Criminal Procedure Commons^™

Culpable Kids, Cara H. Drinan

Texas A&M Law Review

When a child commits a crime, how do states determine if that child is culpable? There are procedural rules that determine the forum for a minor’s trial and doctrines that limit children’s exposure to the most severe sentencing. But when it comes to culpability, states employ the same substantive law whether the defendant is 50 or 15. As this Article explains, that approach is profoundly flawed. In the early 21st century, in a series of cases known as the Miller trilogy, the United States Supreme Court established that youth are fundamentally different from adults and state sentencing practices must recognize …

Imposing Restrictions On The First Step Act’S Retroactive Application To Vacated Sentences, Isabelle M. Carbajales, Lauren O’Neil Hamilton

University of Miami Law Review

The First Step Act has been called “the most significant criminal justice reform bill in a generation.” Until recently, the Eleventh Circuit had not weighed in on whether Section 403 of the First Step Act’s sentencing reforms applies to defendants whose initial sentences were vacated and who face resentencing after the Act’s enactment. On July 2, 2024, the Supreme Court agreed to squarely consider this issue, despite the Department of Justice siding with defendants yet calling the issue “shallow.” On July 8, 2024, the Eleventh Circuit held these defendants are not entitled to the benefits of the First Step Act …

What’S In A Name? How The Eleventh Circuit Ignored The Fourth Amendment To Hold That A Warrant For One Person Authorizes The Detention Of Others, Jared Mcclain, Dylan Moore

University of Miami Law Review

Odds are, your name isn’t all that unique. Most people share the same first and last name with hundreds, if not thousands, of other Americans. The frequency with which people share a name raises an important question of civil rights: What happens when officers arrest and detain an innocent person based on an arrest warrant that was issued for someone else with the same name?

In the Eleventh Circuit, the answer is almost always “nothing.” So long as a mistaken detention lasts three days or fewer, officers are free from accountability for apprehending the innocent—even if those officers have good …

State Right To Appeal: Has Maine Been Too Cautious?, David J. Corson

Maine Law Review

The Legislature of the State of Maine recently passed an act relating to appeals by the State on questions of law in criminal cases. The Governor's approval of the act on January 29, 1968, was the culmination of some three years of research and debate. The purpose of this comment is to examine the form and scope of the act in light of the continuing controversy in other jurisdictions over the conflict of interests between the people and the accused in what may be characterized as a trend toward more comprehensive state appeal laws, to the end of concluding whether …

How Post Is Post-Conviction Relief In Maine?, Charles L. Cragin Iii

Maine Law Review

In a recent case the Maine Supreme Judicial Court delineated the prerequisites for relief under Maine's post-conviction relief statute. The court declared that actual or constructive custody is necessary for relief. In Thoresen v. State, petitioner was convicted of a felony in Maine in 1959. He had been represented by retained counsel, and had elected to plead guilty to an information charging him with grand larceny. His sentence was suspended by probation and he was permitted to leave the state. Formally complying with all the regulations of his probation, he was given a total discharge in 1961. In 1967, he …

Right To Jury Trial: Lemieux V. Robbins, Stephen R. Sunenblick

Maine Law Review

A sagacious English liveryman named Tobias Hobson allowed each customer to choose the horse nearest the door, thereby presenting these customers with no real alternative. The State of Maine made a like proposition in Lemieux v. Robbins by implementing a novel criminal procedure whereby a defendant has a "choice" of either accepting his district court misdemeanor conviction as final, or appealing for a de novo trial by jury in superior court and possibly being convicted of a felony for contravening the same statute under which he was originally charged. The implementation of this procedure began with a complaint filed in …

Bernier V. State - The Right To Counsel In Entrustment Revocation Proceedings, Peter J. Detroy

Maine Law Review

Theodore Bernier was adjudicated a juvenile offender in September, 1966, and was subsequently committed to the Boys Training Center (BTC) for the term of his minority. In February, 1968, he was released on entrustment to his parents. Almost a year and a half later, Bernier was questioned by local police regarding his possible involvement in the theft of greenstamps from a local store. Although he was released without the police taking further action, they notified an aftercare and placement worker assigned to the BTC of the questioning. As a result, the BTC revoked the entrustment, and the police took him …

