Homes, History, And Shadows: Select Criminal Law And Procedure Cases From The Supreme Court’S 2020-21 Term,
2021
University of Michigan Law School
Homes, History, And Shadows: Select Criminal Law And Procedure Cases From The Supreme Court’S 2020-21 Term, Eve Brensike Primus, Lily Sawyer-Kaplan
Articles
The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020 and the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to replace her solidified a 6-3 majority on the Court for Republican appointees and is already affecting how the Court approaches and decides its criminal law and procedure cases. Justice Ginsburg, a strong advocate for equality and fair treatment, generally construed criminal statutes narrowly and stressed the importance of defendants’ procedural rights. Justice Barrett is an originalist who will look to history to seek answers on the scope of criminal procedure amendments. The combined appointments of Justice Gorsuch and Justice Barrett mean …
Trauma And Memory In The Prosecution Of Sexual Assault,
2021
William & Mary Law School
Trauma And Memory In The Prosecution Of Sexual Assault, Cynthia V. Ward
Faculty Publications
Part I of this article traces the history of the recovered memory movement in the criminal prosecution of sexual assault, discussing some prominent cases and their consequences for wrongly convicted defendants. Part II asks why the criminal law was so vulnerable to claims of sexual assault, and other violent crimes, that were often wildly improbable on their face. The article concludes that the structure of recovered memory theory had the effect of disabling checks in the criminal process which are designed to prevent unjust convictions. Part III applies that conclusion to the theory of Trauma-informed Investigation (TII) and the "Neurobiology …
Citizens, Suspects, And Enemies: Examining Police Militarization,
2021
Georgetown University Law Center
Citizens, Suspects, And Enemies: Examining Police Militarization, Milton C. Regan
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Concern about the increasing militarization of police has grown in recent years. Much of this concern focuses on the material aspects of militarization: the greater use of military equipment and tactics by police officers. While this development deserves attention, a subtler form of militarization operates on the cultural level. Here, police adopt an adversarial stance toward minority communities, whose members are regarded as presumptive objects of suspicion. The combination of material and cultural militarization in turn has a potential symbolic dimension. It can communicate that members of minority communities are threats to society, just as military enemies are threats to …
Imagining The Progressive Prosecutor,
2021
University of Colorado Law School
Imagining The Progressive Prosecutor, Benjamin Levin
Publications
As criminal justice reform has attracted greater public support, a new brand of district attorney candidate has arrived: the “progressive prosecutors.” Commentators increasingly have keyed on “progressive prosecutors” as offering a promising avenue for structural change, deserving of significant political capital and academic attention. This Essay asks an unanswered threshold question: what exactly is a “progressive prosecutor”? Is that a meaningful category at all, and if so, who is entitled to claim the mantle? In this Essay, I argue that “progressive prosecutor” means many different things to many different people. These differences in turn reveal important fault lines in academic …
Wage Theft Criminalization,
2021
University of Colorado Law School
Wage Theft Criminalization, Benjamin Levin
Publications
Over the past decade, workers’ rights activists and legal scholars have embraced the language of “wage theft” in describing the abuses of the contemporary workplace. The phrase invokes a certain moral clarity: theft is wrong. The phrase is not merely a rhetorical flourish. Increasingly, it has a specific content for activists, politicians, advocates, and academics: wage theft speaks the language of criminal law, and wage theft is a crime that should be punished. Harshly. Self-proclaimed “progressive prosecutors” have made wage theft cases a priority, and left-leaning politicians in the United States and abroad have begun to propose more criminal statutes …
When We Breathe: Re-Envisioning Safety And Justice In A Post-Floyd Era,
2021
University of Colorado Law School
When We Breathe: Re-Envisioning Safety And Justice In A Post-Floyd Era, Aya Gruber
Publications
10th Annual David H. Bodiker Lecture on Criminal Justice delivered on Wed., Oct. 21, 2020 at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
Material Support Prosecutions And Their Inherent Selectivity,
2021
University of Colorado Law School
Material Support Prosecutions And Their Inherent Selectivity, Wadie E. Said
Publications
No abstract provided.
