Criminal Procedure Commons^™

Quiet Rebellion Ii: An Empirical Analysis Of Declining Federal Drug Sentences Including Data From The District Level With Michael Heise, Frank O. Bowman Iii, Michael Heise

Faculty Publications

This is the second of two articles in which we seek an explanation for the hitherto unexamined fact that the average length of prison sentences imposed in federal court for narcotics violations declined by more than 15% between 1991-92 and 2000.

Treat Your Women Well: Comparisons And Lessons From An Imperfect Example Across The Waters, Rana R. Lehr-Lehnardt

Faculty Works

A young woman could not endure another night with the elderly man she was forced to marry, so she slipped out of the house and spent the night with the young man she had loved for years and desperately wanted to marry. When the woman's father learned of the illicit behavior, he entered the police station where she had sought refuge and fired four shots at her. He shed his daughter's blood to cleanse the family's honor. Jordan, 1999

A jealous husband returned home from an evening at the mosque and accused his pregnant wife of having an affair. The …

Witness Coaching By Prosecutors, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Given its controversial nature, one would expect the practice and ethics of witness coaching to have attracted close scrutiny by courts and commentators. Interestingly, however, the subject has received relatively modest attention. A handful of judicial and ethics opinions have discussed superficially the subject of witness preparation and coaching. Practitioner manuals typically offer general guidance on how to prepare witnesses, and occasionally address tactical and ethical issues involved in coaching. Scholarly commentary has examined the ethical limits of witness preparation, particularly by differentiating acceptable techniques from improper techniques, which promote false or misleading testimony. In addition, popular culture occasionally has …

Rape By Drugs: A Statutory Overview And Proposals For Reform, Patricia J. Falk

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The methods by which human beings accomplish nonconsensual sexual activity with fellow humans are almost limitless. They use physical force; they beat, choke, and knock their victims unconscious. They kidnap and restrain them. They use weapons and threats of immediate force to subdue their quarry. They come in groups with the superior strength of their number. They exploit the element of surprise. They coerce, extort, and blackmail others into sexual submission. They lie, pretend, impersonate, and defraud, trapping the unwary in webs of deceit. They victimize mentally ill, mentally disabled, physically weak, and physically incapacitated persons. They abuse their positions …

Accuracy Where It Matters: Brady V. Maryland In The Plea Bargaining Context, Corinna Barrett Lain

Law Faculty Publications

Professor Lain argues that the role of Brady v. Maryland in protecting the innocent from wrongful conviction is just as essential in the plea bargaining context as it is at trial, and that therefore even defendants who plead guilty should be entitled to Brady's protections. However, she concludes that Brady's application in the plea bargaining context is destined to provide only a shadow of the protection Brady provides at trial because of the materiality standard currently used to judge post-plea Brady claims. In making both points, she employs a model of the plea bargaining defendant's decision-making process, using modern choice …

A Broken System, Part Ii: Why There Is So Much Error In Capital Cases And What Can Be Done About It, James S. Liebman, Jeffrey A. Fagan, Andrew Gelman, Valerie West, Garth Davies, Alexander Kiss

Faculty Scholarship

There is growing awareness that serious, reversible error permeates America’s death penalty system, putting innocent lives at risk, heightening the suffering of victims, leaving killers at large, wasting tax dollars, and failing citizens, the courts and the justice system.

Our June 2000 Report shows how often mistakes occur and how serious it is: 68% of all death verdicts imposed and fully reviewed during the 1973-1995 study period were reversed by courts due to serious errors.

Analyses presented for the first time here reveal that 76% of the reversals at the two appeal stages where data are available for study were …

Quiet Rebellion Ii: An Empirical Analysis Of Declining Federal Drug Sentences Including Data From The District Level, Frank O. Bowman, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This is the second of two articles in which we seek an explanation for the hitherto unexamined fact that the average length of prison sentences imposed in federal court for narcotics violations declined by more than 15% between 1991-92 and 2000.

