Criminal Law Commons^™

Formalism, Realism, And The War On Drugs, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

One of the ways our legal system has avoided confronting this ugly reality is through a commitment to legal formalism. Legal formalism allows us to ignore the social determinants that my AUSA friend saw every day as he prosecuted federal drug cases. As my colleague Professor Michael Seidman has suggested, legal formalism, which has been effectively critiqued and displaced by legal realism in many other areas of law, continues to exercise considerable influence over the way we think about criminal law. This formalist approach, in my view, has strongly affected the way we approach the drug problem. One consequence is …

University Of Richmond Law Review

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can You Be A Good Person And A Good Prosecutor?, Abbe Smith

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Somehow, it is understood that prosecutors have the high ground. Most people simply assume that prosecutors are the good guys, wear the white hats, and are on the "right" side. Most law students contemplating a career in criminal law seem to think this. It could be that most practicing lawyers think this, as well.

Prosecutors represent the people, the state, the government. This is very noble, important, and heady stuff. Prosecutors seek truth, justice, and the American way. They are the ones who stand up for the victims and would-be victims, the bullied and battered and burgled. They protect all …

Faulty Adversarial Performance By Criminal Defenders In The Crown Court, Peter W. Tague

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Who is the more able advocate, the lawyer in the United States or the barrister in England and Wales? Answering that question is extremely difficult because of a multitude of differences in the procedural regimes in which each works and in the scope of each's responsibility. Yet, one facet stands out, like a full moon in a dark sky: The comparative number of defenders who on appeal have been accused of having provided inappropriate representation in the process leading to conviction . . . Part 1 discusses the procedural hurdles that make challenging the trial barrister's conduct more difficult than …

Crime Victims' Rights: Critical Concepts For Animal Rights, Douglas E. Beloof

Animal Law Review

It is simultaneously intimidating and presumptuous to make observations about a movement that one is not intimately involued in. I am not an animal rights scholar. However, I am in the dignity recognition business. As a legal advocate and academic, I work to promote the dignity of human victims of crime. I have written the only casebook for law students about crime victims law, consult with Congress about crime victim law, and advise attorneys and victim organizations around the country. I also lwt·e considerable expe­rience in taking movements and moving them into practical operations within prosecutors' offices; for example, in …

Introduction To The Symposium: Religion's Role In The Administration Of The Death Penalty, Stephen P. Garvey

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Religious Conservatives And The Death Penalty, Thomas C. Berg

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

With the increased fervor surrounding the death penalty, many religious sects have re-examined their position on this issue. New statistics concerning possible discrimination in the application of the death penalty prompted several religious groups to call for a moratorium on the death penalty. In this Essay, Professor Thomas C. Berg examines how religious conservatives, especially Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants, have dealt with the recent concerns over the death penalty. Part I of the Essay documents how Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants traditionally approach the death penalty. In this section, Professor Berg concludes that critics of the death penalty can …

Religious Neutrality And The Death Penalty, Arnold H. Loewy

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Cases involving the Establishment of Religion Clause predominantly emphasize religious neutrality. Believing this to be normatively correct, Professor Loewy argues for religious neutrality in capital punishment cases. In accordance therewith, he would uphold religious peremptory challenges where a juror's religious belief is related to her death penalty perspective. Professor Loewy agrees with the courts'general willingness to disallow religion as an aggravating factor while allowing it as a mitigating factor. This dichotomy comports with the neutrality principle because aggravating factors, in general, are limited whereas mitigating factors are unlimited.

Transcript Of Speech On Religions's Role In The Administration Of The Death Penalty, Pat Robertson

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Islam And The Death Penalty, William A. Schabas

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Capital punishment is not practiced by a majority of the world's states. Anti-capital punishment domestic policies have led to an international law of human rights that emphatically prohibits cruel and inhuman punishment. International concern for the abolition of capital punishment has prompted Islamic states that still endorse and practice the death penalty to respond with equally compelling concerns based on the tenets of Islamic law. Professor William A. Schabas suggests that Islamic states view capital punishment according to the principles embodied in the Koran. Islamic law functions on the belief that all people have a right to life unless the …

Punishment At All Costs: On Religion, Convicting The Innocent, And Supporting The Death Penalty, Robert L. Young

