

Reclaiming Equality To Reframe Indigent Defense Reform, Lauren Sudeall Lucas

Faculty Publications By Year

Equal access to resources is fundamental to meaningful legal representation, yet for decades, equality arguments have been ignored in litigating indigent defense reform. At a time when underfunded indigent defense systems across the country are failing to provide indigent defendants with adequate representation, the question of resources is even more critical. Traditionally, advocates seeking indigent defense reform have relied on Sixth Amendment arguments to protect the rights of indigents in this context; however, the Sixth Amendment approach suffers from a number of shortcomings that have made it a poor tool for systemic reform, including its exclusive focus on attorney performance …

The Skeptic's Guide To Information Sharing At Sentencing, Ryan W. Scott

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The “information sharing model,” a leading method of structuring judicial discretion at the sentencing stage of criminal cases, has attracted broad support from scholars and judges. Under this approach, sentencing judges should have access to a robust body of information, including written opinions and statistics, about previous sentences in similar cases. According to proponents, judges armed with that information can conform their sentences to those of their colleagues or identify principled reasons for distinguishing them, reducing inter-judge disparity and promoting rationality in sentencing law.

This Article takes a skeptical view of the information sharing model, arguing that it suffers from …

Criminal Justice In Indian Country, Sarah Deer

Faculty Scholarship

On March 7,2013, President Obama signed the 2013 Violence Against Women Act Re-authorization ("VAWA 2013"). Contained within that legislation is a partial re-authorization of tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians, which is a topic covered in this short article. VAWA 2013 recognizes that the inherent right of tribal nations includes criminal jurisdiction over non-Indian defendants accused of domestic violence. The topics discussed in this article-statistical evidence, interdiction of violence, and protecting Native women-will likely become even more important as tribal leaders and jurists consider the future of tribal self-determination and seek to realize the full potential of the changes created by …