Criminal Law Commons^™

The Mcmartin Preschool Abuse Trial, Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial, the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history, should serve as a cautionary tale. When it was all over, the government had spent seven years and $15 million dollars investigating and prosecuting a case that led to no convictions. More seriously, the McMartin case left in its wake hundreds of emotionally damaged children, as well as ruined careers for members of the McMartin staff. No one paid a bigger price than Ray Buckey, one of the principal defendants in the case, who spent five years in jail awaiting trial for a crime (most …

The Trial Of John Brown: A Commentary, Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

The arrest, trial, and execution of John Brown in the fall of 1859 came at a critical moment in United State history. According to historian David S. Reynolds in his biography, "John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights" (2005), Brown's actions and statements following his failed attempt to begin a slave insurrection near Harper's Ferry, Virginia so polarized northern and southern opinion on the slavery issue as to ensure Abraham Lincoln's election and cause the Civil War to occur perhaps two decades earlier than it might have otherwise. Reynolds is quick …

The Trial Of Lizzie Borden, Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

"Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one." Actually the Bordens received only 29 whacks, not the 81 suggested by the famous ditty, but the popularity of the poem is a testament to the public's fascination with the 1893 murder trial of Lizzie Borden. The source of that fascination might lie in the almost unimaginably brutal nature of the crime - given the sex, background, and age of the defendant - or in the jury's acquittal of Lizzie in the face of prosecution evidence that …

The Trial Of Richard Bruno Hauptmann, Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

Journalist H. L. Mencken called the trial of Bruno Hauptmann, the accused kidnapper of the baby of aviator Charles Lindbergh, the greatest story since the Resurrection. While Mencken's description is doubtless an exaggeration, measured by the public interest it generated, the Hauptmann trial stands with the O. J. Simpson and Scopes trials as among the most famous trials of the twentieth century. The trial featured America's greatest hero, a good mystery involving ransom notes and voices in dark cemeteries, a crime that is every parent's worst nightmare, and a German-born defendant who fought against U. S. forces in World War …

An Argument For Original Intent: Restoring Rule 801(D)(1)(A) To Protect Domestic Violence Victims In A Post-Crawford World, Andrew King-Ries

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

People V. Campbell, Winston Richmond Brownlow

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Necessary And Proper Role For Federal Courts In Prison Reform: The Benjamin V. Malcolm Consentdecrees, Harold Baer Jr., Arminda Bepko

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rocks, Hard Places, And Unconventional Domestic Violence Victims: Expanding Availability Of Civil Orders Of Protection In New York, Sarah E. Warne

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Human Zoning: The Constitutionality Of Sex-Offender Residency Restrictions As Applied To Post-Conviction Offenders, Ryan Hawkins

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[H]igh recidivism rates shows that the threat of jail time alone is not sufficient to curb sex crimes. With this in mind, legislators sought to find other ways that would protect potential victims. Community notification laws were the first policy to be implemented. Community notification methods included press releases, flyers, phone calls, door-to-door contact, neighborhood meetings, and Internet sites, which informed citizens of the name, location, and/or other information of persons who had been convicted of sex crimes.

Part II of this note will describe current sex-offender restrictions in place across the country. Part III will provide a constitutional analysis …

The Impact On Director And Officer Behavior: Reflective Essays, Donald C. Langevoort

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

I fall on the side of the skeptics about whether criminal liability in financial reporting cases is a healthy tool because I have doubts about whether judgments are likely to be proportionate. And proportionality is a very important measure in criminal law for two reasons. First, we expect the punishment to fit the crime as a matter of justice. Secondly, if we have disproportionately harsh treatment, then the behavior of officers and directors in response to over-deterrence is that they will pay too much attention to matters that are precautionary as opposed to profit-generating. And the point of a business …

Book Review, Transitional Justice In The Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth Versus Justice (Naomi Roht-Arriaza & Javier Mariezcurrena Eds., 2006) And Reconciliation In Divided Societies: Finding Common Ground (Erin Daly & Jeremy Sarkin Eds., 2006), Mark Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

It took a long time to get there but, near the close of the last millennium, humanity embraced measured accountability – instead of the extremes of impunity or vengeance – as the appropriate fate for perpetrators of mass atrocity. This embrace has prompted the construction of institutions, such as the International Criminal Court and the various ad hoc international or internationalized tribunals, to actualize this accountability imperative.

