"Teens, Confessions, and Culpability"

Kent Scheidegger has this post at Crime & Consequences, summarizing and discussing an article in the L.A. Times.

"Extortion, Government Style"

Solomon Wisenberg has this post at While Collar Crime Prof Blog. In part: If you want to know why companies settle with the government, even when they aren't guilty of anything, look no further than Ally Financial LLC's $98 million...

"Mother Who Left Baby at Queens Church Is Found; No Charges Will Be Filed"

From The New York Times: The mother of a baby who was left this week in an unadorned crèche inside a Roman Catholic church in Queens was found and will not face criminal prosecution, the county district attorney said late...

Ocen on Race and Sexually Exploited Minors

Priscilla A Ocen (Loyola Law School Los Angeles) has posted (E)Racing Childhood: Examining the Racialized Construction of Childhood and Innocence in the Treatment of Sexually Exploited Minors (UCLA Law Review, Vol. 62, No. 6, 2015) on SSRN. Here is the...

Holland on Miranda

Brooks Holland (Gonzaga University School of Law) has posted Miranda v. Arizona: 50 Years of Judges Regulating Police Interrogation (16 Insights on Law & Society 4, 2015) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article commemorates the 50th anniversary of...

"Chicago Officer Charged in Death of Black Teenager"

From The New York Times: The charges against Officer Jason Van Dyke, 37, come more than a year after the shooting, but only days after a judge ordered Chicago officials to release the video from the shooting, captured by a...

"In France, Some See the Police Security Net as Too Harsh"

From The New York Times: All over France, from Toulouse in the south to Paris and beyond, the police have been breaking down doors, conducting searches without warrants, aggressively questioning residents, hauling suspects to police stations and putting others under...

Friedman on Race and Stop, Question & Frisk Policing

Matthew Friedman (New York University (NYU) - Brennan Center for Justice) has posted The Role of Race in Police Interdictions: Evidence from the New York Police Department's Use of Stop, Question & Frisk Policing on SSRN. Here is the abstract:...

Saunders et al. on Psychological Indicators of Support for Stop-and-Frisk

Ben Saunders , Noah Paul Cohen , Elspeth Kelly and Christopher Guarino (Long Island University - Brooklyn , Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , Long Island University and Long Island University) on Right-Wing Authoritatianism and Social Dominance Orientation...

Ehrenberg on Less Evidence, Better Knowledge

Kenneth M. Ehrenberg (University of Alabama - Department of Philosophy) has posted Less Evidence, Better Knowledge (McGill Law Journal, Vol. 60, No. 2, p 173-214, 2015) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In his 1827 work Rationale of Judicial Evidence,...

Casenote on Heien v. NC

has been published in the Harvard Law Review. In part: Mindful that an open-ended “reasonableness” test might sow confusion — or worse, abuse — both the majority and concurrence sought to cabin the reasonable-mistake-of-law test with additional qualifiers. Such qualifiers...

"Constitutional right to obtain exculpatory evidence from prosecutors extends to plea-bargain phase"

David Post has this post at The Volokh Conspiracy, discussing and excerpting Buffey v. Warden, opinion available here.

"Baltimore Police Assailed for Response After Freddie Gray’s Death"

From The New York Times: The far-reaching review was conducted by the Police Executive Research Forum, an independent organization based in Washington, and released Monday by the Police Department. It examined the department’s handling of the unrest that followed the...

Lyon et al. on Wrongful Acquittals of Child Sexual Abuse

Thomas D. Lyon , Stacia N. Stolzenberg and Kelly McWilliams (University of Southern California - Gould School of Law , Arizona State University (ASU) - School of Criminology & Criminal Justice and USC Gould School of Law) have posted Wrongful...

Beety on Thompson on Forensic Labs

Valena Elizabeth Beety (West Virginia University - College of Law) has posted Cops in Lab Coats and Forensics in the Courtroom (Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Law enforcement’s past cover-ups of faulty...

