Criminal Law Commons^™

Summary Of Daniel V. State, Clarke Walton

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appellant, Donald M. Mosely, shot and killed Frederick Washington and Mark Payne. At the same time, Terhain Woods and Antione Hall were also shot by Mosely, but both survived. On July 28, 1997, Moseley was convicted in district court of firstdegree murder, attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon, and burglary while in possession of a firearm. During Mosely’s trial, a number of errors occurred, which brought rise to this appeal. Because of these cumulative errors, the Nevada Supreme Court reversed appellant’s conviction and remanded the case for a new trial. In analyzing the issues raised by appellant on …

Summary Of Hathaway V. State, Melanie Koep

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Proper person appeal from an order of the Eighth Judicial District Court, Honorable John S. McGroarty, denying appellant’s post-conviction petition for writ of habeas corpus.

Summary Of Salazar V. State, Rick Rawson

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appeal from district court judgment of conviction on one count of battery with use of a deadly weapon with substantial bodily harm, one count of battery with a deadly weapon, and one count of mayhem with use of a deadly weapon.

Summary Of West V. State, Amanda Yen

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

On February 5, 2001, the general manager of Canyon Gate Mini Storage discovered the decomposing body of Christine Smith in the storage unit owned by Smith and her daughter, appellant Brookey Lee West. Smith’s body was sealed in a garbage can wrapped with duct tape, garbage bags and cellophane wrap. A white plastic bag, knotted at the back of her head, covered Smith’s nose and mouth. Upon searching West’s apartment, police discovered Smith’s bank statements. The police determined that there were numerous ATM withdrawals on Smith’s bank account after February 1998, when Smith was last seen alive. West was charged …

Engaging With The State: The Growing Reliance On Lawyers And Judges To Protect Battered Women, Jane C. Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

The passage of the federal Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (“VAWA II”) marked an important milestone in the evolution of the domestic violence movement. VAWA II created, among other things, a complex system for state and federal funding in all fifty states to provide civil legal assistance to battered women. Its passage completed a process that began in the early 1980s when domestic violence advocates shifted their focus from grass roots efforts to help battered women and their children leave abusive partners to building alliances with government and advocating for legal remedies to assist battered women. This paper looks …

A Healer Or An Executioner: The Proper Role Of A Psychiatrist In A Criminal Justice System, Gregory Dolin

All Faculty Scholarship

This article argues that despite the benefits of ridding the criminal justice system of some uncertainty and ignorance with respect to mental health issues, the very close involvement of psychiatrists in the criminal justice system as practiced in the United States is not only illogical and bad policy, but also unethical from the viewpoint of medical ethics. Part II of this article will lay the groundwork for the argument by discussing the history of the insanity defense, and of science's involvement with criminal justice; while Part III, will look into the association of science and the administration of justice in …

The Andrea Yates Trial: What Is Wrong With This Picture?, Marie Galanti

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article critically examines the Andrea Yates trial, arguing that it highlights significant flaws in the legal system, media coverage, and societal attitudes toward mental illness and gender roles. The trial underscores the ambiguity in legal definitions of insanity, the unequal treatment of mothers who commit infanticide, and the problematic intersection of law and media, which can undermine justice and perpetuate harmful stereotypes. The case serves as a cautionary tale about the failure of the legal system to address mental health adequately and the media's role in sensationalizing tragedy for public consumption.

Affirming Brahimi: East Timor Makes The Case For A Model Criminal Code, Megan A. Fairlie

Faculty Publications

In August of 2000, the Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (the “Brahimi Report”) considered the issue of transitional civil administration as an element of United Nations field operations. The Brahimi Report recommended the creation of an interim legal code as part of a U.N. justice package so that any future UN transitional administrations would be able to address the issue of “applicable law” in the early stages of its mission. Using the experience of the United National Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) as a case study, this article establishes how and why a complete model …

Einstein On The Bench?: Exposing What Judges Do Not Know About Science And Using Child Abuse Cases To Improve How Courts Evaluate Scientific Evidence, Joelle A. Moreno

Faculty Publications

It has been a decade since the Supreme Court made judges the arbiters of scientific validity through Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Although this decision was intended to improve how courts use science, recent empirical evidence reveals that judges continue to struggle with scientific evidence and that Daubert has failed to yield accurate or consistent decisions. This also means that judges have received little useful guidance from ten years of academic literature expounding on the science-law chasm.

