Criminal Law Commons^™

Pleading Guilty: Indigent Defendant Perceptions Of The Plea Process, Jeanette Hussemann, Jonah Siegel

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

Public defenders and other court actors most often engage in behind-the-scene plea negotiating to manage overwhelming workloads and to dispose of cases as quickly and efficiently as possible. In prior work, scholars have documented an increased reliance on plea bargaining and the deleterious impact of the practice on the legal process and the rights of individuals accused of a crime; however, this research has not systematically analyzed the decisions made, and the perspectives of justice of society’s most disadvantaged and arguably most important actors of the court, the defendants. Relying on data collected in a Midwestern public defense system ...

Honoring Innocent Until Proven Guilty: Switching The Default Rule From Pretrial Detention To Pretrial Release In Texas's Bail System, Stephen Rispoli

Texas A&M Law Review

Texas’s current prison population consists of far more pretrial detainees than convicted criminals. Despite United States and Texas constitutional protections, the default rule in many jurisdictions, including Texas, detains misdemeanor and non-violent felony defendants unless they can post a monetary bond or get a surety to post the bond for them (“bail bond”) to obtain their release. Most pretrial detainees remain detained due not to their alleged dangerousness, but rather because they simply cannot afford to post bail (or get someone to post it for them). As a result, many pretrial detainees find themselves choosing between hamstringing their financial ...

Mass Arrests & The Particularized Probable Cause Requirement, Amanda Peters

Boston College Law Review

Three Supreme Court cases—United States v. Di Re, Ybarra v. Illinois, and Maryland v. Pringle—established the need for individualized or particularized probable cause in multiple-suspect arrests and searches. These three Supreme Court decisions have been used by plaintiffs seeking to sue police departments and municipalities under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for civil rights violations stemming from mass arrests unsupported by probable cause. Oddly enough, these decisions have also been relied upon by defendants who allege that the law is unclear when it comes to particularized probable cause and multiple-suspect arrests. This Article seeks to carefully examine the ...

Champions For Justice & Public Interest Auction 2019, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Public Interest Auction

No abstract provided.

The Case That Stirred The State Of Georgia, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

In the second half of the 19th Century, hundreds of murders occurred in Georgia, but only two murder cases electrified the entire state. Both cases were the subject of massive amounts of publicity in Georgia newspapers, and for years both cases were ceaselessly talked about in every part of this state.

One of these two notable murder cases was the Woolfolk murder case, involving Tom Woolfolk, nicknamed Bloody Woolfolk, who in 1887 murdered nine members of his family with an axe in Bibb County and after two trials was hanged in 1890. In 1997, I published a book review in ...

Lockett Symposium: For Sandra Lockett, Anthony G. Amsterdam

ConLawNOW

Tony Amsterdam, lead counsel for Sandra Lockett in the U.S. Supreme Court case Lockett v. Ohio, offers his reflections on the case.

The Horror In Our Heads: Cultural Trauma Expert Testimony In U.S. Courts, Elizabeth Topolosky

Akron Law Review

Over the past twenty years, the international criminal tribunals have increasingly relied upon expert testimony describing the intergenerational and cultural effects of mass trauma events in their decisions. The admission of such broad, generalized expert testimony is facilitated by permissive rules of evidence and the broad and complex scope of international criminal litigation. To date, few litigators have attempted to present American courts with similar expert testimony. This article explores the admissibility and uses of this kind of evidence in American legal forums and provides a how-to guide for practitioners hoping to use similar testimony to build their cases.

Rico Run Amok, John K. Cornwell

SMU Law Review

In 1970, Congress enacted RICO to eradicate organized crime in America. To enlist the help of private citizens in this effort, the statute included civil provisions providing treble damages for plaintiffs who proved that they were injured by a pattern of racketeering activity. As the decades passed, civil RICO dramatically expanded its reach, addressing misconduct in a diverse array of contexts, including high-profile suits against the Clinton Foundation and Trump University. This Article examines this evolution, focusing on three factors that have figured prominently in civil RICO’s runaway growth: the broad interpretation of what constitutes a RICO “enterprise”; the ...

Special Issue, December 2018

International Journal on Responsibility

Contents:

5 – 7 Terry Beitzel, Gjylbehare Muharti, and Hysen Nimani, Responsibility in the Balkans: Justice, Media and Arts.

8 – 22 Mujë Ukaj and Qendresa Jasharaj, International Criminal Responsibility in Kosovo: Establishment of the International Criminal Court - de lege lata, de lege ferenda.

23 – 41 Avdullah Robaj and Sabiha Shala, Responsibility in Building Rule of Law: Kosovo Challenges.

42 – 54 Mujë Ukaj, The Irresponsible Persons: the Imposition and Execution of the Mandatory Treatment Measures on Criminal Procedure of Kosovo.

55 – 64 Gani Asllani, Bedri Statovci, and Gentiana Gega, Development and Protection of Economic Competition in Kosovo.

