Criminal Law Commons^™

Probability, Individualization, And Uniqueness In Forensic Science Evidence: Listening To The Academies, David H. Kaye

Faculty Scholarship

Day in and day out, criminalists testify to positive, uniquely specific identifications of fingerprints, bullets, handwriting, and other trace evidence. A committee of the National Academy of Sciences, building on the writing of academic commentators, has called for sweeping changes in the presentation and production of evidence of identification. These include some form of circumscribed and standardized testimony. But the Academy report is short on the specifics of the testimony that would be legally and professionally allowable. This essay outlines possible types of testimony that might harmonize the testimony of criminalists with the actual state of forensic science. It does …

Preserving The Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege, Katrice Bridges Copeland

Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that, while legislation such as the Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act ("ACPPA") is necessary to preserve that corporate attorney-client privilege, any such legislation must include judicial oversight to deter prosecutorial misconduct effectively. Part II examines the costs and benefits of granting corporations the attorney-client privilege in criminal investigations. It concludes that the benefits of the privilege fat outweigh the costs and that the privilege must be safeguarded from unnecessary infringement. Part III traces the evolution of the DOJ's waiver policies that have threatened the corporate attorney-client privilege. It also examines the costs and benefits of the waiver policy …

Responses To The Ten Questions, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The Journal of the National Security Forum (JNSF) Board of Editors posed ten questions on national security to a group of national-security law experts. Professor Mary Ellen O’Connell’s answers to the ten questions are presented.

A Fall From Grace: United States V. W.R. Grace And The Need For Criminal Discovery Reform, Andrew King-Ries, Beth Brennan

Faculty Law Review Articles

This article examines several 2009 cases involving prosecutorial misconduct arising from the federal government's failure to live up to its criminal discovery obligations. The article focuses specifically on U.S. v. W.R. Grace, a Clean Air Act criminal case in Montana. The authors' analysis of Grace and other cases suggests that the absence of a clear, enforceable rule jeopardizes the government's ability to fairly prosecute its cases and supports amending Rule 16 to eliminate the gap between prosecutors' legal and ethical duties, and to require the pretrial disclosure of evidence favorable to the defendant.

Security Council Resolution 1820: An Imperfect But Necessary Resolution To Protect Civilians From Rape In War Zones, Melissa Goldenberg Goldstoff

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the significance and limitations of UN Security Council Resolution 1820, which recognizes rape as a war crime and a threat to international security. While the Resolution is a crucial step forward in protecting women during armed conflicts, it is argued to be imperfect due to its incomplete implementation mechanisms and potential to undermine earlier resolutions like Resolution 1325, which emphasizes women's roles in peace-building.

Bringing Our Kids Home: International Parental Child Abduction & Japan's Refusal To Return Our Children, Robin S. Lee

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines Japan's refusal to ratify the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, highlighting how this decision creates a legal haven for parental child abductions. It explores the cultural, legal, and systemic factors in Japan that facilitate these abductions and the challenges faced by foreign parents in retrieving their children. The note also discusses potential solutions and international efforts to pressure Japan into adhering to the Convention.

Sects' Offenders: The Inefficacy Of Sex Offender Residency Laws And Their Burdens On The Free Exercise Of Religion, Amol N. Sinha

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Ensuring The Ethical Representation Of Clients In The Face Of Excessive Caseloads, Peter A. Joy

Scholarship@WashULaw

The right of one charged with [a] crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but it is in ours. From the very beginning, our state and national constitutions and laws have laid great emphasis on procedural and substantive safeguards designed to assure fair trials before impar-tial tribunals in which every defendant stands equal before the law. This noble ideal cannot be realized if the poor man charged with [a] crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him.

You can't give me too many cases, too many clients, …

A Defensible Defense?: Reexamining Castle Doctrine Statutes, Benjamin Levin

Scholarship@WashULaw

Recent years have seen a proliferation of so-called “castle doctrine” statutes – laws that provide home dwellers with more expansive self-defense protections if they resort to lethal force in confrontations with intruders. The passage of such laws and subsequent uses of the defense have captured the public imagination, prompting significant media attention, as well as skeptical and critical scholarship from the legal academic community. Considering the current prevalence of castle laws and the often polarized nature of the debate concerning their application, this Article argues that it is important to excavate the doctrine from the culture wars rhetoric in which …

Constructing Systemic Safeguards Against Informant Perjury, Peter A. Joy

Scholarship@WashULaw

Reliance on an informant's testimony as the primary basis for charging and convicting the accused is fraught with problems. While the hypothetical explicitly addresses the ethical dilemmas defense counsel faces when her client is trading false testimony in exchange for a reduced charge and shorter sentence, the hypothetical also implicitly illustrates the inadequacies of our criminal justice system's current handling of testimony from cooperating witnesses.

The focus on the ethical, and perhaps moral, obligations of Lawyer representing a potentially perjurious Client begs larger questions. Are there safeguards the prosecutor's office could employ to ensure that the trial prosecutor, who is …

A Typology Of Consensual Criminal Procedures: An Historical And Comparative Perspective On The Theory And Practice Of Avoiding The Full Trial, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

In the words of Clifford Geertz, this chapter engages in “an exercise of intercultural translation” in order to understand the reality of plea bargaining and other forms of consensual resolution of criminal cases. It provides a history of consensual and alternative forms of criminal procedure around the world. It also provides a comprehensive discussion on alternatives to a full trial in modern penal systems and issues that arise with those alternatives.