If the academic discourse is not helpful, it may be because non-scientists too often try to tame science by treating it as …

Who Is Andrea Yates? A Short Story About Insanity, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

On June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her four children in a bathtub. At Andrea’s trial, in Harris County, Texas, the prosecution’s star expert, Patrick Dietz, appeared particularly adept at persuading the jury to accept the prosecution’s assertion that Andrea was sane and acting intentionally when she killed her children. This Article analyzes the problematic aspects of Dietz's testimony in an effort to contribute some balance to the Andrea Yates story. Despite the long history of expert witnesses in criminal trials, the justice system should question the fairness and efficacy of such an unregulated storytelling process. Part I of this …

Criminal Neglect: Indigent Defense From A Legal Ethics Perspective Ethics Symposium What Do Clients Want: Practice Contexts, Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

Most criminal defendants in the United States cannot afford to pay for a lawyer's services, and as a result their lawyers are government funded. Unfortunately, some state and local governments drastically under-fund indigent defense services. Criminal defense lawyers serving in these jurisdictions typically carry grossly excessive caseloads and are therefore severely restricted in how much time they can devote to individual clients. Commentators have targeted the under-funding of indigent defense systems as a problem of criminal justice, constitutional law, and civil rights. That is certainly true, but the under-funding of indigent defense also raises a serious and inadequately recognized problem …

Restorative Cautioning, Theories Of Reintegration, And The Influence Of Japanese Notions Of Shame, Benjamin J. Goold

All Faculty Publications

This article explains some of the central notions of restorative justice, drawing particular attention to the influence of Japanese notions of shame and community on cautioning practices in Britain and elsewhere.

On Statutory Rape, Strict Liability, And The Public Welfare Offense Model, Catherine L. Carpenter

American University Law Review

Statutory Rape. At the center of a long-standing debate on whether its commission should require proof of a criminal mens rea, the prosecution of statutory rape offers a revealing look at the struggle to demarcate the parameters of the public welfare offense doctrine. Specifically, with respect to statutory rape, disagreement is deep and entrenched on whether statutory rape should be categorized as a public welfare offense, which would render irrelevant defendant's lack of knowledge of the victim's age. And despite wholesale revamping of state statutory rape laws on issues of age, gender, and potential grading and punishment, the debate on …

Unprincipled Punishment: The U.S. Sentencing Commission's Troubling Silence About The Purposes Of Punishment, Aaron J. Rappaport

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Accomplishing The Purposes Of Sentencing–The Role Of The Courts And The Commission, Aaron J. Rappaport

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Difference In Criminal Defense And The Difference It Makes, Abbe Smith

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

My own view of criminal defense lawyering owes much to Monroe Freedman. I agree with his "traditionalist view”, of criminal defense ethics as a lawyering paradigm in which zealous advocacy and the maintenance of client confidence and trust are paramount. Simply put, zeal and confidentiality trump most other rules, principles, or values. When there is tension between these "fundamental principles” and other ethical rules, criminal defense lawyers must uphold the principles, even in the face of public or professional outcry. Although a defender must act within the bounds of the law, he or she should engage in advocacy that is …

The New Mccarthyism: Repeating History In The War In Terrorism, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Essay will argue that the government has invoked two methods in particular in virtually every time of fear. The first, discussed in Part I, involves a substantive expansion of the terms of responsibility. Authorities target individuals not for what they do or have done but based on predictions about what they might do. These predictions often rely on the individuals' skin color, nationality, or political and religious associations. The second method, the subject of Part II, is procedural-the government invokes administrative processes to control, precisely so that it can avoid the guarantees associated with the criminal process. In hindsight, …

American Servicemembers' Protection Act Of 2002, Lilian V. Faulhaber

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

On July 1, 2002, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ("ICC") entered into force, establishing the first permanent international criminal tribunal. Although seventy-six countries had ratified the Rome Statute by that date, the United States was not among them. Instead, Congress responded to the creation of the ICC by passing a bill sponsored by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) that Republican legislators had been trying to get through the House and Senate for several years. On August 2, 2002, the American Servicemembers' Protection Act of 2002 ("ASPA") became law. The Act was designed to prevent United States …

Digital Architecture As Crime Control, Neal K. Katyal

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper explains how theories of realspace architecture inform the prevention of computer crime. Despite the prevalence of the metaphor, architects in realspace and cyberspace have not talked to one another. There is a dearth of literature about digital architecture and crime altogether, and the realspace architectural literature on crime prevention is often far too soft for many software engineers. This paper will suggest the broad brushstrokes of potential design solutions to cybercrime, and in the course of so doing, will pose severe criticisms of the White House's recent proposals on cybersecurity.

The paper begins by introducing four concepts of …

Conspiracy Theory, Neal K. Katyal

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Over one-quarter of all federal criminal prosecutions and a large number of state cases involve prosecutions for conspiracy. Yet, the major scholarly articles and the bulk of prominent jurists have roundly condemned the doctrine. This Article offers a functional justification for the legal prohibition against conspiracy, centering on psychological and economic accounts. Advances in psychology over the past thirty years have demonstrated that groups cultivate a special social identity. This identity often encourages risky behavior, leads individuals to behave against their self-interest, solidifies loyalty, and facilitates harm against non-members. So, too, economists have developed sophisticated explanations for why firms promote …

An International "Truth Commission": Utilizing Restorative Justice As An Alternative To Retribution, Carrie J. Niebur Eisnaugle

