Criminal Procedure Commons^™

Criminal Procedure In Perspective, Kit Kinports

Faculty Scholarship

This Article attempts to situate the Supreme Court's constitutional criminal procedure jurisprudence in the academic debates surrounding the reasonable person standard, in particular, the extent to which objective standards should incorporate a particular individual's subjective characteristics. Analyzing the Supreme Court's search and seizure and confessions opinions, I find that the Court shifts opportunistically from case to case between subjective and objective tests, and between whose point of view - the police officer's or the defendant's - it views as controlling. Moreover, these deviations cannot be explained either by the principles the Court claims underlie the various constitutional provisions at issue …

Sentencing: Where Case Theory And The Client Meet, Kimberly A. Thomas

Articles

Criminal sentencing hearings provide unique opportunities for teaching and learning case theory. These hearings allow attorneys to develop a case theory in a context that both permits understanding of the concept and, at the same time, provides a window into the difficulties case theory can pose. Some features of sentencing hearings, such as relaxed rules of evidence and stock sentencing stories, provide a manageable application of case theory practice. Other features of sentencing hearings, such as the defendant's allocution, require an attorney to contend with competing "case theories," and as a result, to face the ethical and counseling challenge of …

Waiting For The Other Shoe: Hudson And The Precarious State Of Mapp, David A. Moran

Articles

I have no idea whether my death will be noted in the New York Times. But if it is, I fear the headline of my obituary will look something like: "Professor Dies; Lost Hudson v. Michigan' in Supreme Court, Leading to Abolition of Exclusionary Rule." The very existence of this Symposium panel shows, I think, that my fear is well-grounded. On the other hand, I am not quite as fearful that Hudson foreshadows the complete overruling of Mapp v. Ohio2 and Weeks v. United States3 as I was when I published an article just three months after the Hudson decision …

In Memoriam: Francis A. Allen, Yale Kamisar

Articles

Francis A. Allen graced the law faculties of five universities in the course of a remarkable, forty-six-year teaching career. In that time, he established himself as one of the half-dozen greatest twentieth century American scholars of criminal law and criminal procedure.

Strict Liability And Negligent Rape: Or How I Learned To Start Worrying And Question The Criminal Justice System, Dini Rosenbaum

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note critiques strict liability and negligent rape standards, advocating for a more nuanced approach that prioritizes subjective fault and societal education to address the limitations of current rape laws. It emphasizes the need to align legal standards with the defendant's actual state of mind while addressing systemic barriers to justice, particularly in date rape cases. The analysis highlights the gap between legal reforms and their practical application, suggesting that education could be a more effective tool for prevention than relying solely on legal changes.

Reporting Sexual Assault Of Women In The Military, Jodie Friedman

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the underreporting of sexual assaults in the military and the impact of policy changes aimed at addressing this issue. It highlights the challenges faced by victims, including fears of retaliation and the lack of confidentiality, and evaluates the effectiveness of the 2005 restricted reporting policy. The analysis suggests that while progress has been made, systemic issues persist, and further reforms are needed to protect victims' rights and ensure justice.

Desert And The Eighth Amendment Symposium: Cruel And Unusual Punishment: Litigating Under The Eighth Amendment, Youngjae Lee

Faculty Scholarship

The task of this Article is to evaluate these two approaches to understanding the role of retribution as a constitutional constraint. And in order to do so, I would like to first answer a related question, one step removed: What should be the significance of ordinary intuitions about what people deserve when scholars theorize about what people deserve? If a popular belief about a question of desert does not match up with conclusions arrived at through theorizing and reflections about desert, who should revise their views-"the people" or the theorists? I suggest in this Article that the answer is twofold. …

Arbitrary Detention: Whither - Or Wither? - Section 9, Steve Coughlan

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

It is a remarkable fact that more than 25 years after the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into effect, we still have no section 9 jurisprudence. It is not that there have been no decisions at all concerning the right not to be arbitrarily detained, of course, but taken in total they do not come anywhere near setting out an analytical framework. This stands in contrast to most other legal rights in the Charter. Section 7 jurisprudence has established the two-step approach to take in assessing claims under that section, including a three-step test for determining whether a …

Punishing Family Status, Jennifer M. Collins, Ethan J. Leib

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article focuses upon two basic but under-explored questions: when does, and when should, the state use the criminal justice apparatus to burden individuals on account of their familial status? We address the first question in Part I by revealing a variety of laws permeating the criminal justice system that together form a string of family ties burdens, laws that impose punishment upon individuals on account of their familial status. The seven burdens we train our attention upon are omissions liability for failure to rescue, parental responsibility laws, incest, bigamy, adultery, nonpayment of child support, and nonpayment of parental support. …

Vladimir Putin And The Rule Of Law In Russia, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

During his two terms as President of Russia, did Vladimir Putin further the net development of a legal culture in Russia? This article is based on public lectures given in late 2007 and early 2008 at Oxford University, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), and the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

This article examines three "windows" into the development of Russia's legal culture under Vladimir Putin: (1) the Second Chechen War; (2) Russian membership in the Council of Europe; and, (3) renewed efforts under Putin at codification of law, as evidenced by the creation …

