Criminal Law Commons^™

Naturalizing Immigration Imprisonment, César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Only recently has imprisonment become a central feature of both t across every level of government and involving civil and criminal law enforcement tools.

Examining the population as a whole provides crucial insights as to how we arrived at this state of mass immigration imprisonment. While political motivations — parallel to those that fueled the rapid expansion of criminal mass incarceration — may have started the trend, this Article demonstrates that key legal and policy choices explain how imprisonment has become an entrenched feature of immigration law enforcement. In fact, legislators and immigration officials have locked themselves into this choice, …

Cold Comfort Food: A Systematic Examination Of The Rituals And Rights Of The Last Meal, Sarah Gerwig-Moore

Articles

Last meals are a resilient ritual accompanying executions in the United States. Yet states vary considerably in the ways they administer last meals. This paper explores the recent decision in Texas to abolish the tradition altogether. It seeks to understand, through consultation of historical and contemporary sources, what the ritual signifies. We then go on to analyze execution procedures in all 35 of the states that allowed executions in 2010, and show that last meal allowances are paradoxically at their most expansive in states traditionally associated with high rates of capital punishment (Texas now being the exception to that rule.) …

Love Matters, Tamara L. Kuennen

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Love matters to women in abusive relationships. Consequently, matters of love should mean something to both the legal regime redressing intimate partner violence (“IPV”) and to feminist legal scholars seeking to reform the same. Currently the law ignores matters of love by conditioning legal remedies on the immediate termination of the intimate relationship by the victim. Feminist legal scholars unwittingly ignore love by failing to be sufficiently specific about the type of abuse we most wish to eradicate: coercive control. This is a pattern of acts—both violent and nonviolent—in which one partner seeks to control and dominate the personhood and …

Criminal Justice In Indian Country, M. Alexander Pearl

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the role played by different enacted legislation on California’s Indian tribes criminal justice system. For centuries, tribal governments were the only entities with criminal jurisdiction in Indian Country. In 1883, the Supreme Court in Ex parte Kan-Gi-Shun-Ka (Ex parte Crow Dog) confirmed that a crime committed by an Indian against another Indian did not give rise to federal jurisdiction. In response, Congress passed the Major Crimes Act, granting federal authorities the power to investigate, enforce, and prosecute certain crimes occurring in Indian Country. The federal statutes creating federal jurisdiction did not preclude tribal jurisdiction, but states …

Interactions Between African Americans And Police Officers: How Cultural Stereotypes Create A Wrongful Conviction Pipeline For African Americans, Cynthia J. Najdowski

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Erroneous convictions are not as rare as one might expect and when they occur, the wrongfully accused are more often African American than White: Of those who were wrongfully convicted and later exonerated in the last quarter century, 47% were African American (The National Registry of Exonerations, 2013), even though only 13% of the U.S. population is (Rastogi, Johnson, Hoeffel, & Drewery, 2011). Yet Gould, Carrano, Leo, and Young’s (2013) recent analysis of miscarriages of justice indicated that race does not reliably differentiate between cases in which innocent defendants are wrongfully convicted as opposed to rightfully acquitted. They suggested that, …

Diminished Returns: The Exorbitance Of Collecting Dna From All Arrestees, Carlos Jordi

St. Thomas Law Review

This comment will examine the effects of a criminal justice system where DNA is collected from everyone who is arrested, regardless of the seriousness of the charge. Part L.A will begin with an analysis of King to provide an understanding of how the Supreme Court decision may permit states to collect DNA from all arrestees. DNA is used in the criminal justice system because of its ability to effectively identify people. Part I.B discusses DNA science and provides a cursory understanding of how information is gathered from an individual's genetic code. Part I.C displays how law enforcement uses DNA for …

On Demonstrative Evidence And Trial Graphics: What Works And What Doesn't, Ryan Flax

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

Improving The Ethical Guidelines For Assistant United States Attorneys Who Are Considering The Declination Of A Law Enforcement Agent's Recommendation To Prosecute, Elhrick J. Cerdan

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

Challenging Discrimination Of Lgbt Youth In Juvenile Justice: Encouraging The Legal Strategy Of Selective Prosecution Motions, Alanna Holt

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

Family Treatment Drug Courts: A Perspective From Lewiston, Maine, John B. Beliveau, Aisling Ryan

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

Fighting Impaired Driving In D.C.: A Response To D.C. Disturbia, Melissa Shear

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

On Professionalism, Civility, & Discovery, Kathryn Todryk

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

From The Editors, Raleigh Mark, Robert Nothdurft Jr.

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

Interpreting The Court Interpreters Act: A Practical Guide To Protecting The Rights Of Non-English Speaking Criminal Defendants, Jeffrey Archer Miller

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Prejudicial Effect Of Gang Evidence: Under What Conditions Will Jurors Ignore Reasonable Doubt, Mitchell L. Eisen, Brenna M. Dotson

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

The 'Rhyme Or Reason' Behind Prosecutorial Use Of Rape Lyrics As Evidence In Criminal Trials, Robery Nothdurft Jr

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

The Trayvon Martin Trial - Two Comments And An Observation, 47 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1371 (2014), Richard Delgado

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Stop Presumptive Transfers: How Forcing Juveniles To Prove They Should Remain In The Juvenile Justice System Is Inconsistent With Roper V. Simmons & Graham V. Florida, 48 J. Marshall L. Rev. 365 (2014), Rachel Fugett

UIC Law Review

Overly expansive juvenile transfer laws are inconsistent with the Court’s reasoning because their primary objective is to transfer juveniles into the adult criminal justice system solely for the purpose of punishing and sentencing them like adults. In so doing, expansive juvenile transfer laws, more often than not, largely ignore a juvenile’s diminished culpability and greater capacity for change.