Our first article, Quiet Rebellion? Explaining Nearly a Decade of Declining Federal Drug Sentences, 86 Iowa Law Review 1043 (May 2001) ( "Rebellion I" ), examined national sentencing data in an effort to determine whether the decline in federal drug sentences is real (rather than a statistical anomaly), and to identify and analyze possible causes of the decline. We …

The Scottsboro Trials: A Legal Lynching, Faust Rossi

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Twenty-Five Years Of Death: A Report Of The Cornell Death Penalty Project On The "Modern" Era Of Capital Punishment In South Carolina, John H. Blume

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In 1972, the United States Supreme Court determined that the death penalty, as then administered in this country, violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Many states, including South Carolina, scurried to enact new, "improved" capital punishment statutes which would satisfy the Supreme Court's rather vague mandate. In 1976, the High Court approved some of the new laws, and the American death penalty was back in business. After a wrong turn or two, including a statutory scheme which did not pass constitutional muster, the South Carolina General Assembly passed the current death penalty statute in 1977. The …

Better Off Dead: Abatement, Innocence, And The Evolving Right Of Appeal, Rosanna Cavallaro

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Rehnquist Court And Criminal Procedure, Stephen F. Smith

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Empirical Studies Contribute To Death Penalty Debate, Joan W. Howarth

Scholarly Works

At a time of renewed scrutiny of capital punishment, Nevada lawyers may be interested in some of the recent legal scholarship on the death penalty based on social science data, rather than on legal philosophy or constitutional theory. Three projects are of particular interest: Professor James Liebman's work on errors in death penalty cases; the National Jury Project's data about how jurors decide capital cases; and David Baldus' recent study of peremptory challenges in capital cases.

A Question Of Revenge: Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy And A Proposed Diminished Capacity Defense For Homicidal Mothers, E. Selene Steelman

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) should be legally recognized as a severe mental disorder, allowing defendants to use a diminished capacity defense in cases of accidental filicide. The author critiques the legal system's inconsistent treatment of MSBP, which often focuses on the physical harm to the child while neglecting the mother's mental state. By acknowledging MSBP as a psychiatric disorder, the law could achieve more nuanced outcomes that consider both the act and the defendant's mental condition, reducing stigma and promoting fairness in criminal liability assessments.

Illinois Takes Bold Steps To Revolutionize Capital Litigation, Thomas M. Lombardo

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

The Discretionary Power Of "Public" Prosecutors In Historical Perspective, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

Norms urging prosecutors to seek justice by playing a quasi-judicial role and striving for fairness to defendants are often assumed to have deep historical roots. Yet, in fact, such a conception of the prosecutor's role is relatively new. Based on archival research on the papers of the New York County District Attorney's Office, "The Discretionary Power of 'Public' Prosecutors in Historical Perspective" explores the meaning of the word "public" as it applied to prosecutors in the nineteenth century. This article shows that, in the early days of public prosecution, district attorneys were expected to maximize convictions and leave defendants' rights …

The Uncommon Law: Insanity, Executions, And Oklahoma Criminal Procedure, Bryan Lester Dupler

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Deadly Cure: The Supreme Court's Dangerous Medicine In Ferguson V. City Of Charleston, George M. Dery Iii

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Procedure: Atwater V. City Of Lago Vista: The Due Process Dilemma Of Fourth Amendment Seizures For Traffic Violations, Amy J. Nelson

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Procedure: United States V. Holt: The Exception To The Exception That Swallows The Rule, J. Michael Hughes

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Restorative Justice And Collective Responsibility: Lessons For And From The Rwandan Genocide, Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