Russia's Criminal Procedure Code Five Years Out, William Burnham, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

After a long delay in drafting, a new Criminal Procedure Code for Russia was passed in 2001 and went into effect in 2002. The new Code contains some striking innovations, most notably changes at the trial stage, which implement the constitutional requirements of adversarial principles. However, it also retains several throwbacks to the past, particularly its preservation of the formal pretrial investigation, during which evidence is parsed and collected in a dossier, which then dominates the trial of the case. The result is that old and new constantly contend with each other. Implementation of the new adversarial procedures is also …

A Near Term Retrospective On The Al-Dujail Trial & The Death Of Saddam Hussein, Michael A. Newton

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti died at the hands of Iraqi officials at dawn on December 30, 2006, following a tumultuous fourteen month trial3 for crimes committed against the citizens of a relatively obscure Iraqi village known as al-Dujail.4 Maintaining his façade of disdain when the verdict and sentence were announced on November 5, 2006, Saddam entered the courtroom with an arrogant strut and refused to stand until the guards made him do so to hear the judge’s opinion.5 When Saddam interrupted the reading of the verdict, Judge Ra’ouf Rasheed Abdel Rahman turned down the volume of his microphone and spoke over …

Garbage Pails And Puppy Dog Tails: Is That What Katz Is Made Of?, Aya Gruber

Publications

This Article takes the opportunity of the fortieth anniversary of Katz v. U.S. to assess whether the revolutionary case's potential to provide broad and flexible privacy protection to individuals has been realized. Answering this question in a circumspect way, the Article pinpoints the language in Katz that was its eventual undoing and demonstrates how the Katz test has been plagued by two principle problems that have often rendered it more harmful to than protective of privacy. The manipulation problem describes the tendency of conservative courts to define reasonable expectations of privacy as lower than the expectations society actually entertains. The …

Innocent Until Proven (Hypothetically) Guilty: The Third Circuit Condones The Use Of Guilt-Assuming Hypotheticals In United States V. Kellogg, Eric M. Kubilus

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Symposium: The Lethal Injection Debate: Law And Science, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Life And Death Decisions: Prosecutorial Discretion And Capital Punishment In Missouri, Katherine Y. Barnes, David L. Sloss, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article presents the results of an empirical study of intentional homicide cases in Missouri. The authors created a database of 1046 cases; it includes substantially all of the homicide cases prosecuted in Missouri over a five year period that were initially charged as murder or voluntary manslaughter and that yielded criminal convictions. The authors selected 247 cases from the larger database for more detailed analysis. We analyzed geographic and racial disparities in the rates at which: prosecutors charge first-degree murder versus lesser charges; prosecutors seek the death penalty, not lesser punishments; defendants are convicted of first-degree murder versus lesser …

Bringing An End To Warrantless Cell Phone Searches, Bryan A. Stillwagon

Georgia Law Review

Cell phones keep society connected, and exploring their contents reveals a glimpse into the user's life. As technology develops and these phones advance, this glimpse becomes a more complete picture of the user's life. The Fourth Amendment speaks of a right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, but this right is threatened when judges permit the few exceptions to the warrant requirement to envelop the general rule. This Note begins with a brief review of the history of both cellphones and warrantless searches, followed by the recent history of warrantless cell phone searches. While focusing on the search- …

Straddling The Civil-Criminal Divide: A Bifurcated Approach To Understanding The Nature Of Immigration Removal Proceedings, Peter L. Markowitz

Articles

The article challenges the traditional classification of removal proceedings as civil, arguing that expulsion, particularly for permanent residents, functions similarly to criminal punishment and should therefore be treated as criminal. It proposes a bifurcated approach distinguishing exclusion and expulsion, advocating for criminal protections in expulsion proceedings to align with historical and constitutional principles.

The Two Faces Of Justice In The Post-Soviet Legal Sphere: Adversarial Procedure, Jury Trial, Plea-Bargaining And The Inquisitorial Legacy, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay focuses on adversary procedure, plea-bargaining, and jury trial in the 1991 Concept of Judicial Reform of the Russian Republic. It discusses the impact of these reforms and assesses whether they have led to an improvement in the quality of evidence presented to the trier of fact, liberation of the trial and appellate judges from the juggernaut of hierarchical Soviet ‘crime control’ policies, and the development of a culture where acquittals of guilty and innocent will be tolerated when the evidence lacks credibility or is insufficient to constitute proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Jury Trial And Adversary Procedure In Russia: Reform Of Soviet Inquisitorial Procedure Or Democratic Window-Dressing?, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

A new adversary system of jury trial was introduced in 1993-1994, and the rights to jury trial, adversary procedure, the presumption of innocence, and the mandatory exclusion of illegally gathered evidence were incorporated into the new Constitution of the Russian Federation in December of 1993. The new Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, passed in December 2001, led to the extension of jury trial to the entire country with the exception of the Republic of Chechnia in 2003-2004.

