Criminal Law Commons^™

Technology’S Influence On Federal Sentencing: Past, Present, And Future, Matthew G. Rowland

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The comprehensive reforms that govern today’s federal sentencing processes were fashioned nearly forty years ago. Those reforms were designed to address concerns regarding the effectiveness, transparency, and fairness of the preexisting indeterminant sentencing system. Today, criticisms are mounting against the very reforms that were once held out to save the sentencing process. The more determinant system is being accused of being biased against minorities, overly harsh, and costly.

This Article explores how the criminal justice system might look to technology and build on the practical experience from the indeterminant and determinant systems. Tools such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help …

Crime And Punishment: Considering Prison Disciplinary Sanctions As Grounds For Departure Under The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Madison Peace

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

There are currently over 175,000 federal inmates in the United States, 146,000 of whom are held in custody by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. When an inmate in federal prison commits a federal crime, he can be both sanctioned by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and referred to a United States Attorney for prosecution of the crime in federal district court. In the federal district court, a judge will look to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines as a starting point to determine an appropriate sentence.

One question that the U.S. Sentencing Commission has not addressed, and on which federal appellate courts …

Article Iii Adultification Of Kids: History, Mystery, And Troubling Implications Of Federal Youth Transfers, Mae C. Quinn, Grace R. Mclaughlin

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

There is no federal juvenile court system in the United States. Rather, teens can face charges in Article III courts and can be transferred to be tried and sentenced as adults in these venues. This Article is the first of two articles in the Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice seeking to shed light on the largely invisible processes and populations involved in federal youth prosecution. This Article focuses on the federal transfer and prosecution of American youth as adults. It considers constitutional and statutory law relating to these federal transfers and then considers why current …

Not All Videos Are Created Equal: Camera Perspective Bias And Video-Recorded Eyewitness Identification Procedures, Kelsey N. Doherty

Student Theses

Video-recorded eyewitness identification procedures can preserve an accurate record of the conditions under which the eyewitness made an identification. Scholars posit that having the record will allow legal actors to make better decisions on the basis of an identification. Yet limited research has examined how jurors’ judgments are influenced by this evidence. Research on other types of video-recorded evidence has demonstrated a strong camera perspective bias, wherein jurors’ judgments are influenced by the angle with which the evidence is recorded. This study examined whether the camera perspective bias similarly influences jurors’ perceptions of video-recorded identification procedures. Participants viewed a mock …

The California Cannabis Industry: The Complexities Since Recreational Legalization, Talia Lux

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This comment will first provide a look into the history and legality of cannabis in the United States, followed by a look into California’s cannabis industry. There will be a discussion on both medical and recreational legality in California and the provisions surrounding both types of legality. Next, the complexities of the cannabis industries will be discussed in terms of opening and operating a cannabis business, the different cannabis business types and the requirements for starting them, and state and local limitations. Immediately following, there will be a federal illegality discussion and how federal illegality conflicts with California law in …

Ethical Implications Of Forensic Genealogy In Criminal Cases, Solana Lund

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

The use of forensic genealogy to solve criminal cases is likely to increase in the coming years, especially given its success in solving cold cases. While its potential for good is impressive, there are also legitimate ethical concerns that need to be addressed. As society sees an increase in the use of forensic genealogy and DTC databases in criminal investigations as well as an increase in the media attention it garners, there will be more discussion regarding ethical implications. Legal scholars say that it is only a matter of time before courts weigh in on the privacy of DNA and …

Felony Disenfranchisement And The Nineteenth Amendment, Michael Gentithes

Akron Law Review

The Nineteenth Amendment and the history of the women’s suffrage movement can offer a compelling argument against felony disenfranchisement laws. These laws leave approximately six million citizens unable to vote, often for crimes wholly unrelated to the political process. They also increasingly threaten gains in female enfranchisement.

Today’s arguments in support of felony disenfranchisement laws bear striking similarities to the arguments of anti-suffragists more than a century earlier. Both suggest that a traditionally subordinated class of citizens is inherently incapable of bearing the responsibility that the right to vote entails, and that their votes are somehow less worthy than others. …

Pay To Play? Campaign Finance And The Incentive Gap In The Sixth Amendment's Right To Counsel, Neel U. Sukhatme, Jay Jenkins

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

For nearly 60 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees felony defendants the right to counsel, regardless of their ability to pay. Yet nearly all criminal procedure scholars agree that indigent defense as practiced today falls far short of its initial promise. These scholars frequently cite a lack of political support, insufficient public funding, and a failure to address instances of inadequate legal representation, among other things, as causes for the underlying systemic dysfunction.

We contend that these conventional critiques are incomplete. Rather, indigent defense systems often fail due to poor …

Sister Helen Prejean And The Death Penalty: Decades Of Fighting Capital Punishment, University Marketing And Communications, Helen Prejean

DePaul Download

Sister Helen Prejean has dedicated her life to opposing the death penalty after she witnessed an execution in her home state of Louisiana. Her efforts have sparked a national dialogue on capital punishment and she has helped shape the Catholic Church’s position on the topic. In 2011, she donated her personal archives to the university to help the DePaul community continue to learn from her work. On this episode of DePaul Download, Sister Helen talks about life’s work and what keeps her going.