But this institution-building is only the start of the justice matrix. It is not the end point. A newer second generation of scholars and activists presses on. Agreeing on the need for accountability …

Special Issues Raised By Rape Trials, Aviva A. Orenstein

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Rape cases reveal core conflicts in the space where evidence, law, and ethics intersect. Such conflicts include the tension between victim protection and the rights of the accused, the challenges attorneys face trying to negotiate the demands of sensitive and emotionally difficult cases, and the role of the law in counteracting stereotypes and bias.

In this essay, I will begin by presenting the cultural milieu surrounding rape allegations, briefly reviewing attitudes towards perpetrators and victims. Next, I will attempt to capture the legal zeitgeist concerning rape, focusing on two recent phenomena: the reversal of false rape convictions based on DNA …

Normative Gaps In The Criminal Law: A Reasons Theory Of Wrongdoing, Luis E. Chiesa

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

The Restorative Justice Wager: The Promise And Hope Of A Value-Based, Dialogue-Driven Approach To Conflict Resolution For Social Healing, Howard J. Vogel

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

In this article, I explore the deep assumptions and commitments associated with what I have called the restorative justice wager and the way in which they are embodied in restorative justice dialogue, the heart of restorative justice practice, in order to describe the important contribution that restorative justice has to offer to conventional forms of conflict resolution that have emerged in recent years. For this purpose the article is divided into three parts. Part I explores the definition of restorative justice in a criminal context and beyond in order to set up the discussion of the restorative justice wager and …

Justice Or Forgiveness? In Search Of A Solution, Olga Botcharova

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

The presentation will be based on the model I created during my work with the leaders of ethnic/religious communities (Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim) engaged in hostilities in the former Yugoslavia, during times of war and post-war. This work is summarized in two diagrams, Seven Steps Towards Revenge (inner circle) and Seven Steps Towards Reconciliation. In its entirety, the work represents a journey from revenge, understood as a natural response to an inflicted hurt, towards reconciliation, with forgiveness and justice playing crucial roles in the process. This model is in Appendix 1, together with a brief description of the stages …

Innocence, Race, And The Death Penalty, Barry Scheck

Articles

The article argues that the death penalty in the United States is deeply flawed due to systemic issues such as wrongful convictions, racial disparities, and procedural failures. It emphasizes the critical role of DNA exonerations in revealing these injustices and advocates for reforms to address the root causes of wrongful convictions, including inadequate legal representation and flawed forensic science. The article also highlights the moral and financial costs of capital punishment, urging its abolition.

Bad Nature, Bad Nurture, And Testimony Regarding Maoa And Slc6a4 Genotyping In Murder Trials, Nita A. Farahany, William Bernet, Cindy L. Vnencak-Jones, Stephen A. Montgomery

Faculty Scholarship

Recent research—in which subjects were studied longitudinally from childhood until adulthood—has started to clarify how a child’s environment and genetic makeup interact to create a violent adolescent or adult. For example, male subjects who were born with a particular allele of the monoamine oxidase A gene and also were maltreated as children had a much greater likelihood of manifesting violent antisocial behavior as adolescents and adults. Also, individuals who were born with particular alleles of the serotonin transporter gene and also experienced multiple stressful life events were more likely to manifest serious depression and suicidality. This research raises the question …

Is Corporate Criminal Liability Unique?, Sara Sun Beale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Neuroimaging, Entrapment, And The Predisposition To Crime, O. Carter Snead

Journal Articles

Professor Tovino's (2007) paper is a welcome contribution to the emerging body of scholarship on the issues arising at the nexus of cognitive neuroscience (and neuroimaging in particular) and the law. It is a useful overview of the various ways in which neuroimaging might affect a wide array of legal questions. Though many of the issues that Tovino discusses are at present quite speculative (as she acknowledges), it is always wise to take advantage of the rare opportunity to reflect on the legal, ethical, and public policy implications of developments in biotechnology before they are upon us. In that spirit, …

Neuroimaging And The "Complexity" Of Capital Punishment, O. Carter Snead

Journal Articles

The growing use of brain imaging technology to explore the causes of morally, socially, and legally relevant behavior is the subject of much discussion and controversy in both scholarly and popular circles. From the efforts of cognitive neuroscientists in the courtroom and the public square, the contours of a project to transform capital sentencing both in principle and in practice have emerged. In the short term, these scientists seek to play a role in the process of capital sentencing by serving as mitigation experts for defendants, invoking neuroimaging research on the roots of criminal violence to support their arguments. Over …

