Criminal Law Commons^™

The History Of Policing And The Impact On Minority Communities: The Case Against Police Abolition, F. Lee Francis

MC Law Review

This article critically examines the implications of former FBI Director James Comey’s assertions regarding the rise in violent crime and the phenomenon known as “The Ferguson Effect,” which posits that law enforcement officers are increasingly hesitant to engage in proactive policing due to fear of public backlash and viral scrutiny. Comey’s comments, made in a 2015 speech, sparked significant debate about the psychological impact of heightened scrutiny on police behavior and the potential consequences for public safety.

Through a multi-part analysis, the article first traces the historical development of policing in ancient civilizations and its evolution in the United States …

The Grass Is Not Always Greener: How The Legalization Of Recreational Cannabis Across The United States Is At Odds With Incarceration And Continued Punishment, Marc Sendra

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Whether you call it Mary Jane, skunky funky, green, ganja, reefer, or just plain-old cannabis, this special green plant doused in purple and orange accents has become a popular topic of discussion within the legal community and American culture. Cannabis has been held in “high” regard for its scientific advances in the medical industry, alongside its recreational usage, enjoyed by laughs and giggles, munchies, and plenty of water, leading to a wave of medical and recreational legalization.

Incentives for legalization come at the onset of promising medical research, economic growth motives, and social justice, reflecting upon a comprehensive approach that …

A Conviction In Jeopardy: The Mysterious Case Against Scott Peterson, Jolie Bodner Zangari

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

You Get The Jury You Get And You Don’T Throw A Fit, Taurus Myhand

Scholarly Works

The proliferation of deepfake videos has resulted in rapid improvements in the technology used to create them. Although the use of fake videos and images is not new, advances in artificial intelligence have made deepfakes easier to make and harder to detect. Basic human perception is no longer sufficient to detect deepfakes. Yet, under the current construction of the Federal Rules of Evidence, trials judges are expected to do just that. Trial judges face a daunting challenge when applying the current evidence authentication standards to video evidence in this new reality of widely available deepfake videos. This article examines the …

Dead Infants And Taking The Fifth, Tracey Maclin

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Essay offers tribute to Professor Colb's teachings and insights expressed in her writings on the Court's Miranda and Self-Incrimination Clause rulings. Since the start of the twenty-first century, Professor Colb wrote many blogs on the Court's Miranda doctrine. Miranda v. Arizona famously held that persons under arrest must be warned of their right to silence and to have counsel's advice before being subject to interrogation. Generally speaking, Professor Colb was critical of the Court's results and reasoning—for good reason.

As someone who supports a broad interpretation of the Fifth Amendment, I offer a counterview of Professor Colb's conception of …

The Constitutionality Of Assisted Outpatient Treatment, E. Lea Johnston

UF Law Faculty Publications

States are increasingly turning to assisted outpatient treatment (more accurately called preventive outpatient civil commitment, or POC) to ameliorate the mental health and homelessness crises. These laws authorize court-ordered community treatment for individuals with mental illnesses and histories of treatment noncompliance. The treatment aims to prevent psychiatric deterioration before it leads individuals to endanger themselves or others. Affected individuals pose no immediate danger, typically can make rational treatment decisions, and may reside in the community. These laws dramatically extend states’ means of social control and cannot be easily justified by traditional understandings of state police power or parens patriae commitment …

Guilty Pleas Matter: Waivers And The Forgotten Solemnity Of A Sacred Process, Julian A. Cook Iii

UF Law Faculty Publications

Approximately 98% of federal cases are resolved by means of a guilty plea. Thus, it is the guilty plea hearing, not the jury trial, that is the heart and lungs of our criminal justice system. Given the frequency of its use, coupled with the deeply impactful personal consequences that necessarily accompany a conviction, district courts play a critical evaluative and safeguarding function. As famously stated by the Supreme Court in Brady v. United States, the decision to plead guilty “is a grave and solemn act to be accepted only with care and discernment . . . .”

Guilty Pleas …

Facial Recognition Technology And Wrongful Arrests In The Digital Policing Era, Jannice Cebreros

Washington Law Review Online

This Essay examines the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) by law enforcement agencies, the implications of such use, and the disproportionate impact the use has on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Law enforcement officers are increasingly using FRT for the purpose of identifying suspects. Essentially, law enforcement officers will take a “still image” of a suspect, upload this image into a database, and find a potential match, which the officers then use to identify an individual. This Essay argues that legislatures must enact law that limits the use of FRT by law enforcement agencies, especially when …

Command And Consequence: Reassessing King David’S Military Decisions In The Uriah Affair – A Legal And Ethical Analysis In The Context Of Modern Legal Theory, Jonathan Hasson, Oded Mudrik, Abraham Tennenbaum

Touro Law Review

This study critically reevaluates King David's command in 2 Samuel 11 and 12 to place Uriah the Hittite in the battle's frontlines, resulting in his death, through the contemporary lens of military law and ethics. By juxtaposing the ancient narrative with modern legal doctrines, it investigates the complexities of command responsibility and the intersection of personal motives in military orders. Focusing on the interplay between David's personal entanglements with Bathsheba and his official capacity as a military leader, the analysis navigates the ethical quandaries and legal ramifications of his decisions. This piece methodically dissects the Biblical text and contemporaneous legal …

Unboxing The Box: A Deep Dive Into Solitary Confinement And When It May Violate The First And Eighth Amendments, Madison Scarfaro

