The Dichotomy Between Overcriminalization And Underregulation,
2020
American University Washington College of Law
The Dichotomy Between Overcriminalization And Underregulation, Ellen S. Podgor
American University Law Review
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) failed to properly investigate Bernard Madoff’s multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme for over ten years. Many individuals and charities suffered devastating financial consequences from this criminal conduct, and when eventually charged and convicted, Madoff received a sentence of 150 years in prison. Improper regulatory oversight was also faulted in the investigation following the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. Employees of the company lost their lives, and individuals were charged with criminal offenses. These are just two of the many examples of agency failures to properly enforce and provide regulatory oversight, with eventual criminal prosecutions resulting from the …
Race And Reasonableness In Police Killings,
2020
Columbia Law School
Race And Reasonableness In Police Killings, Jeffrey A. Fagan, Alexis D. Campbell
Faculty Scholarship
Police officers in the United States have killed over 1000 civilians each year since 2013. The constitutional landscape that regulates these encounters defaults to the judgments of the reasonable police officer at the time of a civilian encounter based on the officer’s assessment of whether threats to their safety or the safety of others requires deadly force. As many of these killings have begun to occur under similar circumstances, scholars have renewed a contentious debate on whether police disproportionately use deadly force against African Americans and other nonwhite civilians and whether such killings reflect racial bias. We analyze data on …
Criminal Procedure: Confessions, Searches, And Seizures,
2020
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Criminal Procedure: Confessions, Searches, And Seizures, Leonel V. Mata, Michael E. Keasler
SMU Annual Texas Survey
No abstract provided.
The Distraction That Is Stand Your Ground,
2020
Florida International University (FIU) College of Law
The Distraction That Is Stand Your Ground, Katryna Santa Cruz
FIU Law Review
No abstract provided.
Social Media Platforms In International Criminal Investigations,
2020
American University Washington College of Law
Social Media Platforms In International Criminal Investigations, Rebecca Hamilton
Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals
In the summer of 2017, hundreds of thousands of videos of the Syrian conflict suddenly disappeared from YouTube. The videos had been published on channels like the Aleppo Media Center, the Shaam News Agency, and the Violations Documentation Center in Syria, which are run by Syrian civil society groups that have been documenting war crimes and other human rights violations since the conflict began in 2011. In a war zone that has been extraordinarily difficult for outside investigators to access, the videos provided crucial evidence that many hoped would eventually lead to international criminal prosecutions. One can readily imagine that …
Prejudice-Based Rights In Criminal Procedure,
2020
New York Law School
Prejudice-Based Rights In Criminal Procedure, Justin Murray
Articles & Chapters
This Article critically examines a cluster of rules that use the concept of prejudice to restrict the scope of criminal defendants’ procedural rights, forming what I call prejudice-based rights. I focus, in particular, on outcome-centric prejudice- based rights—rights that apply only when failing to apply them might cause prejudice by affecting the outcome of the case. Two of criminal defendants’ most important rights fit this description: the right, originating in Brady v. Maryland, to obtain favorable, “material” evidence within the government’s knowledge, and the right to effective assistance of counsel. Since prejudice (or equivalently, materiality) is an element of these …
Double Jeopardy’S Dual Sovereignty: A Tragic (And Implausible) Lack Of Humility,
2020
University of Oklahoma College of Law
Double Jeopardy’S Dual Sovereignty: A Tragic (And Implausible) Lack Of Humility, Stephen E. Henderson, Dean Strang
Faculty Articles
The core proposition of the Fifth Amendment’s Double Jeopardy Clause is as intuitive as it is straightforward. After all, if a state could prosecute someone despite her previous conviction or acquittal, then the scope of punishment would be unlimited and its threat unending—the sort of proposition only a tyrant could love. Yet, in Gamble v. United States, the Supreme Court once again blessed a dual sovereignty exception that permits just such duplicative prosecutions. We hardly are the first to question this rule, but we submit the Court’s most recent primary mistakes were two. First, the Court began from a …
Changed Science Writs And State Habeas Relief,
2020
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Changed Science Writs And State Habeas Relief, Valena Beety
Articles by Maurer Faculty
For decades now, the 1996 federal Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) has limited the scope and influence of federal courts in post-conviction case review, forcing convicted individuals to rely instead on state habeas proceedings for conviction relief. Due in large part to the 2009 National Academy of Sciences Report, petitions for conviction relief increasingly include challenges to the government’s scientific evidence at trial. These petitions analyze that evidence by comparing the trial evidence to the advancement of scientific findings and scientific knowledge in the years since the trial. State habeas petitions thus provide an avenue for relief from …
In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond,
2020
Seattle University School of Law
In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth
Seattle University Law Review
Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.
