Criminal Law Commons^™

The Analogy Between Piracy And Human Trafficking: A Theoretical Framework For The Application Of Universal Jurisdiction, Miriam Cohen

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Universal jurisdiction is a doctrine by which States can assert jurisdiction over certain clearly circumscribed offenses that occur outside their territory and without any nexus to the nationality of the victim or the alleged perpetrator. The doctrine was originally developed to address piracy that occurred on the high seas. Because piracy occurred across international borders, thus impacting international navigation and commerce, it was seen as a threat to many, if not all nations. The justification for asserting universal jurisdiction over piracy was primarily based on the locus of the crime, its effect on many States, and its alleged heinous nature. …

Tipsy/Waukell Dave Feud, Susie Van Kirk

Susie Van Kirk Papers

Newspaper references from the Daily Humboldt Times and the Del Norte Record and historical analysis of the feud between Tipsy Frank and Waukel Dave in the late 1800s.

"DHT (1 Jan. 1887) From Alex Dewar, who has just returned from the Klamath country, we learn of the killing of an Indian bearing the sobriquet of 'Tipsy Frank.' During the past four or five years this Indian has killed several of his brethren and has been considered as a very hard character. Recently he stole a horse from another Indian called 'Waukel Dave.' Dave did not relish the idea of losing …

Kids Are Different, Stephen St.Vincent

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

The Supreme Court recently handed down its decision in Graham v. Florida. The case involved a juvenile, Graham, who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted as an adult of a nonhomicidal crime. The offense, a home invasion robbery, was his second; the first was attempted robbery. Due to Florida's abolition of parole, the judge's imposition of a life sentence meant that Graham was constructively sentenced to life without parole for a nonhomicide crime. Graham challenged this sentence as unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. Somewhat surprisingly, the Supreme Court invalidated Graham's sentence by a 6-3 majority. By a …

Strong Medicine: Toward Effective Sentencing Of Child Pornography Offenders, Kristin Carlson

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

In recent years, possessors of child pornography have entered the federal criminal justice at an alarming rate. In 2006, child pornography cases accounted for sixty-nine percent of the child exploitation cases that were prosecuted federally. Average federal sentences for these offenses also rose sharply, by about 300 percent over the past fourteen years. The mean sentence imposed for child pornography offenses increased from thirty-six months in 1994 to 109 months by 2008. The severe sentences imposed on possessors of child pornography in federal courts have inspired an ongoing deb ate. Critics feel the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines are too harsh on …

Is Criminology Moving Toward A Paradigm Shift?: Evidence From A Survey Of The American Society Of Criminology, Jonathon A. Cooper, Anthony Walsh, Lee Ellis

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ideology forms and colors our attitudes and values in ways that lead to a tendency to accept or reject data according to how well or how poorly they cohere with that ideology. Previous research has suggested that the ideological divide in criminology is between criminologists who focus on strictly environmentalist theories that give short shrift to individual differences, and those who focus on individual differences and are favorably disposed to the biological sciences (Wright & Miller, 1998; Walsh & Ellis, 2004). The former tend to be radicals and liberals and the latter tend to be conservatives and moderates, although there …

The Affects Of Apprendi V. New Jersey On The Use Of Dna Evidence At Sentencing—Can Dna Alone Convict Of Unadjudicated Prior Acts?, Katharine C. Lester

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Overcoming Defiance Of The Constitution: The Need For A Federal Role In Protecting The Right To Counsel In Georgia, Stephen B. Bright, Lauren Sudeall Lucas

Faculty Publications By Year

In their issue brief, Mr. Bright and Ms. Lucas discuss the problems that have existed in Georgia’s indigent defense system since Gideon was handed down. They contend that “[a]ll three branches of Georgia’s government have failed in their constitutional responsibility to ensure that poor people accused of crimes are effectively represented by competent lawyers.” They also argue that “[t]he federal government, which has made immense contributions to the prosecution of criminal cases in Georgia through grants to law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts, shares responsibility for the integrity of Georgia’s criminal justice system and the enforcement of the constitutional right to …

The French Prosecutor In Question, Jacqueline S. Hodgson

Washington and Lee Law Review

Both the pre-trial and dispositive roles of the French prosecutor have continued to expand over the last decades with a resulting shift in power away from the trial judge and the juge d'instruction. The recommendations of the Liger Commission in 2009 went beyond the redistribution of authority and proposed the abolition of the juge d'instruction, placing the prosecutor in charge of all criminal investigations, even the most serious, complex, and sensitive. At the same time, the prosecutor's role and status has been challenged in a number of ways-in particular concerning her function as judicial supervisor of the detention and interrogation …

Uncertainty And The Search For Truth At Trial: Defining Prosecutorial "Objectivity" In German Sexual Assault Cases, Shawn Marie Boyne