Touro Law Review

Solitary confinement has been a practice used for those who are incarcerated in our criminal justice system for hundreds of years. Our nation, as well as our society have evolved and continue to evolve over the course of hundreds of years. However, the use of solitary confinement has not. Even with all of the research and literature surrounding the monstrosities that come about from solitary confinement, it is still used in most of our jails and prisons to this day. The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel …

Tort Law As A Remedy For Terrorism, Boaz Segal

Touro Law Review

This article examines two basic questions. First, can tort law suits against operatives in various circles of the world of terrorism be added to the toolkit of deterrence? Second, assuming that the answer to the first question is in the affirmative, how can tort law be structured to effectively deter terror operatives? With respect to the first question, despite the intuitive assumption that the relevant branches of the law in such cases are criminal, international, and counter-terrorism law rather than the various branches of private law, this article argues that tort law is capable of serving as a significant deterrent …

Depraved Indifference Murder In New York State: Proving Depravity In Vehicular Homicide Cases, Jolie Bodner Zangari

Touro Law Review

Depraved indifference murder is one of the most complex theories of proving criminal liability for causing the death of another person. New York’s depraved indifference murder statute exists in Article 125 of the Penal Law of the State of New York, under section 125.25(2) as the second subdivision of Murder in the second degree. Its definition in the Penal Law is as follows: “A person is guilty of murder in the second degree when . . . Under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life, he recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to another …

The Forgotten Victims: A Case For Children’S Compensation Amidst Parental Wrongful Incarceration, Mackenzie Crabbe

Touro Law Review

Wrongful incarceration is a tragedy that occurs far more often than most would care to admit. However, it is not only the wrongfully convicted person who suffers from this phenomenon. Most innocent people who are incarcerated have a family who is then affected and suffers immensely. Many wrongfully incarcerated individuals have children who then grow up without their parents, or with a significant barrier hindering their relationship with their parents. Typically, incarceration, and the separation of families that comes along with it, is justified by the need to regulate crime and keep communities safe. How[1]ever, when innocent people are serving …

Legislatures And Localized Resentencing, Ronald F. Wright, Kay L. Levine

Faculty Articles

Recent legislation, exemplified in statutes from California and Washington, creates new methods for resentencing defendants in old cases. These laws place controlling authority for resentencing in the hands of local officials, especially local prosecutors, and invite variation at the county level.

While some new procedural channels for reducing the sentences of people convicted of past crimes are mandatory, in that they entitle certain defendants to resentencing if they were convicted of certain crimes or were subject to certain penalty enhancements that are no longer valid, other statutes create discretionary resentencing channels. In the discretionary channels, the chief local prosecutor has …

Federal Officer Criminal Case Removal, Jonathan R. Nash

Faculty Articles

Recent events have brought the federal officer removal statute to the fore. The statute allows a defendant to remove a criminal prosecution to federal court, provided that the allegedly criminal behavior was performed by the defendant as a federal officer under color of office and provided that the defendant has a federal defense. Current litigation has exposed several open, important questions under the statute, which this Article confronts. On the question of who qualifies as an “officer” who can remove under the statute, it argues that removal is available both to former officers and to presidents. On the question of …

Criminal Investors, Andrew K. Jennings

Faculty Articles

This Article reassesses the culpability of those who invest in law-breaking firms. Prosecutors currently treat investors as victims of corporate wrongdoing rather than as actors who might bear responsibility for it. This Article observes, though, that investment can facilitate, and even cause, illicit corporate activity. When investors intentionally contribute to those effects, substantive criminal law imposes liability on them just the same as it does on accomplices, conspirators, or principals in other contexts. Despite this formal parity, however, investor criminal liability is more a theoretical proposition than a practical reality.

This Article questions that status quo by asking whether and …

Searching For A Big Score: Analyzing Drug Yield From Search Warrant Executions, Elizabeth Griffiths, Walter Campbell, Kay L. Levine, Joshua C. Hinkle

Faculty Articles

In this study, we investigated the extent to which law enforcement efforts predicted drug and other kinds of illicit yield in search warrant executions. The data are drawn from one major metropolitan police department during 2005, 2009, and 2012. Using multilevel random intercept logistic regression models and multilevel random intercept multinomial logistic regression models, we regress high yields of various kinds of drugs and other illicit items seized during searches on the investigative activities that led to search warrant applications and the enlistment of teams of officers or other agencies in executing the search. Investments in high-effort search warrant work …

Alternate Approaches: Beyond Problem-Solving Courts, Erin Collins

Law Faculty Publications

Problem-solving courts were born out of a well-meaning experimentalist spirit, a spirit that is very much in line with the vision of a recent symposium on the multidoor criminal courthouse. These courts, which include drug courts, mental health courts, veterans courts, and many other specialized criminal courts, were created as a way to close one door to the criminal courthouse — the so-called “revolving door” that appeared to bring some people accused of crimes back into court as soon as they exited. Problem-solving court judges sought to open a different door for some of those who entered their courtrooms, one …

Web Of Exploitation: The Psychological Need For Comprehensive Federal Law To Combat Cyber Sexual Abuse, Sarah E. Bahrenburg

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

Cyber sexual abuse inflicts deep and lasting psychological harm on victims, often exacerbating the trauma of traditional sexual abuse due to the permanence and reach of digital content. Survivors may experience depression, anxiety, PTSD, and suicidal ideation as intimate images, videos, or messages resurface indefinitely online. Despite the severity of its impact, current state and federal legal protections are limited and inconsistent, leaving many victims without adequate criminal or civil remedies. This article argues for the creation of comprehensive federal legislation specifically targeting cyber sexual abuse. Such laws would not only provide clearer paths to justice and accountability but also …

Introduction: In Honor Of Professor Megan A. Fairlie, Antony Page

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.