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Paper explores the impact of the belief structure among white fundamentalist denominations on the support for the death penalty. Professor Robert L. Young observes that the tenets of fundamentalism, as well as the great extent that fundamentalists conform to the positions of their clergy, support this link between fundamentalism and a punitive orientation toward wrongdoers. Professor Young explains that members in white fundamentalist churches, to a greater extent than others, are inclined toward a negative view of human nature, which in turn leads to the belief that letting the guilty go free is a more serious mistake than convicting …

Don't Take His Eye, Don't Take His Tooth, And Don't Cast The First Stone: Limiting Religious Arguments In Capital Cases, John H. Blume, Sheri Lynn Johnson

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Professors John H. Blume and Sheri Lynn Johnson explore the occurrences of religious imagery and argument invoked by both prosecutors and defense attorneys in capital cases. Such invocation of religious imagery and argument by attorneys is not surprising, considering that the jurors who hear such arguments are making life and death decisions, and advocates, absent regulation, will resort to such emotionally compelling arguments. Also surveying judicial responses to such arguments in courts, Professors Blume and Johnson gauge the level of tolerance for such arguments in specific jurisdictions. Presenting proposed rules for prosecutors and defense counsel who wish to employ religious …

The Role Of Organized Religions In Changing Death Penalty Debates, Michael L. Radelet

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In his Article, Professor Michael L. Radelet describes a global decline in the use of the death penalty, the United Nation's progressively stronger stance against executions, and a growing opposition to capital punishment in the United States. This decrease is attributed to both empirical studies casting doubt on the death penalty's efficacy in promoting its stated underlying goals, and to the increasingly vocal stance of religious leaders morally opposed to capital punishment. Nevertheless, the decline in other justifications for capital punishment has been met with increasing reliance on retribution as the primary argument in its support. Professor Radelet argues that …

Religious Organizations And The Death Penalty, Robert F. Drinan

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Over the past several years, many questions have been raised concerning the application and effectiveness of the death penalty. Ironically, the Catholic Church, a long-time supporter of the death penalty, has become one of the most vocal critics of the death penalty. In this Essay, Father Robert F. Drinan documents the Church's new-found opposition to the death penalty, and discusses the influence the Church will have on the future of the death penalty.

Capital Punishments And Religious Arguments: An Intermediate Approach, Samuel J. Levine

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Determining the place and use of capital punishment in the American legal system is a challenging affair and one that is closely associated with and determined by religion's role in American legal decision-making. Both capital punishment and religion are controversial issues, and tend to challenge legal scholars and practitioners about whether they should function together or alone as valid parts of the legal system in the United States. Professor Levine argues that religious arguments should be employed to interpret and explain American legal thought when the need or proper situation arises. He uses capital punishment as an example of how …

Criminal Law, Franklin J. Hogue, Laura D. Hogue

Mercer Law Review

This year we surveyed hundreds of criminal law cases to select those we thought most worthy of inclusion in this survey. We have no doubt that other lawyers practicing criminal law would have included other cases and left out some we included. This is a survey of the vast everchanging landscape of criminal law, and the practitioner may use this article as a starting point for the careful and detailed research that must be done in actual cases.

• Pretrial Issues
• Guilty Plea
• Jury Selection
• State's Case in Chief
• Defense Case
• Sentencing
• Appellate Review
• Mandamus

The Right To Silence Helps The Innocent: A Game-Theoretic Analysis Of The Fifth Amendment Privilege, Alex Stein, Daniel J. Seidmann

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Prosecution Of Minor Subcontractors Under The Major Fraud Act Of 1988, Chris Liro

Michigan Law Review

In the late 1980s, a series of well-publicized defense contractor abuses brought the ordinarily obscure topic of government contracting into the public eye. These abuses included not only instances of seemingly wasteful charges, like the infamous $600 toilet seat, approved by a complicit Department of Defense, but also examples of truly fraudulent activity such as knowingly overbilling and supplying inferior quality goods. The fraud cases grabbed the public attention for three primary reasons. First, enormous sums of money were involved. Second, the nature of the fraud often posed a direct danger to United States troops, potentially compromising "national security." Finally, …

God And The Executioner: The Influence Of Western Religion On The Use Of The Death Penalty, Davison M. Douglas