Access Denied: How 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1915(G) Violates The First Amendment Rights Of Indigent Prisoners,
2021
New York Law School
Access Denied: How 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1915(G) Violates The First Amendment Rights Of Indigent Prisoners, Molly Guptill Manning
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
The Slow Death Of The Reasonable Steps Requirement For The Mistake Of Age Defence,
2021
Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia
The Slow Death Of The Reasonable Steps Requirement For The Mistake Of Age Defence, Isabel Grant
All Faculty Publications
This article examines the demise of the “all reasonable steps” requirement in s. 150.1(4) of the Criminal Code which limits an accused’s ability to assert a mistaken belief in age as a defence to sexual offences against children where he has failed to take such steps. The article demonstrates that the Court of Appeal for Ontario in R v Carbone has rendered this requirement meaningless in Ontario. Even where the Crown has met its burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused did not take “all reasonable steps” to ascertain age, the Crown must still go on and …
Starting With Life: Murder Sentencing And Feminist Prison Abolitionist Praxis,
2021
Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia
Starting With Life: Murder Sentencing And Feminist Prison Abolitionist Praxis, Debra Parkes
All Faculty Publications
Advocates of decarcation often focus their critiques on imprisonment for non-violent offences. In this vein, current advocacy efforts to end mandatory sentences in Canada tend to carve out “serious violent offences” as not part of a reform agenda. In this chapter, Debra Parkes sketches out the contours of an argument for why feminists might not want to cede that ground, why anti-carceral feminism might involve centering our analysis on the most, rather than the least, serious crimes – starting with those who are serving life sentences for murder. Parkes identifies four non-exhaustive reasons for that focus. The first reason relates …
Non-Consensual Condom Removal In Canadian Law Before And After R. V. Hutchinson,
2021
Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia
Non-Consensual Condom Removal In Canadian Law Before And After R. V. Hutchinson, Isabel Grant, Lise Gotell
All Faculty Publications
This paper examines the phenomenon of nonconsensual condom removal (NCCR) and its relationship to sexual assault in Canada. Using empirical studies and the insights of feminist theory, we explore the nature of the harms caused by NCCR and contend that this pervasive practice constitutes sexual assault. We then critique the decision of R v Hutchinson, which held that condom sabotage does not negate subjective consent, ignoring the dignitary harms of NCCR. While lower court decisions before Hutchinson recognized that consent to sex with a condom does not include consent to sex without, courts after Hutchinson have struggled to distinguish the …
Time To Panic! The Need For State Laws Mandating Panic Buttons And Anti-Sexual Harassment Policies To Protect Vulnerable Employees In The Hotel Industry,
2021
Seattle University School of Law
Time To Panic! The Need For State Laws Mandating Panic Buttons And Anti-Sexual Harassment Policies To Protect Vulnerable Employees In The Hotel Industry, Kristy D'Angelo-Corker
Seattle University Law Review
One only has to turn on the television or read the newspaper to see news story after news story reporting instances of women facing harassment, discrimination, or assault while at work. The “Me Too” and “Time’s Up” campaigns have brought many of these issues to the forefront and have shown that women are fighting to be respected and demanding equal treatment. Although this fight for equal protection is ongoing, many women, such as those in lower-paying service industries, are still unable to protect themselves from sexual harassment, discrimination, and assault, as they do not have the support or power to …
School “Safety” Measures Jump Constitutional Guardrails,
2021
Seattle University School of Law
School “Safety” Measures Jump Constitutional Guardrails, Maryam Ahranjani
Seattle University Law Review
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and efforts to achieve racial justice through systemic reform, this Article argues that widespread “security” measures in public schools, including embedded law enforcement officers, jump constitutional guardrails. These measures must be rethought in light of their negative impact on all children and in favor of more effective—and constitutionally compliant—alternatives to promote school safety. The Black Lives Matter, #DefundthePolice, #abolishthepolice, and #DefundSchoolPolice movements shine a timely and bright spotlight on how the prisonization of public schools leads to the mistreatment of children, particularly children with disabilities, boys, Black and brown children, and low-income children. …
Beyond Plea Bargaining: A Theory Of Criminal Settlement,
2021
University of Michigan Law School
Beyond Plea Bargaining: A Theory Of Criminal Settlement, Richard Lorren Jolly, J.J. Prescott
Articles
Settlement is a term rarely used in criminal law. Instead, people speak almost exclusively of plea bargaining—i.e., enforceable agreements in which a defendant promises to plead guilty in exchange for a prosecutor’s promise to seek leniency in charging or at sentencing. But a traditional plea agreement is just the most visible instance of a much broader class of possible criminal settlement agreements. In terms of their fundamentals, criminal settlements are indistinguishable from their civil counterparts: through either an atomized or comprehensive bargain, parties exchange what they have for what they want, advancing their respective interests in cost minimization, risk mitigation, …
Miranda Is Dead. Long Live Miranda,
2021
University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
Miranda Is Dead. Long Live Miranda, Michael Vitiello
McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles
No abstract provided.
