Criminal Procedure Commons^™

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Stafford V. State [State Of Nevada], 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 59 (Aug. 27, 2026), Giselle Garcia-Contreras

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Stafford v. State holds that an in-custody defendant’s failure to appear at a hearing does not relieve the State of its plea agreement obligations, as the State controls the defendant’s ability to appear.

Washington Search And Seizure Law: 2026 Update, Justice Charles W. Johnson, Justice Debra L. Stephens, Justice Steven González

Seattle University Law Review

This Survey is intended to serve as a resource which Washington lawyers, judges, law enforcement officers, and others can turn to as an authoritative starting point for researching Washington search and seizure law. In order to be useful as a research tool, this Survey requires periodic updates to address new cases interpreting the Washington constitution and the U.S. Constitution and to reflect the current state of the law. As the U.S. Supreme Court has continued to examine Fourth Amendment search and seizure jurisprudence, its decisions and reflections on Washington law are discussed.

Most of the Survey cases involve the Washington …

Getting Money Out Of Politics By Putting Money Into Politics: A Few Modest Proposals To Reform Seattle’S Democracy Voucher Program, Decker O’Donnell

Seattle University Law Review

Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program offers an unconventional response to the growing influence of money in American elections: rather than restricting political spending, it seeks to amplify the participation of ordinary voters by providing publicly funded vouchers that residents may assign to participating candidates. This Article examines the program’s development, operation, and constitutional foundation within the modern campaign-finance framework established by Buckley v. Valeo and subsequent Supreme Court decisions. It argues that democracy vouchers provide a constitutionally viable means of broadening participation in campaign financing while mitigating the influence of wealthy donors. The Article identifies two weaknesses in the current system: …

Who Decides The Dead? Interpreting Washington’S Disposition Of Remains Statute, Wyatt Young

Seattle University Law Review

Washington’s disposition-of-remains statute, RCW 68.50.160, is designed to honor a decedent’s expressed wishes regarding the control and disposition of their body after death. Yet recent litigation reveals a critical gap between the statute’s intent-centered design and its practical enforceability. In Larotonda v. Blackburn, a trial court acknowledged that irreparable harm would occur if a decedent’s burial wishes were ignored but nonetheless denied relief on the grounds that the individual designated to carry out those wishes lacked standing. The result was a legal paradox: a statute that recognizes decedent autonomy in theory but withholds any meaningful mechanism for its enforcement …

Are Individual Mental Health Issues Treated Fairly By The Criminal Justice System?, Taylor Anderson

Master of Arts in Human Services

The intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system is a critical area of inquiry that highlights the complexities of addressing psychological disorders within our legal frameworks. This paper explores the prevalence of mental health issues among incarcerated individuals and examines how systemic deficiencies contribute to a cycle of recidivism and inadequate treatment. By analyzing the existing literature, the research aims to illuminate the pressing need for a reform in the handling of mentally ill offenders, advocating for a shift towards more rehabilitative approaches rather than punitive measures. The implications of those findings extend beyond individual cases to societal …

Legal Malpractice In Washington: Use Of The Rules Of Professional Conduct, Angelo Tadrous

Seattle University Law Review

Legal malpractice claims are difficult to prove. They are difficult to prove because many jurisdictions require that a plaintiff prove that, but for the lawyer’s misconduct, the client would have fared better. Thus, in a malpractice suit, a plaintiff must try a case within a case. Despite this difficulty, many jurisdictions prohibit the use of the Rules of Professional Conduct when litigating a malpractice case. Washington State is one of these jurisdictions. The Washington Supreme Court held in Hizey v. Carpenter that the Rules of Professional Conduct may not be referred to during trial. This Note argues that this prohibition …

Converting Buildings Is Hard: Why Seattle’S Municipal Government Should Streamline Commercial-To-Residential Conversions, Tyler M. King