Extending The Smith V. Hooey Duty To The Holding Jurisdiction, Ronald D. Russell

Maine Law Review

The right to a speedy trial has been an integral part of the Anglo-American legal system since its foundation. The first statement of this guarantee seems to be in the codification of basic rights included in the Magna Charta. It was incorporated into the earliest laws of colonial America and later expressed in the sixth amendment to the Constitution. In Klopfer v. North Carolina, the United States Supreme Court stated, "The history of the right to a speedy trial and its reception in this country clearly establish that it is one of the most basic rights preserved by our Constitution." …

Extending The Smith V. Hooey Duty To The Holding Jurisdiction, Ronald D. Russell

Maine Law Review

The right to a speedy trial has been an integral part of the Anglo-American legal system since its foundation. The first statement of this guarantee seems to be in the codification of basic rights included in the Magna Charta. It was incorporated into the earliest laws of colonial America and later expressed in the sixth amendment to the Constitution. In Klopfer v. North Carolina, the United States Supreme Court stated, "The history of the right to a speedy trial and its reception in this country clearly establish that it is one of the most basic rights preserved by our Constitution." …

Bernier V. State - The Right To Counsel In Entrustment Revocation Proceedings, Peter J. Detroy

Maine Law Review

Theodore Bernier was adjudicated a juvenile offender in September, 1966, and was subsequently committed to the Boys Training Center (BTC) for the term of his minority. In February, 1968, he was released on entrustment to his parents. Almost a year and a half later, Bernier was questioned by local police regarding his possible involvement in the theft of greenstamps from a local store. Although he was released without the police taking further action, they notified an aftercare and placement worker assigned to the BTC of the questioning. As a result, the BTC revoked the entrustment, and the police took him …

Search And Seizure, Daniel G. Lilley

Maine Law Review

Search and Seizure, authored by Colorado Judge Edward C. Fisher, is a book of better than 300 pages which purports to be a recent survey of the law dedicated to "peace officers of America." The foreword states that it is written for law enforcement officers and is a ready reference for attorneys, judges, and others concerned with the administration of criminal justice. The book is clearly written. It tells police officers how to conduct searches and seizures and it tells them why restrictions are imposed. Where there is still conflict and doubt, it gives the officer some "safe" approaches to …

Stewart V. Smith: A Misapplication Of North Carolina V. Pearce, Alton C. Stevens

Maine Law Review

Gordon Stewart was convicted of a felony and sentenced to fifteen to nineteen months in the house of correction and a $2,000 fine, or an additional 2,000 days in lieu thereof. Since he was indigent this represented a total sentence of approximately seven years. Upon petition to the Windsor County Court this original sentence was set aside as being in excess of the twenty-four month statutory maximum. Resentencing was ordered and a different judge sentenced respondent anew to a term of twenty-three to twenty-four months in the state prison with appropriate credit given for time already served. On appeal to …

Attorneys And The Summary Contempt Sanction, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

It is indisputable that an orderly, disciplined courtroom is a prerequisite for the administration of justice. Rules necessarily backed by sanctions insure needed decorum and sobriety within the courtroom. One method used to promote courtroom order is the summary criminal contempt procedure embodied in 18 U.S.C. § 401(1) and implemented under Rule 42(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. In practice, the nature of the procedure has triggered criticism that summary criminal punishment of indecorous courtroom conduct fails to provide constitutional safeguards of due process of law. Most recently, the decision of In re Dellinger has reemphasized the problems …

Due Process And Supremacy As Foundations For The Adequacy Rule: The Remains Of Federalism After Wilbur V. Mullaney, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

Stillman E. Wilbur, Jr., was found guilty of murder by a jury in a Maine Superior Court and appealed, contending that the trial judge's instructions violated due process. In essence, the trial court instructed the jury that if it were satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Wilbur had committed a voluntary and intentional killing, malice aforethought was presumed, and therefore, the defendant would be guilty of murder unless he established by a preponderance of the evidence that he had killed in the heat of passion upon sudden provocation, in which case the jury could find him guilty of manslaughter. The …

No Lawyer, No Jail: A Critical Case Study Of Pragmatism And The Flaws Of “Purposeful” Decision Making In Argersinger V. Hamlin, Alisa Smith, Sarah K. Stice

