Criminal Law Commons^™

Disposing Of Misdemeanors: An Empirical Perspective, Cynthia Alkon, Jonathan Marshall, Kyle Chrisman, Lydia Sidhom

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Article will begin by discussing why misdemeanors matter and the importance of examining these cases to better understand how the criminal legal system is functioning or not. Next, in Section III, we will discuss the importance of plea bargaining, both how it works in practice and the concerns surrounding this process. We will then turn, in Section IV, to a discussion of why it matters to have better data so that the players in the system are better informed about how the legal system actually works. Better data contributes to transparency, which can help improve the general public’s …

Pronatalism In The United States: How Political Ideals Surrounding Family And Reproductive Health Care Contribute To Neglect In The Foster Care System, Carson Sebree

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Within the past decade, conservative reproductive politics in the United States have experienced an ideological shift from pro-life toward pronatalism. This has been intensified through the rollback of reproductive rights and the rise of Christian nationalism. However, there has been no commensurate additional funding for the foster care system. This project asks the interrelated questions of: “how is pronatalism linked to neglect within the foster care system?; and, how do theories of democratic care highlight the necessity to rethink support for the foster care system and create policies that will address its shortcomings, given the rise of pronatalist aw and …

Pembuktian Sederhana Dalam Proses Kepailitan Terhadap Perusahaan Pengembang Pasca Surat Edaran Mahkamah Agung Nomor 3 Tahun 2023, Maya Iswandi

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

After the issuance of Sema No. 3/2023, there were various pros and cons to its implementation. This is because the sema has limited and in quotes has protected development companies from bankruptcy proceedings. Sema No. 3/2023 provides immunity to development companies from bankruptcy because they are deemed not to meet the simple proof that must be met in the bankruptcy process. This provision seems to deny the judicial system that should determine the evidence in a case. This certainly causes degradation of legal certainty and consumer protection. Therefore, this research will discuss simple proof in development companies after the …

The Criminal Responsibility Of Russia For War Crimes In The Russo-Ukrainian War, Nicolas R. Obabko

Honors Capstones

This Honors Capstone Thesis serves as an independent research study to verify the authenticity of allegations of Russian war crimes and violations of international humanitarian and criminal law in Russian conduct during the Russo-Ukrainian War. This research study primarily focuses on Russian war crimes and violations of international law that occurred after the beginning of the full-scale war on February 24, 2022, while acknowledging that allegations of similar violations have been occurring since 2014. This Honors Capstone Thesis uses international law sources such as the Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide …

Demystifying The Plea Process: Investigating Attorney Communications And Client Misconceptions, M. M. Wilford, R. J. Difava, K. S. Henderson

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: to study issues related to the lawyer and client interaction regarding building a legal position on the case and the plea process.Methods: the article uses the universal dialectical method of cognition, as well as general (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction) and specific scientific research methods (formal-legal method).Results: As the United States has shifted to “a system of pleas,” the role of defense attorneys has swung from trial litigator to plea negotiator. The study results indicated that defense attorneys spend a significant amount of time meeting with clients. Attorneys also cited substantial deficits in criminal defendants’ knowledge of the legal system, …

Criminalizing Difference: An Intersectional Analysis Of Disability In The Criminal Justice System, Rowan Eisleman

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This research addresses the central question: How do individuals with disabilities intersect with the criminal justice system, and what systemic factors contribute to their overrepresentation and victimization? Despite over 61 million Americans having disabilities, there exists a significant gap in comprehensive scholarship examining disability-criminal justice intersections, particularly regarding how people with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience unique vulnerabilities as both offenders and victims. This study contributes to disability studies and criminology by providing a comprehensive intersectional analysis examining how disability compounds with race and gender to create compounded marginalization. This study conducted a comprehensive literature review, analyzing government statistics from …

Magic Mushrooms As Medicine: What The United States Can Learn From Jamaica’S Unregulated Psilocybin Industry As Fda Approval Nears, Kyle Spohn

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

In 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act and swiftly placed psilocybin (the active chemical in “magic mushrooms”) under Schedule I—the strictest level of regulation withheld for substances with “no currently accepted medical use.” While the United States has maintained this rigid framework, Jamaica has taken the opposite approach. Psilocybin was never listed under Jamaica’s Dangerous Drugs Act, and remains unregulated. In recent decades, research has shown that psilocybin, when administered in controlled settings, can effectively treat depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric conditions. In response, the Jamaican government has not only preserved psilocybin’s legality but has encouraged research and industry …