Seattle University Law Review

The conversion of commercial buildings into housing is a promising solution to the growing housing crisis in many urban areas. However, despite its potential benefits, the process of repurposing commercial spaces is often stymied by complex zoning codes, high conversion costs, and bureaucratic hurdles. This Article argues that the local and state governments in Seattle should adopt more streamlined policies and offer greater incentives to developers to facilitate these conversions. By reforming zoning regulations and providing targeted financial support, municipalities can reduce the barriers to conversion and unlock the potential of underutilized commercial properties. This article examines the legal and …

Kentucky's Alford Predicament: The Case For Curbing Qualified Guilty Pleas In The Commonwealth, Ben Whatley

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Real Bullets, Plastic Guns: Evaluating The Strength Of 3-D Printed Gun Parts, Maria Latenia Mayol

Student Theses

Privately made firearms (PMFs), often referred to as “ghost guns,” are firearms manufactured or assembled by individuals rather than federally licensed manufacturers. Although the terms are frequently used interchangeably, “ghost gun” more specifically describes an unserialized firearm, whereas PMFs include a broader range of firearms produced through nontraditional manufacturing methods. PMFs may be entirely 3-D printed, assembled from partially completed firearm kits, or constructed by integrating additively manufactured components with commercially manufactured firearm parts. The increasing accessibility of additive manufacturing and widespread dissemination of computer-aided design files have raised concerns about concealment, regulation, and forensic evasion, particularly when factory-manufactured components …

Law Enforcement With Rent Dissipation, Murat C. Mungan, J. Shahar Dillbary

Faculty Scholarship

We consider a framework which brings together losses arising from rent-dissipation and the workhorse model of law enforcement. Governmental actors engage in a contest to share the proceeds from the enforcement of the law through monetary fines, which leads to rent-dissipation. This causes monetary sanctions to be costly, rendering the model used for studying nonmonetary sanctions a better fit for their analysis. The effect of rent-dissipation on optimal sanctions is directly related to the sanction elasticity of offenses measured at the classic optimum (i.e., where the expected sanction equals the direct harm from the offense). When offenses are inelastic, the …

Disrupting Transnational Human Trafficking Networks: A Practitioner's Perspective On Intelligence-Driven, Offender-Focused Strategies, Rochelle Keyhan

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article examines human trafficking through the lens of organized crime and explores how this perspective can be applied to contemporary trafficking cases in the United States. While trafficking is often prosecuted as an isolated criminal act, many incidents are linked to larger transnational and domestic organized crime networks. The discussion highlights the activities of notorious syndicates, including international cartels, street gangs, and well-funded networks of sex buyers, demonstrating how these entities exploit vulnerable populations for profit. Reframing human trafficking as a sector within organized crime shifts investigative and prosecutorial strategies away from victim-dependent models, which often require survivors to …

The Confluence Of Conflict-Induced Vulnerability, Organized Crime, And Sex Trafficking In Receiving States: A South African Civil Society Perspective, Monique Emser

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The crime-conflict nexus has been well-documented in conflict-affected and post-conflict states. Criminal networks make use of manifold methods and strategies to exploit individual and structural vulnerabilities, particularly those affected by war, displacement, and precarious migration journeys, forming the backbone of most conflict-induced trafficking ecosystems, whether in countries of origin, transit, or receipt. This article examines the intersection of sex trafficking, diaspora communities, and organized crime within South Africa as a receiving state from a civil society perspective. It underscores the deficiencies in traditional, reductionist, enforcement-based approaches to counter-trafficking by the state, where nested subsystems, such as those produced by endemic …

Disrupting The Bonded Economy Of Sex Buying, Sex Trafficking, And Organised Crime Through Policy Change, Dellene Clark

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Emerging criminological research underscores how the economic drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation reinforce organised criminal markets while reproducing the structural vulnerabilities of those in prostitution. Using South Africa as a case study, this article argues that evidence-based legislative reform is necessary to confront the systemic conditions that enable exploitation. It contends that achieving substantive equality requires recognising the criminogenic role of sex‑buyer demand in sustaining trafficking pipelines and criminal profitability. The Swedish/Nordic demand‑reduction model illustrates how asymmetrical criminalisation can suppress demand, reduce reliance on trafficked persons, and diminish the financial incentives that underpin organised crime. Such an approach reorients …