Washington and Lee Law Review

According to German legal scholar, Claus Roxin, German prosecutors are the "most objective civil servants" in the world. Roxin 's assessment of German prosecution practice reflects the conviction of many German legal scholars that prosecutors in Germany's inquisitorial system function as second judges dedicated to finding the objective "truth." In this Article I investigate how prosecutors "translate" the normative duty of objectivity enshrined in the German penal code into observable practices on the ground I examine prosecutorial decision-making in three sexual assault trials. Sexual assault cases pose unique challenges to prosecutors as well as to the definition of objectivity. Because …

Disloyal Computer Use And The Computer Fraud And Abuse Act: Narrowing The Scope, Greg Pollaro

Duke Law & Technology Review

Congress drafted the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to protect government interest computers from malicious attacks by hackers. As computer use has expanded in the years since its enactment, the CFAA has similarly expanded to cover a number of computer-related activities. This iBrief discusses the extension of the CFAA into the employer/employee context, suggests that this goes beyond the Act's express purpose, compares the different approaches taken by the circuit courts in applying the CFAA to disloyal computer use by employees, and argues that the more recent approach taken by the Ninth Circuit provides a better model for determining …

Counterfeit Conspiracy: The Misapplication Of Conspiracy As A Substantive Crime In International Law, Taylor R. Dalton

Cornell Law School J.D. Student Research Papers

In the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) case Prosecutor v. Musema, the trial chamber held that an individual can be found guilty solely for the crime of conspiracy to commit genocide even if no genocide takes place. The trial chamber found its jurisdiction to punish the crime of conspiracy under its establishing statute, but looks almost exclusively at national legal traditions to determine its content. It cites no other international law supporting its decision to incorporate domestic concepts into the crime. In contrast, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which relatively recently entered into force, seems to …

Fact-Finding Without Facts, Nancy Amoury Combs

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Expanding The Scope Of The Good-Faith Exception To The Exclusionary Rule To Include A Law Enforcement Officer's Reasonable Reliance On Well-Settled Case Law That Is Subsequently Overruled, Ross Oklewicz

Celebrating WCL Student Authors

In 2009, the Supreme Court handed down several important decisions on criminal procedure. Perhaps unanticipated at the time, two of those decisions have been read together by lower courts to reach dramatically different results. The emerging split has been sharp, bringing with it urgent calls for the Court to intervene.

Laying the foundation for the conflicting decisions was New York v. Belton, in which the Supreme Court held that “when a policeman has made a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, he may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of the automobile” …

How Piracy Has Shaped The Relationship Between American Law And International Law, Joel H. Samuels

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Throttling Miranda: Right Wing Ideologues Support The Government Against The Individual, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

The 1966 Miranda v. Arizona decision is arguably the most important and undeniably the most famous of all U.S. Supreme Court criminal procedure decisions. The noble purpose of this legal landmark is to prevent Americans taken into custody by police on criminal charges from being subjected to improper interrogation practices calculated to compel citizens to incriminate themselves.

Few people realize that since the early 1970s the Supreme Court has been stealthily choking the life out of Miranda. The latest example of this process of slow strangulation occurred a few weeks ago, on June 1, when the Court in Berghuis …

Through The Looking Glass: Finding And Freeing Modern-Day Slaves At The State Level, Michelle L. Rickert

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article delves into the interaction between federal and state laws prohibiting human trafficking. The article advocates for comprehensive human trafficking laws at the state level, including police training, victim aftercare, forfeiture, and prosecution as essential elements. It looks comprehensively at the existing state laws prohibiting human trafficking. Additionally it examines the five existing models for state law and suggests benefits and potential improvements for each model. The article concludes y advocating a holistic law prohibiting human trafficking in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The Adam Walsh Act And The Failed Promise Of Administrative Federalism, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

For advocates of federalism, these are uncertain times. With hope of meaningful judicial federalism having largely receded, and Congress persisting in its penchant for intrusions on state authority, of late several scholars have championed the capacity of executive agencies to enforce and preserve federalism interests. This paper tests this position, providing the first empirically based critical analysis of administrative federalism, focusing on the recently enacted Adam Walsh Act, intended by Congress to redesign states’ sex offender registration and community notification laws. The paper casts significant doubt on the accepted empirical assumptions of administrative federalism, adding to the limited evidence amassed …

Summary Of Bahena V. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 126 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 57, Michael Gianelloni

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

No abstract provided.