Institutional Competence And Organizational Prosecutions, Daniel C. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

The business pages regularly provide graphic stories about corporate deferred prosecution agreements (“DPAs”). And commentators regularly fulminate about this alleged abuse of government power, quite confident (or w illfully blind to the fact) that the removal of this non-nuclear option from the prosecutorial arsenal would substantially lessen the ability of prosecutors to obtain cooperation from firms and their employees. Yet this emerging practice has received all too little scholarly attention, and Professor Brandon Garrett has made an important contribution by carefully examining the available facts and creatively drawing on the structure reform literature to highlight questions it raises about legitimacy …

Negligence-Based Environmental Crimes: Failing To Exercise Due Care Can Be Criminal, Joseph J. Lisa

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Why U.S. Federal Criminal Penalties For Dealing In Illicit Cultural Property Are Ineffective, And A Pragmatic Alternative, Derek Fincham

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Attempt, Reckless Homicide, And The Design Of Criminal Law, Michael T. Cahill

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Unenumerated Rights And The Limits Of Analogy: A Critque Of The Right To Medical Self-Defense, O. Carter Snead

Journal Articles

Volokh’s project stands or falls with the claim that the entitlement he proposes is of constitutional dimension. If there is no fundamental right to medical self-defense, the individual must, for better or worse, yield to the regulation of this domain in the name of the values agreed to by the political branches of government. Indeed, the government routinely restricts the instrumentalities of self-help (including self-defense) in the name of avoiding what it takes to be more significant harms. This same rationale accounts for current governmental limitations on access to unapproved drugs and the current ban on organ sales. The FDA …

The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda As The Theater: The Social Negotiation Of The Moral Authority Of International Law, Maya Steinitz

Faculty Scholarship

The international criminal courts (ICCs) - the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals for the Former-Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, the recently-established permanent International Criminal Court, and hybrid internationalized tribunals such as the Special Court for Sierra Leone - are the international community's attempt to address the worst of the criminal manifestations of racism, nationalism and large-scale xenophobia. Based on five months of ethnographic research at the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), analyzed using Erving Goffman's dramaturgical framework, this article examines the means through which moral authority is constructed and communicated by the ICTR. Specifically, the article advances the argument that …

Egypt: Criminal Procedure, Sadiq Reza

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter presents the criminal-procedure law of Egypt according to the sources of that law: the 1971 Constitution, the 1950 Code of Criminal Procedure, the 1958 Emergency Law, and other legislation; decisions by the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC), the Court of Cassation, and other organs of the Egyptian judiciary; and administrative and executive regulations. Included are references to controversial aspects of this law and its practice, such as the use of military courts, state security courts, and emergency courts and powers. The chapter thus serves as an introduction to modern Egyptian criminal procedure and a reference source for scholars and …

Forced Medication And The Need To Protect The Rights Of The Mentally Ill Criminal Defendant, Emily C. Lieberman

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The note argues that the current legal framework for forcibly medicating mentally ill criminal defendants, particularly pre-trial detainees, often violates their constitutional rights. It contends that the reliance on "dangerousness" as a criterion for forced medication is too vague and easily abused, leading to inconsistent and unconstitutional applications. The analysis advocates for stricter standards, clearer definitions of dangerousness, and heightened judicial scrutiny to protect the rights of mentally ill defendants.

Decentralizing The Fight Against Human Trafficking In The United States: The Need For Greater Involvement In Fighting Human Trafficking By State Agencies And Local Non-Governmental Organizations, Shashi Irani Kara

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that while the federal government has made significant strides in combating human trafficking through legislation like the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), these efforts are insufficient due to the decentralized nature of the crime. It emphasizes the necessity for greater involvement from state agencies and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to effectively address the diverse and localized manifestations of trafficking.

Apology In The Context Of Wrongful Conviction: Why The System Should Say It's Sorry, Abigail Penzell

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

The first section of this Note will discuss apology as a psychological tool to heal victims, offenders, and the community. The second section will examine the use of apology in analogous contexts to that of wrongful conviction. The third section will explore the potential or perceived disadvantages of offering an apology in the criminal context. The fourth section will detail the desire for apology among the wrongfully convicted as well as give examples of situations - like Mr. Fuller's - in which an apology has been tendered and has helped victims reintegrate into society. Finally, I will conclude that the …