Behind The Screen: Online Sex Buyer Networks And The Organized Criminal Promotion Of Exploitation, Ava Kamdem, Vanessa Bouché, Ben Silver, Nick Freeman, Justin Euteneier

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This study investigates the extent to which online sex buyer communities in the United States function as organized criminal networks pursuant to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime’s definition of organized criminal groups. Drawing from theories of organized crime, social network analysis, and digital ecosystems, we conceptualize sex buyers not as isolated actors but as participants in coordinated, mutually reinforcing networks that share information to facilitate exploitation, mitigate risk, and sustain criminal behavior. To test this framework, we scraped over 1.2 million posts from a publicly accessible sex buyer forum, comprising 72,974 unique users and nearly 800,000 direct …

Drawing A Line In The Mud: The Fifth Circuit's Narrow Reading Of Louisiana's Infrastructure Trespass Statute In White Hat V. Murrill, Andrew J. Lloyd

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Artificial Intelligence Mechanisms In The Limit Of Crimes And Law Enforcement, Saad Mefleh Alsuwaileh

Journal of Police and Legal Sciences

This study explores the potential of employing technological mechanisms and modern innovations brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, particularly advancements in the field of information technology, in the domains of criminal investigation, crime prevention, and law enforcement. It aims to analyze the impact of these technologies on crime control efforts and the promotion of justice.

The significance of the study lies in highlighting the power of technology in processing and analyzing massive volumes of data with greater speed and accuracy, thereby enhancing the efficiency of criminal investigations and the ability to predict and prevent crimes. The core research question …

Criminal Investigation Of Crimes Committed In A Metaverse Environment: A Comparative Analytical Study, Hussein Abdelmoaty Abdelnaby

Journal of Police and Legal Sciences

The world is undergoing a radical transformation in the nature of social spaces and human interactions, driven by the emergence of advanced virtual environments such as the "metaverse," which represents a multi-dimensional digital extension of the real world. This transformation has led to the emergence of new forms of criminal activity occurring within this immaterial space, raising fundamental questions about the adequacy of traditional legal and procedural frameworks—particularly criminal investigation mechanisms—in keeping pace with these developments.

This study aims to analyze the key legal and procedural challenges associated with crimes committed in the metaverse and assess the adequacy of the …

Pengabaian Hak Cipta Musik Dalam Pelatihan Algoritma Artificial Intelligence: Analisis Penggandaan Karya Dan Implikasi Hak Moral Pencipta, Adi Jaya, Reni B. Setianingrum

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The development of Artificial Intelligence in the music industry raises new legal challenges within copyright law, particulary regarding the use of copyrighted musical works as training data for AI algorithms, AI training processes typically involve digital reproduction, dataset storage, and musical pattern extraction, often conducted without consent or attribution, thereby posing risks to the protection of authors moral rights. This article examines whether AI training activities ca be legally classified as reproduction under Indonesia’s Copyright Law (Law No. 28 of 2014) and analyzes their implications for the protection of moral rights. Using a normative legal research method with statutory, conceptual, …

Kedudukan Hukum Perjanjian Jual Beli Tanah Ulayat Dalam Sistem Hukum Perdata Indonesia, Yeni Oktafia

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Under Article 1457 of the Indonesian Civil Code, a sale and purchase agreement creates reciprocal rights and obligations between the parties. In Indonesian land law practice, however, transactions involving customary land (tanah ulayat) present legal complexities due to its communal nature and governance by indigenous law communities, coupled with the absence of explicit regulation in the Civil Code and the plurality of customary law systems. This research examines the legal position and juridical implications of tanah ulayat sale and purchase agreements within Indonesian civil law while acknowledging the continued applicability of customary law. Employing a normative legal research method with …