This chapter explores the extent to which the Russian jury system and adversary procedure have humanized criminal procedure, and concludes that …

Lost In Translation: International Criminal Tribunals And The Legal Implications Of Interpreted Testimony, Joshua Karton

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

When courtroom interpreters translate a witness's testimony, errors are not just possible, they are inherent to the process. Moreover, the occurrence of such errors is not merely a technical problem; errors can infringe on the rights of defendants or even lead to verdicts based on faulty findings of fact. International criminal proceedings, which are necessarily multilinguistic, are both particularly susceptible to interpretation errors and sensitive to questions of procedural fairness. This Article surveys the history and mechanics of courtroom interpretation, explains the inherent indeterminacy of translated language, and describes the other sources of inaccuracy in interpreted testimony. It then assesses …

Prosecution Of Process Crimes: Thoughts And Trends, Allison Caffarone, Karen Patton Seymour, Stephen R. Peikin

Scholarly Works

The United States Department of Justice has come under attack in recent years because of its increased attention to, and prosecution of, crimes committed during the course of its investigations — obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements. These crimes have been labeled “cover-up” or “process crimes,” and the charging prosecutors have been criticized as bringing such charges only against high-profile defendants as to whom there is insufficient evidence to charge the “more serious” underlying offenses that prompted the initial investigation. Some critics have gone so far as to label these prosecutions “vindictive.” Much of this criticism is misplaced. …

Envisioning Post-Conviction Review For The Twenty-First Century, Joseph L. Hoffmann, Nancy J. King

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

In The Trenches: Searches And The Misunderstood Common-Law History Of Suspicion And Probable Cause, Fabio Arcila

Scholarly Works

A detailed analysis of the common law during the Framers’ era, and of how it reflected the Fourth Amendment’s restrictions, shows that many judges believed they could issue search warrants without independently assessing the adequacy of probable cause, and that this view persisted even after the Fourth Amendment became effective. This conclusion challenges the leading originalist account of the Fourth Amendment, which Professor Thomas Davies published in the Michigan Law Review in 1999.

Learned treatises in particular, and to a lesser extent a few case decisions, had articulated a judicial duty to monitor probable cause. But it is a mistake …

A Response To Professor Steinberg’S Fourth Amendment Chutzpah, Fabio Arcila

Scholarly Works

Professor David Steinberg believes that the Fourth Amendment was intended only to provide some protection against physical searches of homes through imposition of a specific warrant requirement because the Framers' only object in promulgating the Fourth Amendment was to ban physical searches of homes under general warrants or no warrants at all. This response essay takes issue with his thesis by (1) discussing its implications, (2) reviewing some concerns with his methodology in reviewing the historical record, and (3) examining the theoretical implication underlying his thesis that, except as to homes, we have a majoritarian Fourth Amendment, and questioning whether …

Beyond Intention, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Harmless Constitutional Error And The Institutional Significance Of The Jury, Roger Fairfax

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Appellate harmless error review, an early twentieth-century innovation prompted by concerns of efficiency and finality, had been confined to nonconstitutional trial errors until forty years ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court extended the harmless error rule to trial errors of constitutional proportion. Even as criminal procedural protections were expanded in the latter half of the twentieth century, the harmless error rule operated to dilute the effect of many of these constitutional guarantees-the Sixth Amendment right to jury trial being no exception. However, while a tradeoff between important process values and the Constitution's protection of individual rights is inherent in the …

Grand Jury Discretion And Constitutional Design, Roger Fairfax

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The grand jury possesses an unqualified power to decline to indict - despite probable cause that alleged criminal conduct has occurred. A grand jury might exercise this power, for example, to disagree with the wisdom of a criminal law or its application to a particular defendant. A grand jury might also use its discretionary power to send a message of disapproval regarding biased or unwise prosecutorial decisions or inefficient allocation of law enforcement resources in the community. This ability to exercise discretion on bases beyond the sufficiency of the evidence has been characterized pejoratively as grand jury nullification. The dominant …

Juvenile Crime And Criminal Justice: Resolving Border Disputes, Jeffrey Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

Rising juvenile crime rates during the 1970s and 1980s spurred state legislatures across the country to exclude or transfer a significant share of offenders under the age of eighteen to the jurisdiction of the criminal court, essentially redrawing the boundary between the juvenile and adult justice systems. Jeffrey Fagan examines the legal architecture of the new boundary-drawing regime and how effective it has been in reducing crime.

The juvenile court, Fagan emphasizes, has always had the power to transfer juveniles to the criminal court. Transfer decisions were made individually by judges who weighed the compet­ing interests of public safety and …

Abolition In The U.S.A. By 2050: On Political Capital And Ordinary Acts Of Resistance, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

The United States, like the larger international community, likely will tend toward greater abolition of the death penalty during the first half of the twenty-first century. A handful of individual states – states that have historically carried out few or no executions – probably will abolish capital punishment over the next twenty years, which will create political momentum and ultimately a federal constitutional ban on capital punishment in the United States. It is entirely reasonable to expect that, by the mid-twenty-first century, capital punishment will have the same status internationally as torture: an outlier practice, prohibited by international agreements and …