Criminal Law

Cross Dressing and the Criminal

Posted on August 08, 2008
Drawing upon cultural studies, literary theory, and criminal law, Cross Dressing and the Criminal argues that cross dressing as a metaphor, as a sign, as a practice has the potential to subvert not only expectations about gender, but also about...

Crime, Legitimacy, and Testilying

Posted on August 08, 2008
Crime, Legitimacy, and Testilying draws upon Tom Tyler's highly influential legitimacy theory (that perceptions of legitimacy play a crucial role in inducing voluntary compliance with the law) to make the novel but utilitarian argument that more policing of the police...

U.S. Prosecutors Feel the Heat, Want Protection

Posted on August 07, 2008
In the wake of three murders and the recent attack on a federal prosecutor in a New York courtroom, a group representing the nation's federal prosecutors is calling for stepped-up security, including home alarms, self-defense training and the right to...

In lieu of DNA evidence, exoneration proves tougher

Posted on August 07, 2008
SAN DIEGO ? It took more than four years of pure grunt work to free Timothy Atkins. There was no DNA evidence to support Atkins' claims of innocence in a fatal Los Angeles carjacking. Instead, students at California Western School...

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Inmate 'too fat for execution'

Posted on August 07, 2008
COLUMBUS - A death row inmate scheduled for execution in October says he's so fat that Ohio executioners would have trouble finding his veins and that his weight could diminish the effectiveness of one of the lethal injection drugs. Lawyers...

Texas Executes José Medellín

Posted on August 06, 2008
In a case that has drawn international attention, Texas executed José E. Medellín on Tuesday night in defiance of an international court ruling and despite pleas from the Bush administration for a new hearing. The execution came just before 10...

Oklahoma Co. Sheriff defends jail's conditions

Posted on August 06, 2008
A Justice Department report rips the Oklahoma County jail as a chaotic and largely unsupervised den of "unconscionable? violence, abuse and medical neglect. Detailed in the federal report are jail deaths, excessive use of force and a "disturbing? incident in...

Oxbow empty as jail crowds

Posted on August 06, 2008
Woodrow Burton is a "frequent flier" in the criminal-justice community. At 56, Burton has amassed a long history of arrests in Salt Lake County. But some of those busts have come without one thing: jail time. In a three-year span,...

State Medical Examiner Fired

Posted on August 06, 2008
WLBT has learned Dr. Steven Hayne will no longer be doing medical examinations for the state of Mississippi. Hayne has conducted 80% of all criminal autopsies in Mississippi for more than 20 years. We're told Dr. Hayne performed his last...

3rd Circuit Rules Media Has Right to Juror Names

Posted on August 05, 2008
In a ruling that could have far-reaching effects on the handling of high-profile trials, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the media has a presumptive right of access to the names of jurors, and that a...

Gathering seeks ways to ease inmates back into society

Posted on August 05, 2008
Local leaders discussed the issue and different approaches to ease the transition during yesterday's kickoff of the National Forum on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, which continues through tomorrow at the Marriott Louisville Downtown. The forum, whose theme is "No...

SETON HALL LAW STUDENTS REVEAL GOVERNMENT?S SYSTEM FOR RELEASE OF GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEES

Posted on August 05, 2008
Press Release August 4, 2008 Contact: Janet LeMonnier ? 973-642-8724 (office) ? 973-985-3165 (cell) ? lemonnja@shu.edu Mark Denbeaux ? 201-214-6785 (cell) ? denbeama@shu.edu Joshua Denbeaux ? 201-664-8855 (office) ? 201-970-6534 (cell) Decision Based on Nationality, Not Level of Danger: Detainees...

Feds Charge 11 in Massive Identity Theft Scheme

Posted on August 05, 2008
The Justice Department said on Tuesday that it had charged 11 people in the theft of tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers of customers shopping at major retailers, including TJX Companies, in one of the largest reported...

Federal Death Penalty Panel

Posted on August 05, 2008
As part of the annual meeting of the American Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association will host a panel on "The Crisis in the Federal Death Penalty," on Monday, August 11, from 10 a.m. to noon. Besides myself,...

Gotti Back in Court

Posted on August 05, 2008
John A. Gotti has been charged with conspiracy for his role in a sprawling cocaine trafficking operation and in three mob-related killings in 1980s and ?90s, the United States attorney?s office in Tampa, Fla., announced on Tuesday. Mr. Gotti, 44,...