Awakening The American Jury: Did The Killing Of George Floyd Alter Juror Deliberations Forever?,
2021
University of Washington School of Law
Awakening The American Jury: Did The Killing Of George Floyd Alter Juror Deliberations Forever?, Tamara F. Lawson
Articles
In the summer of 2020, the witnessing of George Floyd's death triggered an outpouring of public expression far beyond other cases in modern times. While the experience led some to advocate for reform and participate in antiracism rallies, marches, and campaigns, it also forced many others into internal reflection, awareness, and awakening to the knowledge of a lived experience with police different from their own. The gruesome realities of the video were irreconcilable with those prior beliefs and did not comport with any moral or legal standards of dignity. Prior to witnessing George Floyd's death on video at the hands …
The Injustices Behind America’S Incarceration Boom,
2021
University of Missouri, St. Louis
The Injustices Behind America’S Incarceration Boom, Jay Widlacki
Undergraduate Research Symposium
America’s mass incarceration system functions as a tool to keep their black communities impoverished and powerless. Black people are locked away at disproportionate rates; moreover, statistics suggest that the criminal justice system is racially biased at every step. These two systems work together to keep an alarmingly high amount of black people behind bars so businesses can profit off of them. If ex-convicts leave the prison, they will find it hard to reintegrate into society because of the post-prison fees, parole requirements, discrimination, and disenfranchisement. Without rehabilitation available in most prisons, these barriers make the prison system akin to a …
The Criminalization Of Foreign Relations,
2021
Boston University School of Law
The Criminalization Of Foreign Relations, Steven Arrigg Koh
Faculty Scholarship
Overcriminalization has rightly generated national condemnation among policymakers, scholars, and practitioners alike. And yet, such scholarship often assumes that the encroachment of criminal justice stops at our borders. This Article argues that our foreign relations are also at risk of overcriminalization due to overzealous prosecution, overreaching legislation, and presidential politicization—and that this may be particularly problematic when U.S. criminal justice supplants certain nonpenal U.S. foreign policies abroad. This Article proposes three key reforms— presidential distancing, prosecutorial integration, and legislative de-escalation—to assure a principled place for criminal justice in foreign relations.
Othering Across Borders,
2021
Boston University School of Law
Othering Across Borders, Steven Arrigg Koh
Faculty Scholarship
Our contemporary moment of reckoning presents an opportunity to evaluate racial subordination and structural inequality throughout our three-tiered domestic, transnational, and international criminal law system. In particular, this Essay exposes a pernicious racial dynamic in contemporary U.S. global criminal justice policy, which I call othering across borders. First, this othering may occur when race emboldens political and prosecutorial actors to prosecute foreign defendants. Second, racial animus may undermine U.S. engagement with international criminal legal institutions, specifically the International Criminal Court. This Essay concludes with measures to mitigate such othering.
Design Justice In Municipal Criminal Regulation,
2021
Columbia Law School
Design Justice In Municipal Criminal Regulation, Amber Baylor
Faculty Scholarship
This article explores design justice as a framework for deeper inclusion in municipal criminal court reform. Section I provides a brief summary of a typical litigant’s path through modern municipal courts. Then, section I explores the historic role of municipal courts, the insider/outsider dichotomy of municipal criminal regulation, and the limitations of past reform efforts. Section II shifts into an overview of participatory design and discusses the new emergence of design justice. Within the discussion of design justice, the article focuses on three precepts of design justice: excavating the history and impact of the courts, creating tools for participation, and …