Griffin V. Illinois: Justice Independent Of Wealth, Neil Sobol

Faculty Scholarship

More than sixty years ago in Griffin v. Illinois, Justice Hugo Black opined that equal justice cannot exist as long as “the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.” While Griffin dealt with the limited issue of the inability of a defendant to pay for an appellate transcript, the Supreme Court and legislatures would subsequently extend Black’s equal justice analysis to cases involving other forms of criminal justice debt assessed at trial, appeal, incarceration, and probation. Despite the promise of these judicial and legislative pronouncements, indigent defendants, relative to defendants with financial …

The Clergy-Penitent Privilege: The Role Of Clergy In Perpetuating And Preventing Domestic Violence, Kami Orton

Nevada Law Journal Forum

Domestic violence occurs at alarming rates in all socioeconomic levels, races, locations, sexual orientations, and professions. Domestic violence occurs at similar frequencies among religious and non-religious individuals. Clergy play an important role in religious communities. The clergy-penitent privilege was created to protect the relationship between clergy and communicant and prevents clergy from testifying about spiritual communications. However, the privilege is currently an absolute privilege which is unnecessary and hurts victims and survivors of domestic violence. Additionally, the statutorily written privilege is not aligned with the application and practice of the privilege. Practice indicates clergy tend to desire to testify and …

Sanctuary Cities And Their Respective Effect On Crime Rates, Adam R. Schutt

Undergraduate Economic Review

According to the U.S. Center for Immigration Studies (2017), cities or counties in twenty-four states declare themselves as a place of “sanctuary” for illegal immigrants. This study addresses the following question: Do sanctuary cities experience higher crime rates than those cities that are not? Using publicly available data, this regression analysis investigates the relationship between crime rates in selected cities and independent variables which the research literature or the media has linked to criminal activity. Results of this research reveal that sanctuary cities do not experience higher violent or property crime rates than those cities that are not sanctuary cities.

The Right To A Public Trial In The Time Of Covid-19, Stephen E. Smith

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Maintaining social distance in the time of COVID-19 is a public health priority. A crowded courtroom is an environment at odds with public health needs. Accordingly, until science determines otherwise, it will be necessary for judges to manage courtroom attendance and exclude the public from trials, wholly or in part. Courtrooms may be closed to the public, despite the Sixth Amendment’s right to a public trial, when the closure is justified by a strong government interest and is narrowly tailored to further that interest. Typically, this heightened scrutiny is applied on a case-by-case basis and turns on a case’s specific …

Book Review - Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice: The Gerald Stanley And Colten Boushie Case By Kent Roach, Benjamin Berger

Articles & Book Chapters

Kent Roach’s important book exploring the 2018 acquittal of Gerald Stanley for the killing of Colten Boushie, a twenty-two-year-old Cree man from the Red Pheasant First Nation in Saskatchewan, begins by asking, “Why write a book about this case?” His answer is that the “Stanley/Boushie case will not and should not go away”

Protocol: Protocol For Corporate Crime Deterrence: An Updated Systematic Review, Natalie Schell-Busey, Melissa Rorie, Sally S. Simpson

Criminal Justice Faculty Research

This is the protocol for an updated Campbell review on corporate crime deterrence. Our overall objective is to identify and synthesize the extant empirical literature on formal legal and administrative prevention and control - that is, the actions and programs of government law enforcement agencies, legislative bodies, and regulatory agencies within a specific focus, as further discussed in this study. This review will consider all types of legal and regulatory practices as long as corporate crime prevention is part of the outcome. Other outcomes and information, if relevant, will also be collected.

Breaking The Cycle: How Nevada Can Effectuate Meaningful Criminal Justice Reform, Scott Cooper, Scott Whitworth

Nevada Law Journal Forum

Why does society punish criminals? This paper examines what Nevada is attempting to accomplish through enacting and enforcing its criminal laws. We examine the current state of, as well as the challenges facing, Nevada’s criminal justice system. Additionally, we identify and propose certain solutions to reduce both recidivism and the financial burden that incarceration imposes on the state by looking to best practices in other states, as well as certain mechanisms and provisions that were, for one reason or another, removed from Nevada Assembly Bill 236.

Multi-Jurisdictional Anti-Corruption Enforcement: Time For A Global Approach, Sharon Oded

Journal of Law and Policy

With the rise of globalization, foreign corruption has become a prominent enemy of the world’s economy. Over time, numerous international initiatives―such as the OECD and United Nations conventions against foreign corruption―have enlisted a growing number of sovereign states to join in the global war against that enemy. As a consequence, global enhancement of anti-foreign corruption enforcement often results in duplicative, multi-jurisdictional enforcement, such that multiple enforcement actions are initiated against the same corporation by several authorities, in one or more jurisdictions, in relation to the same misconduct. This phenomenon, which was recently addressed by the US Department of Justice in …

Law School News: Adjunct Professor Of The Year: David Coombs 05-13-2020, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

A Phenomenological Qualitative Study To Discover The Attitudes And Perceptions Of Police Officers On The Legalization Of Recreational Cannabis And Crime, Izedomi Ayeni

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to discover the attitudes and perceptions of police officers on the legalization of recreational cannabis and crime.

Methodology: This qualitative, phenomenological methodology employed the use of semi-structured interview questions consisting of open-ended questions to understand the lived experiences of Colorado Police and Sheriff Officers and their perspectives on the experiences with the legalization of cannabis and crime. The sample size of 16 officers was selected from the sampling frame, which included Denver Police officers and Larimer County Sheriff officers.

Findings: Analysis of the data from interviews resulted in the identification of …

Class Crimes: Master And Servant Laws And Factories Acts In Industrializing Britain And (Ontario) Canada, Eric Tucker, Judy Fudge

Articles & Book Chapters

This chapter compares the historical development and use of criminal law at work in the United Kingdom and in Ontario, Canada. Specifically, it considers the use of the criminal law both in the master and servant regime as an instrument for disciplining the workforce and in factory legislation for protecting workers from unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, including exceedingly long hours work. Master and servant legislation that criminalized servant breaches of contract originated in the United Kingdom where it was widely used in the nineteenth century to discipline industrial workers. These laws were partially replicated in Ontario, where it had …