Behind Closed Doors, Beyond The Cell: Supporting Children Of Incarcerated Parents, Averi R. Amaro

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

This study examines the overlooked population of children affected by parental incarceration and evaluates intervention programs designed to support them. Grounded in Labeling Theory (Becker, 1963), Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (Merton, 1948), and the Restorative Justice framework (Zehr, 2002), this study explores how stigma, expectation, and repair shape the outcomes for the youth affected by parental incarceration. Drawing from qualitative and quantitative research, it analyzes the emotional, social, and educational effects of incarceration on families, identifying protective factors such as attachment, mentoring, and community support that mitigate delinquency risks. Program evaluations of Girl Scouts Beyond Bars, Parenting Inside Out, Project Avary, and …

Response: Foreign Affairs Prosecutions And Cybercrime, Mailyn Fidler

Law Faculty Scholarship

A response to Professor Steven Koh's new article on how the U.S. makes global criminal justice policy. Prof. Fidler examines what a decade of cybercrime indictments reveals about America's approach to prosecuting foreign hackers. Three things stand out: * Beyond Attribution - These indictments aren't just about naming and shaming, or about the typical dimensions of criminal alw. They're sophisticated foreign policy tools that coordinate and moderate international sanctions and global norms. * Intertwined with Cooperation - The indictments alternately create space for and slow the tempo of international cooperation on this issue, according to U.S. interests. * Power Projection …

Sexual Assault, Fault And The Charter, Isabel Grant, Janine Benedet

All Faculty Publications

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the criminal law of sexual assault have in many ways grown up together over the last four decades. In this article we examine the impact of the Charter on the fault requirement for sexual assault and sexual offences against children. We argue that the Charter has been used repeatedly to undermine the early gains of feminist law reform and that courts have gone out of their way to avoid the reasonable steps provisions of the Criminal Code. Courts are consistently reluctant to expect men to desist from sexual activity until they have …

Shielding Freedoms: State Noncooperation In Hunts For Evidence And People, Mary D. Fan

Washington Law Review

The nation is fracturing into a patchwork of rights and punishment. What some states and localities safeguard as rights, other jurisdictions are criminalizing and punishing. As the divides in rights and punishment deepen, some states are becoming sanctuaries for freedoms penalized elsewhere and enacting shield laws prohibiting cooperation with criminalization and punishment states. A prime example is shield laws protecting people seeking to exercise reproductive rights or obtain gender-affirming care. Major jurisdictions for healthcare and technology-related businesses, such as Washington, California, New York, and Massachusetts, have enacted shield laws that prohibit law enforcement and companies from complying with subpoenas seeking …

Red, White-, And Blue-Collar Crime: Federal Sentencing Practices Among White-Collar And Blue-Collar Offenders, Henna Judge

Fordham Law Review

Under the current federal sentencing regime, district courts exercise immense amounts of discretion when sentencing. Though strict adherence to the U.S. Sentencing Commission Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) was once mandatory, courts must now use these Guidelines as an advisory starting point and make a series of fact-specific determinations when sentencing a defendant. Though judicial discretion in this realm aids in preventing undue reliance on Guidelines-range recommendations that can lack nuance, it also invites bias.

In recent years, scholars and courts alike have called attention to a potential disparity in the way blue-collar and white-collar offenders are sentenced. This Note examines relevant …

Presumed Guilt: Epistemic Closure In Pregnancy Prosecutions, M. Eve Hanan

Buffalo Law Review

Criminal law and reproductive justice scholars are calling attention to the increase in prosecutions for pregnancy outcomes in the United States. Trace amounts of controlled substances in newborns are prosecuted as child abuse. Miscarriages are prosecuted as illegal abortions or homicides. This area of criminal law existed side-by-side with Roe v. Wade for late-term pregnancy outcomes. The Dobbs decision has further emboldened these prosecutions by removing the protections of the Due Process Clause from the pre-viability phase of the pregnancy.