Seattle University Law Review

By releasing conference notes and internal communications, Supreme Court Justices provide insight into the otherwise private decisionmaking process, shedding light on how case outcomes and legal reasoning are framed and negotiated. The watershed case of Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972) extended the constitutional right to counsel to some, but not all, misdemeanor defendants. The case was argued twice, and the Court relied on empirical and authoritative sources to answer complex and practical questions about requiring counsel. This case study employs critical discourse analysis to uncover what influenced the Justices’ decisions and how they framed, shaped, and constructed social realities to foreground …

The Race To Erase: Destruction Of Government Documents Undermines Freedom-Of-Information Laws, Frank D. Lomonte

Seattle University Law Review

In August 2019, reporters with Chattanooga’s daily newspaper, the Times Free Press, filed what seemed to be a routine request for access to emails and other public records held by their local county government. The seemingly unremarkable request set the newspaper’s staff on a months-long journey of unpleasant surprises. The first was a demand to pay the county $717 in advance before being allowed to inspect the documents. The second was that—during prolonged haggling over the fee assessment— the county attorney’s office simply destroyed almost all of the disputed records. Third, and most glaringly, the journalists discovered that Tennessee law …

When You’Re Arrested For A Felony In Seattle, You’Ll Meet Me., Austin Field

Seattle University Law Review

In this Essay, Austin Field, a practicing public defender, uses a first-person perspective to describe what it is like to meet a criminal defendant for the first time. He explains the process from start to finish, detailing everything from the way he introduces himself to how bail works.

"I’ll ask you for your name. Most of the time, you tell me. I check your name against my list. On any given day I’m supposed to interview between five and fifteen people. I have a lot of questions for you. We only have about ten minutes."

The Public Square In A Private-Property Obsessed Country: What New York City’S Pops Regulations Get Right And Why Other Cities Should (Mostly) Copy Them, Carson Mcgregor

Seattle University Law Review

When New York City (NYC) was first becoming the metropolitan monolith it is today, it had a problem: the city streets were chock full of skyscrapers, and sunlight, air, and usable open space were at a premium. In response, the City promulgated its first Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) regulations, which allowed developers to build skyward in exchange for providing public space on the street level. Unfortunately, in July of 2023, the New York Times (NYT) discovered that New Yorkers received only a fraction of what they were promised. Building owners received billions of dollars’ worth of added floor space, …

Modern Day Colonialism Through HawaiʻI’S Quiet Title And Partition Laws, Cheyann Fujii

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will attempt to highlight important aspects of Hawaiian history to provide readers with a clear picture on how Native Hawaiians are still impacted by colonialism, specifically when plaintiffs bring a quiet title or partition action against Native Hawaiian owners of kuleana lands. Before colonization, the concept of private land ownership did not exist in Hawai‘i, and Native Hawaiians adopted a feudal system by dividing land into geographical areas. Missionaries and businessmen brought Western ideas to Hawai‘i and influenced legislation such as the Great Māhele and the Kuleana Land Act of 1850, which solidified the concept of private property. …

Data Advantage And Merger Review: Can Entrenchment Theory Reform Antitrust Enforcement?, Shin-Ru Cheng

Seattle University Law Review

A merger involving giant digital companies is likely to dampen competition, as it allows those companies to combine and control data access, enabling them to entrench their dominant positions in relevant markets and extend those positions into related markets. While competition law in many jurisdictions aims to prohibit mergers that may substantially lessen competition or create a monopoly, arguably the review of digital mergers is failing because antitrust agencies lack an effective approach to identify data-generated anticompetitive harms. This Article demonstrates that entrenchment theory, recently reintroduced in the 2023 U.S. Merger Guidelines, would help reform the process of antitrust enforcement. …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Caution: Potholes In E-Scooter Data Collection, Dakota Rakestraw

Seattle University Law Review

Lime scooters keep ending up in major waterways in Washington state metro areas, a testament to the ubiquity of e-scooters in the metropolitan landscape. How they get there is unclear. Why they get there is even murkier. Perhaps the answer lies in the implications of modern geolocation data collection through e-scooters and gaps in current data collection regulation curbing individual liberties.