65 – 87 Saranda Leka and ...

Rwu First Amendement Blog: Jared Goldstein's Blog: The First Amendment And The Foxy Lady 01-08-2019, Jared A. Goldstein

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Younger And Older Adults' Lie-Detection And Credibility Judgments Of Children's Coached Reports, Alison M. O'Connor, Thomas D. Lyon, Angela Evans

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

Previous research has examined young and middle-aged adults’ perceptions of child witnesses; however, no research to date has examined how potential older adult jurors may perceive a child witness. The present investigation examined younger (18-30 years, N = 100) and older adults’ (66-89 years, N = 100) lie-detection and credibility judgments when viewing children’s truthful and dishonest reports. Participants viewed eight child interview videos where children (9 to 11 years of age) either provided a truthful report or a coached fabricated report to conceal a transgression. Participants provided lie-detection judgments following all eight videos and credibility assessments following the first two ...

66. Younger And Older Adults’ Lie-Detection And Credibility Judgments Of Children’S Coached Reports, Alison M. O'Connor, Thomas D. Lyon, Angela D. Evans

Thomas D. Lyon

Franks (Kenneth) V. State, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 1 (Jan. 3, 2019), Scott Whitworth

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court reviewed whether a district court’s decision to allow the State to introduce prior incidents of uncharged sexual acts as evidence of the defendant’s propensity for committing sexual offenses violated NRS 48.045(3) and concluded such evidence as long as it is first evaluated for relevance and its heightened risk of unfair prejudice.

Maltreated Children's Ability To Make Temporal Judgments Using A Recurring Landmark Event, Kelly Mcwilliams, Thomas D. Lyon, J A. Quas

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

This study examined whether maltreated children are capable of judging the location and order of significant events with respect to a recurring landmark event. 167 6- to 10-year-old maltreated children were asked whether the current day, their last court visit, and their last change in placement were “near” their birthday and “before or after” their birthday. Children showed some understanding that the target event was “near” and “before” their birthday when their birthday was less than three months hence, but were relatively insensitive to preceding birthdays. Hence, children exhibited a prospective bias, preferentially answering with reference to a forthcoming birthday ...

Against Life Without Parole, Judith Lichtenberg

Washington University Jurisprudence Review

We have many good reasons to abolish life without parole sentences (LWOP, known in some countries as whole life sentences) and no good reasons not to. After reviewing the current state of LWOP sentences in the United States, I argue that the only rationale for punishment that can hope to justify them is retributivism. But even if retributivism is a sound principle, it in no way entails life without parole. One reason is that unless one believes, like Kant, that appropriate punishments must be carried out whatever the circumstances, we must acknowledge that other considerations are relevant to determining punishments ...

Reconciling The Rule Of Law: Rights And Punishment, Benjamin L. Apt

Washington University Jurisprudence Review

There is an intractable paradox in the relation between rights and criminal punishment. Criminal punishment frequently conflicts with rights; people typically have identical rights within a legal system, yet the punished are unable to exercise the rights to the same extent as other people. But criminal punishment, in conjunction with criminal laws, also operates to protect rights. To clarify the tension between rights and punishment, I start by analyzing the content and purpose of rights. Next I discuss the nature of rules and the particular types of rules that make up a typical “systems of rules.” I then argue that ...

Rwu Law News: The E-Newsletter Of Roger Williams University School Of Law January 2019, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Research Resources For Michigan Criminal Law, Kate E. Britt

Law Librarian Scholarship

Few areas of the law are as consequential to the personal lives of those involved as criminal law. The law can, and does, change quickly, and attorneys need to stay abreast of the latest developments to effectively represent their clients. Thankfully, modern government bodies publish current primary law (and many useful secondary sources) online. The sites outlined below will take users to reliable sources of Michigan criminal law and procedure.

Falling Through The Gap: The Culpability Of Child Soldiers Under International Criminal Law, Ally Mcqueen

Notre Dame Law Review Online

This Essay, in Part I, will begin with an overview of the use of child soldiers in armed conflicts around the world. Part II will explore provisions within the Geneva Conventions, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Beijing Rules that are applicable to child soldiers and can shed some light on their culpability after an armed conflict. In Part III, this Essay will then discuss the varying degrees to which international criminal tribunals and the International Criminal Court have addressed the criminal responsibility of children for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Finally, Part IV will ...

Prosecuting Corruption After Mcdonnell V. United States, Terence A. Parker

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note proceeds in five Parts. Part I provides a background discussion of the facts and holding in McDonnell. Part II goes on to analyze McDonnell through the lens of three recent federal public corruption cases, discussing how the decision has been applied to both specific act and stream of benefits prosecutions. Part III argues that the narrower official acts definition announced by the McDonnell Court will not result in a sea change to corruption prosecutions. Part IV argues for the resilience of the stream of benefits theory of public corruption in the aftermath of McDonnell. Finally, Part V argues ...