Using a case study of a woman who was pressured to plead guilty to manslaughter and sentenced to eight years …

Doktrin Penyalahgunaan Hak (Abus Des Droit), Syukron Salam

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The present article examines the emergence of the doctrine of abus de droit in France in the mid-twentieth century through an analysis of key judicial decisions and the debates that followed them. The study commences with an exposition of the manner in which the evolution of capitalism, concomitant with the escalating economic disparity and the propagation of societal challenges, has influenced the judicial approach to the abstract Roman-law tradition of absolute rights. In light of this, the article contends that the civil-law tradition exhibited a fundamental flaw in its conceptualisation of rights as absolute, thereby overlooking objections that were firmly …

Politik Hukum Kedudukan Wakil Presiden Dalam Badan Pengarah Percepatan Pembangunan Otonomi Khusus Papua, Maleakhi Samuel Pasalli, Yamuna Nurafifah, Pranaldo Gunawan

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The legal policy regarding the amendment of Law Number 21 of 2001 into Law Number 2 of 2021 concerning Special Autonomy for Papua marks a paradigm shift from asymmetric decentralization towards controlled autonomy or leading to the centralization of power, notably through the establishment of the Steering Committee for Acceleration of Development of Special Autonomy for Papua (BP3OKP), which is chaired directly by the Vice President. This research is motivated by juridical issues wherein the Academic Paper (Naskah Akademik) of the amendment fails to provide scientific justification regarding the urgency of establishing this special body or the involvement of the …

A Dangerous Challenge To The Constitutionality Of The Felon-In-Possession Statute: United States V. Bullock, Matthew Matherne

MC Law Review

In United States v. Bullock, Judge Carlton Reeves held that the federal felon-in-possession statute was unconstitutional as applied to Mr. Bullock. Although Mr. Bullock had been previously convicted of multiple violent felonies involving a firearm, including one that resulted in the death of an individual, Judge Reeves dismissed the charges because the government failed to establish a historical tradition of prohibiting felons from possessing firearms. Judge Reeves’ determination that § 922(g)(1) is unconstitutional as applied to Mr. Bullock is a decision that is not only “dangerous” to society, but it contradicts the historical tradition of firearm regulation in America. …

Auer Deference: He Who Writes The Law Must Not Adjudge Its Violation, William G. Kennedy

MC Law Review

This Comment explores Auer deference and its application to the Sentencing Guidelines, the Sentencing Commission, and its commentary. Auer deference, in its simplest form, requires courts to give controlling weight to an agency’s interpretation of its own regulations unless it is plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation. Following the Court’s decision in Kisor—expressly limiting Auer’s application, the circuit courts have disagreed on the applicability of Auer to the Sentencing Commission’s commentary regarding career offender designation. This disagreement begs for an appearance before the Court of Last Resort, but until that day, the courts must rigidly apply Kisor to …

Does Investing In Schools Reduce Violent Crime?, Jamein Cunningham, Monique E. Davis, Kenneth Whaley

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Amici Curiae Professors Of Constitutional And Criminal Law In Support Of Petitioner (Whitton V. Dixon - 25-580), Ira P. Robbins, Jeffrey Fagan, Michael Cassidy, Barbara O'Brien, Catherine Grosso, William W. Berry Iii, Ellen C. Yaroshefsky

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

Brief in support of Petitioner.

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT: This Court has “consistently held that a conviction obtained by the knowing use of perjured testimony is fundamentally unfair” because it “involve[s] a corruption of the truth-seeking function of the trial process.” United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 103–04 (1976). Here, the Eleventh Circuit acknowledged that the state committed a Giglio violation when it permitted a jailhouse informant to falsely testify at trial that he lacked a violent criminal record despite prosecutors knowing that he did. The Eleventh Circuit deemed this violation harmless, however, based on its erroneous consideration of …

Equality In Sentencing Mitigation, John B. Meixner Jr.

Fordham Law Review

As guilty-plea rates have skyrocketed, sentencing has become an increasingly important part of criminal procedure. With judges often wielding significant discretion at sentencing, a key question is how judges interpret mitigation: evidence about the defendant’s background or the case that supports a reduced sentence. Past empirical research—both experimental and in real-world cases—indicates that mitigation plays an important role in determining sentences. But does mitigation help everyone, or does it reinforce inequalities that frequently infect other areas of criminal procedure? Do low-income Black defendants with appointed counsel benefit from sentencing mitigation as much as wealthier White defendants with private attorneys? Do …