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In this Essay, Professor Douglas conducts an historical review of religious attitudes toward capital punishment and the influence of those attitudes on the state's use of the death penalty. He surveys the Christian Church's strong support for capital punishment throughout most of its history, along with recent expressions of opposition from many Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish groups. Despite this recent abolitionist sentiment from an array of religious institutions, Professor Douglas notes a divergence of opinion between the "pulpit and the pew" as the laity continues to support the death penalty in large numbers. Professor Douglas accounts for this divergence by …

State Of Israel V. Kahane, Theodor Or, Aharon Barak, Shlomo Levin, Yaakov Kedmi, Dalia Dorner, Jacob Turkel, Eliahu Mazza

Translated Opinions

Facts: Further hearing in the judgment of the Supreme Court (President A.  Barak and Justices A. Goldberg and E. Mazza) dated March 2, 1998 in CA 6696/96 Benyamin Kahane v. State of Israel, in which Benyamin Kahane was acquitted of offenses based on sections 133 and 134(c) of the Penal Code 5737-1977.  The acquittal overturned a conviction in the District Court which in turn had overturned an acquittal in the Magistrate’s Court.  Two main issues were under consideration in the further hearing.  The first dealt with the characteristics of the protected value or values in the offense of sedition …

Colombia: The Political Psychology Of Fusarium Oxysporum, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article presents a brief outline of caveats associated with the employment of fusarium oxysporum to eradicate coca and opium poppy production. These caveats are based on an analysis developed by Dr. Archie Dickey, an environmental biologist at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, Arizona, USA.

Down On The Corner: An Analysis Of Gang-Related Antiloitering Laws, Jocelyn L. Santo

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Decolonising Restoration And Justice: Restoration In Transitional Cultures, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article is a strategy for the comparative analysis of justice in various contesting forms. To identify useful levels of the comparative project, the colonising potential of restorative justice is examined. In this context the influence of formalised justice mechanisms over the less formal is explored, with examples in transitional cultures in the South Pacific discussed. Local and global potentials (and dilemmas) are identified for analysis. The integration of justice forms, both in terms of structure and ideology, is argued for. Notions of collaborative rather than restorative justice are advanced, in order that the intersection between state-sponsored and customary justice …

Trends. Psychologies Of Personnel Security And Counterintelligence Failure: Racism, Satisficing, And Wen Ho Lee, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses issues surrounding the actions of Mr. Wen Ho Lee in the context of espionage, treason, and national security as well as racial profiling and the problems with conducting counterintelligence.

Where Hannah Arendt Went Wrong, David Abraham

Articles

No abstract provided.

Aggravated Assaults With Chairs Versus Guns: Impermissible Applied Double Counting Under The Sentencing Guidelines, Carolyn Barth

Michigan Law Review

In a bar called Andrea's Attic, David and Victor were having a drink when they got into an argument. The argument escalated until Victor said something that infuriated David. David looked at Victor, and, wanting to hurt Victor, grabbed the nearest object, a chair, and then threw it at Victor. The chair hit Victor and he fell to the ground, but was not hurt. In a bar called Barb's Barn down the street, Valerie was having a drink. Dorothy walked into the bar, grabbed Valerie by the arm and dragged her outside onto the street. As Valerie was dragged, she …

Independence And The Director Of Public Prosecutions: The Marshall Inquiry And Beyond, Philip C. Stenning

Dalhousie Law Journal

The author describes the reforms to the prosecution system in Nova Scotia which were recommended by the Marshall Inquiry in its 1989 report, and reviews the extent to which they have been effectively implemented during the ensuing decade. He concludes that many of the objectives originally identified by the Marshall Inquiry in this respect have been substantially met, but that in some areas there is still room for improvement. Finally, he notes the absence of systematic evaluations of prosecutorial institutions and practices in Canadian jurisdictions, and that because of this, it is difficult to say whether the Marshall Inquiry's objectives …

Introduction, Katherine S. Broderick

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Are Children Adults? Juveniles On Trial As Adults: Adults On Trial As Juveniles, Suzanne M. Knight

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Pornography On Rape And Violence Against Women: A Social Science Approach, Dana A. Fraytak

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

No abstract provided.