'Fruits Of The Poisonous Tree' In Comparative Law, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article gives a brief review of the types of exclusionary rules articulated in modern codes, constitutions, and jurisprudence, and explores how these rules are interpreted when excluding the derivative “fruits” of constitutional violations of the right to silence and human dignity during police interrogations and the right to privacy in one’s home and confidential communications. It shows, whether a country begins with a seemingly airtight categorical exclusionary rule for serious constitutional violations, or allows judges great discretion in deciding whether to use fruits of unconstitutional police behavior, the search for truth has largely triumphed over constitutional rights. As a …

The Company Of Scoundrels, Ronald J. Bacigal

Law Faculty Publications

With respect to sentencing, double jeopardy analysis turns on whether Congress clearly expressed its intent to impose multiple punishments on repeat sex offenders. It is questioned whether Brett M. Shockley clearly demonstrated a violation of double jeopardy. While the constitutionality of the current laws remains in doubt, there is less doubt surrounding Shockley's attack on the wisdom of what Congress and the courts have wrought. Solution 1 proposes that life imprisonment be replaced by a maximum punishment of 25 years for repeat offenders. The downside to this pragmatic solution is that the government appears to be saying that it may …

A Defensible Defense?: Reexamining Castle Doctrine Statutes, Benjamin Levin

Publications

Recent years have seen a proliferation of so-called “castle doctrine” statutes – laws that provide home dwellers with more expansive self-defense protections if they resort to lethal force in confrontations with intruders. The passage of such laws and subsequent uses of the defense have captured the public imagination, prompting significant media attention, as well as skeptical and critical scholarship from the legal academic community.

Considering the current prevalence of castle laws and the often polarized nature of the debate concerning their application, this Article argues that it is important to excavate the doctrine from the culture wars rhetoric in which …

Accrediting The Accreditors: A New Paradigm For Correctional Oversight, Lynn S. Branham

All Faculty Scholarship

Correctional accreditation processes can be revamped to bring more transparency and accountability into the operation of correctional facilities and to help ensure that they comport with sound correctional practices, legal requirements, and basic human-rights precepts. Becoming accredited is now largely optional, and correctional accreditation processes are fee-based. Consequently, correctional accrediting entities are vulnerable to pressures to water down accreditation standards and make accreditation procedures more lax. The federal government should therefore adopt two requirements. First, prisons, jails, and other correctional facilities should have to be accredited by a certified accrediting entity in order to be eligible to receive federal funds. …

Retribution And Reform, Chad Flanders

All Faculty Scholarship

What is the relationship of punishment theory to punishment practice? What should this relationship be? The last twenty years have seen an amazing rise in sophisticated and elegant theories of retributive justice of a Kantian, and more recently, an expressivist variety - a “retributivist revival.” As pure philosophical theorizing goes, this must surely be counted as real progress. But, those same twenty years have also seen increases in the length of criminal sentences, in the amount of activity subject to criminal sanction, and in the sheer number of people behind bars. Professor James Q. Whitman has famously said that we …

Penguatkuasaan Kesalahan Jenayah Islam Di Brunei Darussalam., Suhaimi Haji Gemok

Student Works (2010-2019)

Successful law depends on its effective enforcement. This rule applies within the enforcement of Islamic criminal law. Based on the Islamic principle of ‘al-Amru bi al-Makruf wa al-Nahyu an al-Munkar', the government and public are obliged to ensure that it is carried out. This research focuses on the issue of enforcement with several objectives, firstly, to discuss the concept of criminal enforcement according to the Islamic law. Secondly, to evaluate the historical development of criminal enforcement in Brunei Darussalam. Thirdly, to identify and analyse current issues and problems facing the religious enforcement unit in enforcing syariah criminal offences. These objectives …

The Katanga Complementarity Decisions, Susana Sacouto

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

On 25 September 2009, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a seminal decision on the subject of complementarity in the case Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga. The outcome of the Chamber's decision is that, even if a state has initiated an investigation or prosecution against an individual, the ICC may prosecute that individual for the same crimes or even a more selective range of crimes, so long as the state is willing to close the ongoing investigation or prosecution at the request of the ICC Prosecutor. While this decision is defensible under the language of the Rome …

Introduction To Panel On Gender Crimes At The International Level Proceedings Of The Third International Humanitarian Law Dialogs, Susana Sacouto

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

INTRODUCTION: On February 3, 2010, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its judgment on the appeal of the Prosecutor against the decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) denying his application for an arrest warrant against President of Sudan, Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir in relation to the crime of genocide. Holding that the PTC had applied an erroneous standard of proof, the Appeals Chamber reversed the PTC's decision and directed it to reconsider whether the warrant should be issued in light of the Appeals Chamber's discussion of the appropriate standard of proof.

Introductory Note For The International Criminal Court, Susana Sacouto

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

INTRODUCTION: On February 3, 2010, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its judgment on the appeal of the Prosecutor against the decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) denying his application for an arrest warrant against President of Sudan, Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir in relation to the crime of genocide. Holding that the PTC had applied an erroneous standard of proof, the Appeals Chamber reversed the PTC's decision and directed it to reconsider whether the warrant should be issued in light of the Appeals Chamber's discussion of the appropriate standard of proof.