Genocide struck Rwanda in 1994. Since then, national and international trials have endeavored to promote reconciliation, deterrence, peace, justice, and human rights. This article posits a disconnect between these trials and the attainment of their avowed goals. This disconnect emerges in part from the influential agendas of international lawyers who equate selective criminal prosecution with the "rule of law" and espouse criminal prosecution as the preferred and uniform response to mass atrocity. Creating a presumption in favor of criminal prosecution has dampened the need to explore whether such trials actually are suitable for the particular afflicted society. A socio-legal analysis …

I Want A Black Lawyer To Represent Me: Addressing A Black Defendant's Concerns With Being Assigned A White Court-Appointed Lawyer, Kenneth P. Troccoli

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

"I want a Black lawyer to represent me." These are the first words you hear after you introduce yourself to your new client. You have been appointed to represent this man on a criminal charge. You are white. He is Black. You answer that you are an experienced criminal lawyer and will represent him to the best of your ability, regardless of his or your race. He responds that he too is experienced with the criminal justice system-a system that targets Black men, like himself, for prosecution far more than whites, that sentences Black men to prison more frequently and …

Going To The Bullpen: Using Uncle Sam To Strike Out Professional Sports Violence, Kevin A. Fritz

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

War Stories, Jessica Litman

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Disturbing And Inspiring, Paula Hannaford-Agor

Faculty Publications

Book review of A Trial by Jury, by D. Graham Burnett, Knopf, 2001.

Departing Ways: Uniformity, Disparity And Cooperation In Federal Drug Sentences, Michael A. Simons

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In 1995, this law review sponsored a symposium entitled The Sentencing Controversy: Punishment and Policy in the War Against Drugs. That symposium's focus on sentencing was appropriate because, as one of the participants noted, "[s]entencing is the bottom line of the criminal justice system."  Six years later, as this current symposium makes clear, we are still waging "war" on drugs. And although this symposium is not devoted exclusively to punishment, sentencing is still a central—and vexing—battlefield in that war.

The war on drugs is fought on multiple fronts: education, treatment, interdiction, diplomacy and law enforcement. Law enforcement, however, …

Random Vs. Suspicion-Based Drug Testing In The Public Schools -- A Surprising Civil Liberties Dilemma, Martin H. Belsky

Akron Law Faculty Publications

The Tecumseh School District had a policy that all students who wished to participate in extracurricular activities that involved some sort of competition had to agree to drug testing before the competition and then randomly thereafter. ... Those selected for accusatory drug testing might be perceived to be wearing a "badge of shame" and be subject to the arbitrary whim of an administrator. ... Vernonia involved a rule requiring drug testing as a condition for participation in extracurricular competitive sports. ... In Earls, the Tecumseh School District adopted a "Student Activities Drug Testing Policy" that required all students who wished …

Activism As Restraint: Lessons From Criminal Procedure, Stephen F. Smith

Journal Articles

In this Article, I advance a limited defense of judicial activism by the Burger and Rehnquist Courts in constitutional criminal procedure. My basic claim is that even if the so-called "Counterrevolution" in criminal procedure is viewed as activist -- as I think much of it must be -- it nevertheless was normatively defensible as a necessary condition, in a “second-best” world, of reaching an equilibrium closer to the judicial restraint model than would be possible if activism were only a one-way ratchet. Though my thesis supplies a justification for the Burger and Rehnquist Court's basic approach to legal change, it …

When Legislatures Delegate Death: The Troubling Paradox Behind State Uses Of Electocution And Lethal Injection And What It Says About Us, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the paradoxical motivations and problems behind legislative changes from one method of execution to the next, and particularly moves from electrocution to lethal injection. This article first examines the constitutionality of electrocution, contending that a modern Eighth Amendment analysis of a range of factors, such as legislative trends toward lethal injection, indicates that electrocution is cruel and unusual. It then provides an Eighth Amendment review of lethal injection, demonstrating that injection also involves unnecessary pain, the risk of such pain, and a loss of dignity. The article next presents the author's study of the most current protocols …

The Impossible Dream Come True: A Criminal Law Professor Becomes Juror #7, Stacy Caplow

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.