"How Gun Traffickers Get Around State Gun Laws"

From The New York Times: How Gun Traffickers Get Around State Gun Laws - The New York Times In California, some gun smugglers use FedEx. In Chicago, smugglers drive just across the state line into Indiana, buy a gun and...

Ahern et al. on Child Forensic Interviews

Elizabeth C. Ahern , Samantha J. Andrews , Stacia N. Stolzenberg and Thomas D. Lyon (University of Cambridge , University of Cambridge , Arizona State University (ASU) - School of Criminology & Criminal Justice and University of Southern California -...

Ross on Prison Voyeurism

Jeffrey Ian Ross (University of Baltimore - School of Law) has posted Varieties of Prison Voyeurism: An Analytic/Interpretive Framework (The Prison Journal, Vol. 95, No.3, pp. 397-417, 2015) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The public learns, experiences, and knows...

Feldman on Kozinski on Eyewitness Identifications

Laurie N. Feldman (Government of the State of Connecticut, Office of the Chief State's Attorney) has posted The Unreliable Case Against the Reliability of Eyewitness Identifications: A Response to Judge Alex Kozinski (Quinnipiac Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is...

Berry on Retroactivity and Miller v. Alabama

William W. Berry III (University of Mississippi School of Law) has posted The Retroactivity Roadmap (NYU Journal of Law & Liberty, Forthcoming (Symposium)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In Miller v. Alabama, the Supreme Court held that imposing a...

Baker on The Mental Element in Complicity

Dennis J Baker has posted Reinterpreting the Mental Element in Criminal Complicity: Change of Normative Position Theory Cannot Rationalize the Current Law (Law & Psychology Review, Vol. 40, 2016) on SSRN. here is the abstract: In this article, I will...

"Judge Grants New Hearing for Adnan Syed in ‘Serial’ Case"

From The New York Times: Adnan Syed, whose conviction in the murder of his high school ex-girlfriend was the subject of the popular “Serial” podcast, has been granted a hearing that will allow him to introduce new evidence. Judge Martin...

Friday's criminal law/procedure cert grant

Issue summary is from ScotusBlog, which also links to papers: Nichols v. United States: Whether 42 U.S.C. § 16913(a) requires a sex offender who resides in a foreign country to update his registration in the jurisdiction where he formerly resided,...

Perlin on Insanity and Incompetency

Michael L. Perlin (New York Law School) has posted 'God Said to Abraham/Kill Me a Son': Why the Insanity Defense and the Incompetency Status are Compatible with and Required by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and...

"Citizen kills robber who has what turns out to be an imitation gun — is the killing lawful self-defense?"

Eugene Volokh has this post at The Volokh Conspiracy, commenting on a recent news report. In part: In half the states (including Illinois), it’s legal to use deadly force against a robber — including against unarmed robbers, where you think...

The Hastert Structuring Case

Lawrence S. Goldman has this post at White Collar Crime Prof Blog continuing a debate over whether the case should have been pursued. In part: Hastert was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, structuring withdrawals from financial institutions of his...

"Death Penalty Opponents Split Over Taking Issue to Supreme Court"

From The New York Times: The divide is partly generational. Many veteran litigators have suffered stinging setbacks in the Supreme Court, and they favor an incremental strategy. They would continue to chip away at the death penalty in the courts,...

Wexler on Integrating Procedural Justice and Therapeutic Jurisprudence

David B. Wexler has posted Guiding Court Conversation Along Pathways Conducive to Rehabilitation: Integrating Procedural Justice and Therapeutic Jurisprudence on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A recent thoughtful criminology paper urges the use of procedural justice (PJ) and therapeutic jurisprudence...

"In Heroin Crisis, White Families Seek Gentler War on Drugs"

The story is in The New York Times: When the nation’s long-running war against drugs was defined by the crack epidemic and based in poor, predominantly black urban areas, the public response was defined by zero tolerance and stiff prison...