Criminal Procedure Commons^™

Making Sure We Are Getting It Right: Repairing "The Machinery Of Death" By Narrowing Capital Eligibility, Ann E. Reid

Law Student Publications

This comment argues that, starting with the framework of the federal system, there is a way to reconcile modern concerns about the death penalty with society's need for leverage over those criminals who truly are the worst of the worst-those who present grave threats to society even after incarceration. This reconciliation can be achieved by amending the Federal Death Penalty Act to require prosecutors to establish one additional element before they can secure a capital conviction: future dangerousness of the defendant in prison..

A Survey Of The History Of The Death Penalty In The United States, Sheherezade C. Malik, D. Paul Holdsworth

Law Student Publications

Since the founding of Jamestown Colony in 1607, few topics in American life and culture have generated as much controversy, both in terms of persistence and volatility, as the death penalty. Foreign policy, economic recessions, and social movements come to the forefront of national discussion in their own respective ebbs and flows. Capital punishment, however, has been a staple of the American criminal justice system since the early inhabiting of the continent, and has remained a permanent vehicle through which we can enact retribution on the most heinous criminal offenders in our society, ridding ourselves of the worst among us.

Restorative Justice For Multinational Corporations, Andrew B. Spalding

Law Faculty Publications

Deterrence theory, rooted in the methodology of law and economics, continues to dominate both the theory and practice of white-collar crime. By manipulating the disincentives of prospective wrongdoers, deterrence aims to efficiently reduce crime and maximize taxpayers’ utility. However, the rise of international commerce presents a challenge it cannot meet. Using a combination of empirical evidence and quantitative modeling, this Article shows that deterrence will tend to increase, rather than decrease, net levels of corporate crime in developing countries. The ever-increasing power of multinational corporations thus calls for a new theory of punishment, one that uses criminal enforcement to address …

The Politics Of Botched Executions, Corinna Barrett Lain

Law Faculty Publications

In this symposium essay, I explore the politics of botched executions, discussing state responses to the latest round of executions gone wrong and the ways in which those responses matter. Part I recounts four botched executions in 2014 and the state responses that accompanied them. Part II makes three observations about those responses-one about states' fealty to the death penalty, one about backlash politics and the scope of the public relations problem, and one about the changing cultural construct of lethal injection in the United States. Part III explores how state responses to botched executions (or the lack thereof) might …

Death As A Bargaining Chip: Plea Bargaining And The Future Of Virginia's Death Penalty, John G. Douglass

Law Faculty Publications

Virginia now averages less than a single death sentence each year, a far cry from its not-too-distant history as the second most active death penalty state in the nation. The numbers alone tempt us to forecast the death of Virginia's death penalty: a death by disuse. But those numbers leave much of the story untold. The plummeting number of death sentences is only the diminishing tip of a larger, more stable iceberg of capital case litigation. That iceberg is melting very slowly, if at all.

Criminal Law And Procedure, Aaron J. Campbell

University of Richmond Law Review

This article aims to provide a succinct review of noteworthy cases in the areas of criminal law and procedure that the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Court of Appeals of Virginia decided this past year. Instead of covering every ruling or procedural point in a particular case, this article focuses on the "take- away" of the holdings with the most precedential value. This article also summarizes significant changes to criminal law and procedure enacted by the 2014 Virginia General Assembly.

Virginia's Gap Between Punishment And Culpability: Re-Examining Self-Defense Law And Battered Women's Syndrome, Kendall Hamilton

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

"To Corral And Control The Ghetto": Stop, Frisk, And The Geography Of Freedom, Anders Walker

University of Richmond Law Review

While criminal law scholar Michelle Alexander has shown that stop and frisks often serve as the gateway into the criminal justice system for young men of color, she occludes the complex forces that led to their rise." This article seeks to identify those forces, relating the rise of stop and frisk rules to liberal politics, Cold War concerns, and spatial dynamics. To illustrate, this article will proceed in three parts. Part I will demonstrate how Mapp v. Ohio coincided with judicial frustration at police intrusions into private, intimate space-including private thought-precisely at a time when the United States sought to …

The Genealogy Of Prosecutorial Discretion In Latin America: A Comparative And Historical Analysis Of The Adversarial Reforms In The Region, Daniel Pulecio-Boek

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law And Procedure, Aaron J. Campbell, Kathleen B. Martin