Herman Melville’S Billy Budd: Why This Classic Law And Literature Novel Endures And Is Still Relevant Today,
2020
Touro Law Center
Herman Melville’S Billy Budd: Why This Classic Law And Literature Novel Endures And Is Still Relevant Today, Rodger Citron
Touro Law Review
No abstract provided.
Declining Corporate Prosecutions,
2020
Duke Law School
Declining Corporate Prosecutions, Brandon L. Garrett
Faculty Scholarship
In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, people across the United States protested that "too big to jail" banks were not held accountable after the financial crisis. Little has changed. Newly collected data concerning enforcement during the Trump Administration has made it possible to assess what impact a series of new policies has had on corporate enforcement. To provide a snapshot comparison, in its last twenty months, the Obama Administration levied $I4.15 billion in total corporate penalties by prosecuting seventy-one financial institutions and thirty-four public companies. During the first twenty months of the Trump Administration, corporate penalties declined to …
The Law Of Corporate Investigations And The Global Expansion Of Corporate Criminal Enforcement,
2020
Duke Law School
The Law Of Corporate Investigations And The Global Expansion Of Corporate Criminal Enforcement, Jennifer Arlen, Samuel W. Buell
Faculty Scholarship
The United States model of corporate crime control, developed over the last two decades, couples a broad rule of corporate criminal liability with a practice of reducing sanctions, and often withholding conviction, for firms that assist enforcement authorities by detecting, reporting, and helping prove criminal violations. This model, while subject to skepticism and critiques, has attracted interest among reformers in overseas nations that have sought to increase the frequency and size of their enforcement actions. In both the U.S. and abroad, insufficient attention has been paid to how laws controlling the conduct of corporate investigations are critical to regimes of …
The Transparency Of Jail Data,
2020
Duke Law School
The Transparency Of Jail Data, William E. Crozier, Brandon L. Garrett, Arvind Krishnamurthy
Faculty Scholarship
Across the country, pretrial policies and practices concerning the use of cash bail are in flux, but it is not readily possible for members of the public to assess whether or how those changes in policy and practice are affecting outcomes. A range of actors affect the jail population, including: law enforcement who make arrest decisions, magistrates and judges who rule at hearings on pretrial conditions and may modify such conditions, prosecutors and defense lawyers who litigate at hearings, pretrial-service providers who assist in evaluation and supervision of persons detained pretrial, and the custodian of the jail who supervises facilities. …
Juvenile Life Without Parole In North Carolina,
2020
Duke Law School
Juvenile Life Without Parole In North Carolina, Ben Finholt, Brandon L. Garrett, Karima Modjadidi, Kristen M. Renberg
Faculty Scholarship
Life without parole (LWOP) is “an especially harsh punishment for a juvenile,” as the U.S. Supreme Court noted in Graham v. Florida. The United States is the only country in the world that imposes juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences. Many of these individuals were sentenced during a surge in LWOP sentencing in the 1990s. In the past decade, following several Supreme Court rulings eliminating mandatory sentences of LWOP for juvenile offenders, such sentencing has declined. This Article aims to empirically assess the rise and then the fall in JLWOP sentencing in a leading sentencing state, North Carolina, to better …
Policing The Schoolhouse,
2020
Duke Law School
Policing The Schoolhouse, Brandon L. Garrett
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Virtual Criminal Courts,
2020
Duke Law School
Virtual Criminal Courts, Deniz Ariturk, William E. Crozier, Brandon L. Garrett
Faculty Scholarship