Since September 2020, electric scooters have run Seattle’s streets and have dramatically overtaken ridesharing bike trips. For example, from September 2020 to September 2021, there were about 1.4 million scooter and bike trips with September 2021 seeing 300,000 scooter …

Machinists Preemption In The New Administrative Law, Andrew J. Ziaja

Seattle University Law Review

This Article assesses Machinists preemption—a labor-specific form of implied field preemption—while freshly considering implications both for and of new developments in administrative law. The radical transformation of administrative law in the Supreme Court, particularly its newfound emphasis on clear-statement rules, provides opportunities to reconsider the Machinists rationale. Aligning with scholars who have called to question the doctrine’s “ossifying” influence on labor and employment policy, it argues that the modern-day version of Machinists preemption clashes with the Supreme Court’s newly constrained view of delegated power and its differing conceptions of the major questions doctrine.

On the other hand, Machinists preemption might …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Defining Deference: Impacts Of Abandoning Chevron On Emerging Technology Governance And Administrative Law, R. Aubrey Davis Iii

Seattle University Law Review

Emerging technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), often lead to unforeseen legal outcomes. Notable abuses in areas such as facial recognition, employment bias, and housing discrimination are well known. However, legislative responses to these issues either have been largely reactive or there has been no legislative response at all. In lieu of legislation, agencies have sought to fill the gap. For example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently proposed a rule mandating voter notification for all AI-generated political phone calls citing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991 as authority. However, the TCPA was originally passed to curtail telemarketing, not …

Intellectual Property Or Modern Folklore? The Problem With Open Gaming Licenses In Tabletop Gaming, Rosie Midget

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses how courts and legislatures should address “Open Gaming Licenses” commonly attached to tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), which game publishers use to promote a false image of accessibility—misleading consumers and building goodwill from the misunderstanding. Part I discusses what TTRPGs are, including the defining features of the hobby and culture surrounding it, as well as the unique interplay between publishers and players. Part II explores the question of which elements in a TTRPG system may be subject to copyright protection. Part III examines these elements in practice using Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons TTRPG as a …

Inovasi Kolaboratif Dalam Pembentukan Peraturan Perundang-Undangan: Optimalisasi Teknologi Untuk Meningkatkan Partisipasi Publik Dalam Legislasi, Hermawan Prasojo

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Meaningful public participation in the legislative process in Indonesia is a fundamental element in fostering an inclusive and transparent democracy. Despite the legal mandate for public involvement, as outlined in Law No. 13 of 2022 and Constitutional Court Decision No. 82/PUU-XXI/2023, such participation often remains formalistic and limited in practice. This article highlights the potential of digital technology, particularly the concept of CrowdLaw, as an alternative approach to enhancing public engagement. Case studies from Estonia, Iceland, and Brazil demonstrate that digital participation can effectively increase public involvement and improve the quality of legislative outcomes. With sufficient infrastructure and improved …

Sentencing Roulette: The Absurdity And Unconstitutionality Of The Crime Of Violence Enhancements, Noam Kozlov

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

The law needs to be clear. This dictum is true especially with respect to criminal law. Defendants need to be made aware of the statutory and judicial rules surrounding their trial, and sentencing outcome should be foreseeable, even if not predictable. But we have failed. We have failed in granting defendants this sought-after clarity, exposing them to grossly disproportional and disparate sentences. One such failure is found in the Crime of Violence enhancement rules. COV enhancements add years or even decades to sentences of defendants whose previous convictions are classified as 'violent'. Despite this detrimental impact of the COV rules, …

Michigan V. Tucker: A Reevaluation Of Miranda, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

In Michigan v. Tucker the Supreme Court considered whether to exclude the fruits of an interrogation that did not meet the precautionary standards of Miranda v. Arizona. The defendant contended that use of the evidence at his trial violated his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination. In deciding that the evidence had been properly admitted, the Tucker Court interpreted Miranda v. Arizona as outlining recommended procedural safeguards for the protection of fifth amendment rights and reasoned that omission of procedural safeguards does not necessarily constitute a violation of the underlying rights. Specifically, the Court concluded that a suspect who did not …

Appointment Of Counsel In Misdemeanor Prosecutions In Maine, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

When a criminal defendant appears without a lawyer before a trial court, the trial judge must decide whether to appoint counsel to represent him. The trial judge's decision is one of constitutional magnitude under both the United States and Maine Constitutions, and the decision made in any particular instance affects the integrity of the trial process and the validity of any conviction. The scope of the constitutional right to appointed counsel has lately been the subject of major decisions of the United States Supreme Court and of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The United States Supreme Court in Argersinger v. …