The "Green" Effect On White Collar Sentencing: An Analysis Of The Impact Of The Economy On Imprisonment Lengths Of Sentences For Federal White Collar Defendants, Jessica P. Morgan

Mercer Law Review

On June 29, 2009, Bernard L. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for his creation and perpetration of an unprecedented, worldwide "Ponzi" scheme, which caused an ultimate loss to thousands of investors totaling upwards of $65 billion. Although Madoff's Ponzi scheme caused more investor losses than any one similar scheme in American history, many were shocked by the severity of Madoff's sentence. As a man in his seventies, a sentence of 150 years incarceration is well beyond a life sentence and serves as a symbol to deter those who would engage in similar conduct in the future. ... …

Gideon'S Ghost: Providing The Sixth Amendment Right To Counsel In Times Of Budgetary Crisis, Heather P. Baxter

Faculty Scholarship

This Article discusses how the budget crisis, caused by the recent economic downturn, has created a constitutional crisis with regard to the Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel. The landmark case of Gideon v. Wainwright required states, under the Sixth Amendment, to provide free counsel to indigent criminal defendants. However, as a result of the current financial crisis, many of those who represent the indigent have found their funding cut dramatically. Consequently, Gideon survives, if at all, only as a ghostly shadow prowling the halls of criminal justice throughout the country.

This Article analyzes specific budget cuts from various states and …

Rationality, Pirates, And The Law: A Retrospective, Peter T. Leeson

American University Law Review

In the late 1720s Caribbean piracy was brought to a screeching halt. An enhanced British naval presence was partly responsible for this. But most important in bringing pirates to their end was a series of early 18th-century legal changes that made it possible to effectively prosecute them. This short paper’s purpose is to recount those legal changes and document their effectiveness. Its other purpose is to analyze pirates’ response to the legal changes designed to exterminate them, which succeeded, at least partly, in frustrating the government’s goal. By providing a retrospective look at anti-piracy law and pirates’ reactions to that …

"Sexting" To Minors In A Rapidly Evolving Digital Age: Frix V. State Establishes The Applicability Of Georgia's Obscenity Statutes To Text Messages, Hayley S. Strong

Mercer Law Review

The capabilities of modern cell phones are advancing at an unprecedented rate, and with these advancements, cell phones now resemble personal computers in numerous ways. Messages, pictures, and videos, which were once transmittable only by computer, can now be sent from one cell phone to another or from a computer to a cell phone and vice versa. While the differences between these two electronic devices may seem increasingly trivial to the average electronics user, these differences are pivotal for the criminal defendant who has used a cell phone to send a sexually explicit text message to a minor. The disparity …

Criminal Law - Evidence Of Inactive Drug Metabolites In Dui Cases: Using A Proximate Cause Analysis To Fill The Evidentiary Gap Between Prior Drug Use And Driving Under The Influence, Matthew C. Rappold

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Jamming The Revolving Door: Legislative Setbacks For Mental Health Court Systems In Virginia, Sheila Moheb

Law Student Publications

Part II of this comment will discuss the existing issues that effectuate the tension between the criminal justice system and mentally ill offenders, which provides important context to the debate surrounding the establishment of MHCs. Part III will examine the recent federal support for alternative approaches to handling mentally ill offenders and the different operational tactics implemented by existing MHC programs. Finally, Part IV will study the launch of Virginia’s first MHC in Norfolk, while exploring the latest legislative defeat in Virginia, Senate Bill 158 of the 2010 General Assembly, which sought to establish MHCs statewide.

Summary Of Ramirez V. State, 126 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 22, Anthony R. Sassi

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction in the Second Judicial District Court, pursuant to a jury verdict of second-degree felony murder by means of child abuse, neglect, or endangerment.

Probabilities In Probable Cause And Beyond: Statistical Versus Concrete Harms, Sherry F. Colb

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Challenges For Asian Jurisdictions In The Development Of International Criminal Justice, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The paper reviews the different frameworks for international criminal justice in which China’s influence can be measured, or should be present, looking specifically at procedural traditions on which international criminal law and its jurisprudence are said to be based. Understanding China as a transitional hybrid criminal justice model undergoing radical transformation in its justice delivery and discourse, it is argued, assists significantly in forecasting where the synthesis of international criminal procedure may be heading. Attached to a re-interpretation and critique of individualised liability is the unpacking of China’s in principle commitment to communitarian rights and social protection as a foundation …

Litigating The Ghost Of Gideon In Florida: Separation Of Powers As A Tool To Achieve Indigent Defense Reform, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

This paper, part of a symposium addressing indigent defense-related issues, examines litigation challenging a Florida law that expressly prohibits courts from granting public defender motions to withdraw on the basis of an alleged conflict of interest caused by excessive caseload or underfunding.

Long-Overdue Reform Of D.C.'S Antediluvian Developmental Disabilities Law: From Forest Haven To The 21st Century, Robert L. Burgdorf Jr.

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Stupidest Lawyering Ever, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

Last Wednesday and Thursday, June 23 and 24, Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis finally got what he has been seeking for over a decade -- a court hearing allowing him to present newly discovered evidence he is innocent of the murder of off-duty policeman Mark MacPhail. That hearing was a disaster, however, because of the cataclysmic blundering of his own attorneys. As he sat in the federal district courtroom in jail garb and leg irons watching events unfold, Davis must surely have come to the sickening realization that his lawyers were guilty of some of the stupidest lawyering on …