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Grave Injustice: Unearthing Wrongful Executions, Mary Kelly Tate

Law Faculty Publications

This book review discusses Richard A. Stack's book, Grave Injustice, which illustrates the flaws in America's use of capital punishment. "Simply put, the death penalty is shown to be a massive policy failure diminishing the legitimacy of the criminal justice system in the world's leading democracy. Stack uses his reportorial skills to distill the complex subject of the American death penalty into a digestible form, yet he never cuts corners with the human dimension. This dimension is always at the center of crime and punishment and, most hauntingly, at the center of the American death penalty and its tragic …

Death Penalty Drugs: A Prescription That's Getting Harder To Fill, Corinna Barrett Lain

Law Faculty Publications

Six states have abolished the death penalty in the past six years—Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, and New Mexico. We haven’t seen mass moves like that since the 1960s. What gives?

Part of the answer is that those states weren’t executing anyway. More people in those states were dying on death row waiting to be executed than were actually being executed, and the death penalty is breathtakingly expensive to maintain (a point to which I’ll return in a moment).

So why weren’t the states executing? We tend to hear about innocence claims, trench warfare litigation, official moratoriums, study …

Inchoate Crimes Revisted: A Behavioral Economics Perspective, Manuel A. Utset

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Quarreling Over Quarles: Limiting The Extension Of The Public Safety Exception, Andrew T. Winkler

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This article addresses the issue of whether the Quarles public safety exception applies after a suspect invokes his Fifth Amendment right to counsel. Due to the lack of guidance in the Quarles opinion, lower courts have expressed confusion as to whether the public safety exception applies to Edwards. Several courts have extended the exception, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth and Ninth Circuits, while some state appellate courts have declined to do so. Part II of this article provides the requisite background for understanding Miranda's Fifth Amendment right to counsel, the Edwards rule, and the Quarles public …

Watching The Watchers, Ronald J. Bacigal

Law Faculty Publications

This article focuses on the threat that increasingly sophisticated technology can pose to individual privacy. However, the author would like to provide the “yin to the yang” and point out the obvious: technology itself is not the culprit, because it is a double-edged sword, a tool that can be used to protect as well as invade privacy. We need not endorse the single-minded approach of WikiLeaks to recognize the benefits that occur when technology discloses government cover-ups or simply provides accurate information where none previously existed.

Quarreling Over Quarles: Limiting The Extension Of The Public Safety Exception, Andrew T. Winkler

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This article addresses the issue of whether the Quarles public safety exception applies after a suspect invokes his Fifth Amendment right to counsel. Due to the lack of guidance in the Quarles opinion, lower courts have expressed confusion as to whether the public safety exception applies to Edwards. Several courts have extended the exception, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth and Ninth Circuits, while some state appellate courts have declined to do so. Part II of this article provides the requisite background for understanding Miranda's Fifth Amendment right to counsel, the Edwards rule, and the Quarles public …

The Virtues Of Thinking Small, Corinna Barrett Lain

Law Faculty Publications

Professor Lain argues that, in efforts to determine how close American states are to abolishing the death penalty, scholars should "think small," examining the ground level issues that affect its imposition. Among the issues she explores are exonerations of defendants, the legality and obtainability of lethal injection drugs, and the high costs of seeking and imposing capital punishment.

Criminal Law And Procedure, Aaron J. Campbell, Kathleen B. Martin

University of Richmond Law Review

This article aims to give the criminal law practitioner a succinct review of significant cases regarding criminal law and procedure decided by the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Court ofAppeals of Virginia during the past year. The authors have focused their discussion of the cases on cogent points found in the holdings. The article also briefly summarizes recent legislative enactments pertaining to criminal law.

The Criminal Rules Enabling Act, Max Mizner

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law And Procedure, Virginia B. Theisen

University of Richmond Law Review

Once more, the past year yielded a wealth of developments in the area of criminal law and procedure. The author has endeavored to cull the most significant decisions and legislative enactments, with an eye toward the "takeaway" from a case rather than a discussion of settled principles.