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

A restorative justice paradigm emphasizes healing relationships between offenders, their victims, and the community in which the offense took place. It rejects retribution as a response to crime, focusing instead on the needs of all parties involved. This Note discusses the necessity for, and possible benefits of, using restorative justice principles when responding to international crimes and conflicts. Prosecution, war, and other violent means remain the most common responses to crime and conflict today. Such retributive reactions often lead to further violence rather than healing and peace. Using restorative justice principles to address crime and conflict, as was done in …

The Black Market For Wildlife: Combating Transnational Organized Crime In The Illegal Wildlife Trade, Mara E. Zimmerman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Trade in endangered wildlife has been a concern in the global community since the dawn of international environmental law. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), one of the most successful international environmental treaties established, addresses the issue through regulation of international trade in certain wildlife species. However, the effectiveness of the treaty has been greatly undermined through illegal wildlife trading. Recently, the illegal wildlife trade has attracted the attention of organized criminal groups, whose participation in the trade have helped make the black market for wildlife the second largest in the world. …

How We Should Think About The Constitutional Status Of The Suspected Terrorist Detainees At Guantanamo Bay, Akash R. Desai

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the United States has held suspected terrorist detainees captured during the military campaign in Afghanistan indefinitely at the United States military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Among those currently detained are members of the al-Qaeda terrorist group and the Taliban. Currently the detainees are in the peculiar situation of generally being outside the scope of protections offered by both the international humanitarian law and the Unites States criminal law regimes.

This Note examines the extraterritorial scope of the United States Constitution as it applies to the suspected terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay. …

The Evolution Of The United Nations Position On Terrorism: From Exempting National Liberation Movements To Criminalizing Terrorism Wherever And By Whomever Committed, Malvina Halberstam

Articles

No abstract provided.

Unpatriotic Acts: An Introduction, Sadiq Reza

Faculty Scholarship

John Walker Lindh. Zacarias Moussaoui. Jose Padilla. Richard Reid. Who reading these lines does not instantly recognize the names of these men? Or at least their assigned noms de guerre: American Taliban, 20th hijacker, dirty bomber, shoe bomber. For two and a half years these names and others have flitted through our daily copies of The New York Times like shadow characters in a play, along with black-and-white photographs underneath which black-and-white text tells us of their alleged (and sometimes proven) wrongdoing and the latest developments in their tribulations (and sometimes trials) with our government. But the men themselves are …

Independent Review Of The Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act 2000, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This Report focuses on the use of forensic procedures in the criminal justice system. It arises out of the requirement under section 122 of the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act 2000 (the Act) that the Minister (the Attorney General) review the Act to determine whether the policy objectives of the Act remain valid and whether the terms of the Act remain appropriate for securing those objectives.

Retribution For Rats: Cooperation, Punishment, And Atonement, Michael A. Simons

Vanderbilt Law Review

To mobsters, he is a "rat"; to drug dealers, a "snitch." To school children, he is a "tattletale"; to corporate executives, a "whistle- blower." To cops, he is an "informant"; to prosecutors, a "cooperator." By whatever name he is known, the person who betrays his associates to the authorities is almost universally reviled. In movies, on television, in literature, the cooperator embodies all that society holds in contempt: he is disloyal, deceitful, greedy, selfish, and weak. The cooperator, though, has long been a mainstay of our criminal justice system. For centuries, criminal defendants have received leniency in return for testimony …

Puppy Love: Bioterrorism, Civil Rights, And Public Health, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Florida has been the state humorists most like to make fun of since the 2000 presidential election, especially when it comes to politics. And humorists are almost the only commentators who can be counted on to tell us the truth about the state of American politics today. When Californians decided to recall their Governor, for example, Conan O'Brien observed: "Yesterday Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he would run for governor of California. The announcement was good news for Florida residents, who now live in the second-flakiest state in the country."' And when more than 200 people filed to run for Governor, Jay …

Towards A Legal History Of American Criminal Theory: Culture And Doctrine From Blackstone To The Model Penal Code, Gerald F. Leonard

Faculty Scholarship

Long before the birth of American law, English criminal jurisprudence had firmly established the general proposition that crime required not just a guilty act but a guilty mind. Coke’s maxim to that effect, actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea, is still frequently deployed by courts and scholars alike. So is the phrase coined by Blackstone to describe that guilty mind: the “vicious will” that must be present for an act to become a crime. In another great maxim, however, Holmes said that “general propositions do not decide concrete cases.” It is not too shocking, then, that these general …

Towards A Single Definition Of Armed Conflict In International Humanitarian Law: A Critique Of Internationalized Armed Conflict, James G. Stewart

All Faculty Publications

The strict division of international humanitarian law into rules applicable in international armed conflict and those relevant to armed conflicts not of an international nature is almost universally criticized. Even though attempts to abandon the distinction were made at every stage of negotiation of the Geneva Conventions and their Protocols, calls for a single body of international humanitarian law have since died out. This article revives those calls by highlighting the inadequacies of the current dichotomy’s treatment of internationalized armed conflicts, namely, armed conflicts that involve internal and international elements. It concludes that the law developed to determine this “internationalization” …