Criminal courtrooms are among many workplaces to shut down and adopt virtual operations in response to the coronavirus pandemic. As criminal courts around the United States suspended in-person proceedings, virtual hearings, where parties appear through videoconference or teleconference technology, have allowed courts to remain in session while reducing the danger to public health. Courts at all levels, from small municipal courts to the U.S. Supreme Court, have been hearing arguments remotely. In 38 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, courts have either mandated or encouraged the use of virtual hearings when appropriate. Federal courts …
Pretrial Detention Of Indigents: A Standard Analysis Of Due Process And Equal Protection Claims,
2020
University of Georgia School of Law
Pretrial Detention Of Indigents: A Standard Analysis Of Due Process And Equal Protection Claims, Robert William G. Wright
Georgia Law Review
Over the past several years, criminal justice activists
have sought to reform misdemeanor bail policies that
condition pretrial release on an arrestee’s ability to pay
a predetermined cash bond. Activists have challenged
such bail polices by filing lawsuits on behalf on indigent
persons who have been exposed to such policies. Often,
these lawsuits allege that bail policies violate both the
Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the
Fourteenth Amendment. While due process and equal
protection analyses are generally well-defined, U.S.
Supreme Court precedent does not offer a clear analysis
for courts to apply to due process and equal protection …
Heating Up And Cooling Down: Modifying The Provocation Defense By Expanding Cooling Time,
2020
University of Georgia School of Law
Heating Up And Cooling Down: Modifying The Provocation Defense By Expanding Cooling Time, Ariel J. Pinsky
Georgia Law Review
This Note argues for expanding the provocation
defense for criminal defendants by broadening the
applicability and recognition of both cooling time and
rekindling. This expansion can be accomplished by
transforming cooling time and rekindling into subjective
standards that focus on the unique internal and external
qualities of the defendant. Doing so would not only be
consistent with the underlying purpose of the defense but
also appropriate considering our modern understanding
of the psychological effects of trauma and reactivity to
provoking stimuli. Accordingly, courts should practice
leniency with respect to cooling time and rekindling. The
best approach to provocation is one …
The Meaning Of A Misdemeanor In A Post-Ferguson World: Evaluating The Reliability Of Prior Conviction Evidence,
2020
Washington and Lee University School of Law
The Meaning Of A Misdemeanor In A Post-Ferguson World: Evaluating The Reliability Of Prior Conviction Evidence, John D. King
Georgia Law Review
Despite evidence that America’s low-level courts are
overburdened, unreliable, and structurally biased,
sentencing judges continue to uncritically consider a
defendant’s criminal history in fashioning an
appropriate punishment. Misdemeanor courts lack
many of the procedural safeguards that are thought to
ensure accuracy and reliability. As with other stages of
the criminal justice system, people of color and poor
people are disproportionately burdened with the
inaccuracies of the misdemeanor system.
This Article examines instances in which sentencing
courts have looked behind the mere fact of a prior
conviction and assessed whether that prior conviction
offered any meaningful insight for the subsequent
sentence. …
Faulty Forensics: Bolstering Judicial Gatekeeping In Georgia Courts,
2020
University of Georgia School of Law
Faulty Forensics: Bolstering Judicial Gatekeeping In Georgia Courts, Miranda S. Bidinger
Georgia Law Review
Forensic evidence is widely used in criminal cases
across the country and is accorded great weight by
juries. But critics have begun to question its reliability.
Its use has contributed to numerous wrongful
convictions, and though some individuals have been
exonerated, many remain incarcerated for crimes they
did not commit.
This Note explores a variety of forensic science
disciplines and their associated problems, the recent
push for forensic reform, and the current standards
governing the admissibility of forensic evidence at the
federal level and in Georgia courts, highlighting the
lenient standard embodied in the Georgia Code and
elaborated upon in …