A Brave New World Of Stop And Frisk, Ronald J. Bacigal

Law Faculty Publications

In this article, the author Ron Bacigal discusses the editorials, The Shame of New York by Bob Herbert and Fighting Crime Where the Criminals Are by Heather MacDonald. These editorials were prompted by the New York City Police Department's release of figures regarding "stop and frisk" incidents within New York City.' MacDonald and Herbert reacted to the same statistical report by putting two very different spins on the raw data. While it's always helpful to compile empirical evidence, Bacigal suggests that we also need to look beyond the mere numbers. If you put aside anecdotal versions of encounters between minorities …

And Death Shall Have No Dominion: How To Achieve The Categorical Exemption Of Mentally Retarded Defendants From Execution, J. Amy Dillard

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Courts Re-Examine The Application Of Goldfinger-Era Electronic Tracking Cases To Law Enforcement Use Of Gps Tracking Devices, Joshua A. Engel

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

GPS tracking devices have become inexpensive, small, and can easily be attached to a vehicle quickly. Law enforcement is increasingly using these devices to track the exact location of a suspect's vehicle over a long period of time. In most instances, relying on Supreme Court cases from the early 1980's, law enforcement has not sought a warrant before using these devices. This paper examines how courts have attempted to apply Supreme Court precedents based on "primitive" tracking devices to modern GPS tracking devices. These precedents established that the use of electronic tracking devices on vehicles did not constitute a search …

Automobile Consent Searches: The Driver's Options In A Lose-Lose Situation, Arthur J. Park

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

"Do you mind if I take a quick look in the vehicle?" This is a question that countless Americans hear every day, but very few citizens understand the ramifications of their answer. How long can the officer keep me here? What if there is something in my car that I do not know about? Can I be arrested if I refuse the search? This article will address the legal context surrounding consent searches of automobiles in order to provide some clarity to drivers and passengers that are put in this lose-lose situation.

Automobile Consent Searches: The Driver's Options In A Lose-Lose Situation, Arthur J. Park

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

"Do you mind if I take a quick look in the vehicle?" This is a question that countless Americans hear every day, but very few citizens understand the ramifications of their answer. How long can the officer keep me here? What if there is something in my car that I do not know about? Can I be arrested if I refuse the search? This article will address the legal context surrounding consent searches of automobiles in order to provide some clarity to drivers and passengers that are put in this lose-lose situation.

Courts Re-Examine The Application Of Goldfinger-Era Electronic Tracking Cases To Law Enforcement Use Of Gps Tracking Devices, Joshua A. Engel

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

GPS tracking devices have become inexpensive, small, and can easily be attached to a vehicle quickly. Law enforcement is increasingly using these devices to track the exact location of a suspect's vehicle over a long period of time. In most instances, relying on Supreme Court cases from the early 1980's, law enforcement has not sought a warrant before using these devices. This paper examines how courts have attempted to apply Supreme Court precedents based on "primitive" tracking devices to modern GPS tracking devices. These precedents established that the use of electronic tracking devices on vehicles did not constitute a search …

Criminal Law And Procedure, Virginia B. Theisen, Stephen R. Mccullough

University of Richmond Law Review

The authors have endeavored to select from the many cases and bills those that have the most significant practical impact on the daily practice of criminal law in the Commonwealth. Due to space constraints, the authors have stayed away from discussing settled principles, with a focus on the "take away" for a particular case.

The Anatomy Of A Search: Intrusiveness And The Fourth Amendment, Renée Mcdonald Hutchins

University of Richmond Law Review

In this essay, I contend that when evaluating the constitutionality of enhanced surveillance devices, the existing test for assessing the occurrence of a Fourth Amendment search should be modified. Specifically, I suggest that intrusiveness should be unambiguously adopted by the Court as the benchmark for assessing and defining the existence of a search under the Fourth Amendment. Moreover, intrusiveness should be clearly defined to require an examination of two factors: the functionality of a challenged form of surveillance and the potential for disclosure created by the device.

The Process Is The Problem: Lessons Learned From United States Drug Sentencing Reform, Erik S. Siebert

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lessons Learned From The Evolution Of Evolving Standards, Corinna Barrett Lain

Law Faculty Publications

In the discussion that follows, I explore the evolution of the "evolving standards" doctrine to make a point about its legitimacy and Supreme Court decisionmaking under the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause more generally. In Part I, I trace the origins of the doctrine to its present state. In Part II, I turn to lessons learned from the evolution of "evolving standards," questioning the textual defense of the doctrine and the constraining power of law itself. I conclude that while the "evolving standards" doctrine is problematic, it is not the crux of the problem. Supreme Court decisionmaking in the death …