Buzz up!S.F. fund aids teen felons who are illegals

Posted on August 04, 2008
As San Francisco's juvenile justice system shielded young illegal immigrant felons from possible deportation, Mayor Gavin Newsom's office gave grants totaling more than $650,000 to nonprofit agencies to provide the underage offenders with free services - everything from immigration attorneys...

Judge Removed From 'Jena Six' Case

Posted on August 04, 2008
The judge overseeing the criminal cases for the remaining Jena Six defendants was removed against his will Friday for making questionable remarks about the six black teenagers charged. They're accused of a December 2006 attack on a white high-school classmate...

Medellin capital case is strictly Texas' business

Posted on August 04, 2008
State law must not yield to international wishes Jose Ernesto Medellin is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas next Tuesday, a date that is, in the estimation of many, not a moment too soon. According to his...

CA Court Upholds Medical Marijuana Program Against Supremacy Clause Challenge

Posted on August 04, 2008
A state appeals court upheld California's 12-year-old medical marijuana law Thursday, rejecting two counties' arguments that allowing patients to use the drug with their doctor's approval condones violations of federal narcotics laws. The Fourth District Court of Appeal in San...

Shaun P. Martin: University of San Diego Law School Professor of Criminal Law

Posted on August 03, 2008
Professor of Law A.B. 1988, Dartmouth College; J.D. 1991, Harvard University Professor Shaun P. Martin served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and a general editor of Harvard University?s Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He clerked on the...

No end in sight to death penalty wrangling

Posted on August 02, 2008
More than 30 years after it was reinstated by the nation?s highest court, the death penalty in the United States still faces serious legal and political challenges, even as a persistent majority of the American public believes convicted murderers should...

Showdown over a Texas execution

Posted on August 01, 2008
The state plans to execute a Mexican national on Aug. 5, despite objections of the World Court.The state plans to execute a Mexican national on Aug. 5, despite objections of the World Court. The United States is fast approaching a...

Stalked: A Decade on the Run

Posted on August 01, 2008
THE woman in the blue suit striding briskly into the Sofitel Hotel near O?Hare airport looked like any other 50-something businesswoman on her way to a meeting. And in a way she was, a marketing consultant and freelance writer visiting...

Legwork, lab work the real stars of 'CSI: Dallas'Legwork, lab work the real stars of 'CSI: Dallas'

Posted on August 01, 2008
For years, police detectives around the country have mocked the miraculous way investigators on hit TV shows such as CSI: Miami ply their trade: Computers instantly identify matching fingerprints, labs return DNA samples in an hour and the crime unit...

Michigan will join states that use GPS to track domestic abusers, stalkers

Posted on July 31, 2008
Mary Babb was in her SUV last year when her estranged husband slammed into her with his pickup truck. The crash overturned Babb's vehicle and left her suspended upside-down by her seat belt. As she hung there helplessly, Thomas Babb...

Feinstein still questions U.S. attorney's staff moves

Posted on July 31, 2008
Five months after the sudden dismantling of the public corruption unit in the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, questions are still being raised in Washington, D.C., about the controversial move. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has been exchanging letters with...

DEATH ROW COST OVERRUN: $40 MILLION

Posted on July 31, 2008
The cost of new housing for San Quentin State Prison's growing number of Death Row inmates will exceed estimates by nearly $40 million, and the compound could run out of space soon after it is completed, according to a state...

Judge Holds that White House Aids Subject to Subpoena

Posted on July 31, 2008
President Bush's top advisers are not immune from congressional subpoenas, a federal judge ruled Thursday in an unprecedented dispute between the two political branches. House Democrats called the ruling a ringing endorsement of the principle that nobody is above the...

Execution by Military Is Approved by President

Posted on July 30, 2008
WASHINGTON ? President Bush on Monday approved the first execution by the military since 1961, upholding the death penalty of an Army private convicted of a series of rapes and murders more than two decades ago. As commander in chief,...

Report Faults Aides in Hiring at Justice Dept.

Posted on July 30, 2008
Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales broke Civil Service laws by using politics to guide their hiring decisions, picking less-qualified applicants for important nonpolitical positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department?s credibility,...

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