Is Psychological Research On Self-Control Relevant To Criminal Law?, Paul J. Litton

Faculty Publications

In recent years scholars have asked whether scientific discoveries - specifically in neuroscience and genetics - should have normative implications for criminal law doctrine and theory, especially with regard to free will and responsibility. This focus on novel and merely potential scientific findings makes Rebecca Hollander-Blumoff’s arguments all the more fascinating: she argues that criminal law scholars have neglected to mine a rich body of social psychological research on the mechanisms of self-control which has developed over the past two decades. She, herself, finds that the psychological research suggests that current criminal law inaccurately circumscribes the scope of situations in …

The Jury Wants To Take The Podium -- But Even With The Authority To Do So, Can It? An Interdisciplinary Examination Of Jurors' Questioning Of Witnesses At Trial, Mitchell J. Frank

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Surprising Acquittals In The Gotovina And Perisic Cases: Is The Icty Appeals Chamber A Trial Chamber Is Sheep's Clothing, Mark A. Summers

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Crimes And Medical Care On Board Cruise Ships: Do The Statistics Fit The Crimes?, Leticia M. Diaz, Barry H. Dubner, Nicole Mckee

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Testimonial Is As Testimonial Does, Ben L. Trachtenberg

Faculty Publications

In December 2012, the Florida Law Review published Ben Trachtenberg’s article “Confronting Coventurers: Coconspirator Hearsay, Sir Walter Raleigh, and the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause,” 64 Fla. L. Rev. 1669 (2012). Using the example of hearsay admitted in criminal prosecutions related to the Holy Land Foundation, the article argued that under Crawford v. Washington, courts had begun admitting unreliable hearsay against criminal defendants that previously would have been barred under Ohio v. Roberts, the Confrontation Clause case upended by Crawford.

Richard D. Friedman, the Alene and Allan F. Smith Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, responded in “The Mold …

The Marriage Of State Law And Individual Rights And A New Limit On The Federal Death Penalty, Jonathan Ross

Cleveland State Law Review

Since the 1990s, federal prosecutors have, with increasing frequency, sought the death penalty for federal offenses committed in and also punishable under the laws of non-death penalty states. Critics of this practice have pointed out that federal prosecutors can use the federal death penalty to circumvent a state's abolition of capital punishment. Courts, however, have almost unanimously rejected arguments that state law should be a shield from federal punishment for federal offenses. This article proposes a novel way to challenge the federal death penalty's use in a non-death penalty state—the Supreme Court's reasoning in United States v. Windsor. In Windsor, …

Threats And Bullying By Prosecutors, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this Essay describes ten contexts in which prosecutors make threats and behave like bullies. Some of these contexts are familiar, such as grand jury proceedings or plea discussions, where threats are generally upheld. Threats in other contexts are not as easy to justify, such as threats to obtain testimony from prosecution witnesses, retaliating for the exercise of constitutional rights, forcing a waiver of civil rights claims, and publicly humiliating people. Other threats clearly are illegitimate and unethical, such as threats that drive defense witnesses off the stand, bringing criminal charges against outspoken critics and defense experts, and …

Escaping From The Standard Story: Why The Conventional Wisdom On Prison Growth Is Wrong, And Where We Can Go From Here, John F. Pfaff

Faculty Scholarship

Whether as a result of low crime rates, the financial pressures of the 2008 credit crunch, or other factors, policymakers on both sides of the aisle are trying to rein or even reduce the US incarceration rate after an unprecedented forty-year expansion. Unfortunately, reforms are hampered by the fact that we do not have a solid empirical understanding of what caused the explosion in the first place. In fact, the "Standard Story" of prison growth generally overemphasizes less important factors and overlooks more important ones. This essay thus does two things. First, it points out the flaws in five key …

State Prisoners With Federal Claims In Federal Court: When Can A State Prisoner Overcome Procedural Default?, Megan Raker

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Criminal Law For Retributivists, Alexander K.A. Greenawalt

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Responding to the proliferation of international criminal tribunals during the last two decades, scholars have engaged in a rich debate about the normative foundations of international criminal law (“ICL”). The retributive theory of punishment--which justifies punishment based on the culpability of the accused, rather than by reference to its social benefits--has met with significant skepticism in these discussions. Some have argued that unique features of international criminal justice--for example, the extreme selectivity of punishment or the lack of certain social or political preconditions--are a poor match for retributive theory. Others have ignored retributivism altogether, or afforded the theory only passing …

Fighting Fire With Fire: Technology In Child Sex Trafficking, Mary Graw Leary

Scholarly Articles

The scourge of child sex trafficking is as complex as it is alarming. It is speculated that the “Triple A Engine” effect of the Internet (Affordability, Access, and Anonymity) plays a role in the sex trafficking of children. For example, much media coverage and political action has recently taken place regarding online ad sites such as backpage.com facilitating child sex trafficking. However, as with many aspects of child sex trafficking, obtaining actual measurements and hard data is challenging due to the nature of the crime, the lack of a uniform description, and inherent under-reporting. That is why Microsoft Corporation awarded …

The Effects Of The Lubanga Case On Understanding And Preventing Child Soldiering, Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

On March 14, 2012, a trial chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a rebel leader from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for child-soldier-related crimes. Some months later, Lubanga was sentenced to a prison term of fourteen years. On August 7, 2012, an ICC trial chamber issued its decision regarding the principles and procedures to be applied to reparations in the Lubanga case. This Article unpacks the relationships between the Lubanga proceedings and how the international community conceptualizes, and strives to prevent, child soldiering. This Article contends that the Lubanga proceedings reinforce, and incubate, a …