"Cincinnati gorilla incident: Police investigating boy's family"

From CNN.com: The family of a boy who entered a Cincinnati Zoo gorilla's enclosure last weekend -- spurring zoo officials to shoot and kill the animal -- will be the focus of an investigation into the incident, Cincinnati police said...

Skolnik on Reasonable Suspicion in Canada

Terry Skolnik (University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, Students) has posted The Suspicious Distinction between Reasonable Suspicion and Reasonable Grounds to Believe (Ottawa Law Review, Vol. 47, No. 1, 2016) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Canadian Criminal law distinguishes...

Leasure & Andersen on Certificates of Recovery

Peter Leasure and Tia Stevens Andersen (University of South Carolina and University of South Carolina) have posted An Experimental Study of the Effectiveness of Certificates of Recovery as Collateral Consequence Relief Mechanisms on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Securing stable,...

"Judge temporarily suspends extradition of "El Chapo" to US"

From Jurist: A Mexican judge granted a temporary suspension [El Mundo report, in Spanish] on the extradition of Joaquín "el Chapo" Guzmán to the US on Saturday. The decision comes after Guzmán's lawyers filed [El Pais report, in Spanish] an...

"Will Overreach Kill Mens Rea Reform?"

Kent Scheidegger has this post at Crime & Consequences. In part: Yet neither the House bill nor the Senate bill includes recklessness in its defaultmens rea provision. The Senate bill (S. 2298) requires "willfully" and the House bill (H.R. 4002)...

"Iowa top court rules juveniles cannot be given life without parole"

From Jurist: The Iowa Supreme Court [official website] on Friday ruled [opinion, PDF] that juvenile convicted of first-degree murder may not be sentenced to life without parole. The court reasoned that sentencing a juvenile to life without parole was cruel...

"Why Amnesty International Is Calling for Decriminalizing Sex Work"

From The New York Times: It's official: On Wednesday night, Amnesty International released its long-awaited policy on an incredibly contentious issue, calling on governments around the world to “decriminalize consensual sex work.” Amnesty also wants countries to “include sex workers...

"Dylann Roof Will Face Federal Death Penalty in Charleston Church Killings"

From The New York Times. In part: In a separate seven-page filing in Federal District Court in Charleston, prosecutors cited nine aggravating factors, including that Mr. Roof had “expressed hatred and contempt towards African-Americans, as well as other groups, and...

"Striking Move by Brooklyn Judge in Felony Drug Case: Probation, Not Prison"

From The New York Times: A federal judge in Brooklyn, in an extraordinary opinion that calls for courts to pay closer attention to the impact of felony convictions on people's lives, sentenced a young woman in a drug case to...

Cramer on Texas' Stand Your Ground Law

Clayton E. Cramer (College of Western Idaho) has posted Texas' Stand Your Ground Law: An Historical Perspective (Presenting at Texas Bar Association, September 2016) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In the aftermath of the Treyvon Martin shooting in Florida,...

"Louisiana Enacts Hate Crimes Law to Protect a New Group: Police"

From The New York Times: Hate crime statutes originated as a response to bigotry, a special penalty for singling people out for abuse based on factors like race, ethnicity, sex, religion, sexual orientation or, most recently, gender identity. On Thursday,...

Davis on Multijurisdictional Enforcement Games

Kevin E. Davis (New York University School of Law) has posted Multijurisdictional Enforcement Games (The Research Handbook on Corporate Crime and Financial Misdealing, Jennifer Arlen ed., Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Economic analyses of law enforcement generally focus...

Slobogin on Policing as Administration

Christopher Slobogin (Vanderbilt University - Law School) has posted Policing as Administration (University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 165, 2016) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Police agencies should be governed by the same administrative principles that govern other agencies....

Moran on The Internal Affairs Farce

Rachel Moran (University of Denver Sturm College of Law) has posted Ending the Internal Affairs Farce (64 Buff. L. Rev. ___ (Aug. 2016 Forthcoming)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Police misconduct has received a heightened degree of media attention...

Brown et al. on Empiricism and Psychopaths

Teneille R. Brown , Jim Tabery and Lisa Aspinwall (University of Utah - S.J. Quinney College of Law , University of Utah - Department of Philosophy and University of Utah) have posted Understanding Validity in Empirical Legal Research: The Case...

Carvalho on Liberty and Insecurity

Henrique Carvalho (University of Warwick - School of Law) has posted Liberty and Insecurity in the Criminal Law: Lessons from Thomas Hobbes (Criminal Law and Philosophy (Online First), 2015) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In this paper, I provide...

Havelkova on Prostitution

Barbara Havelkova (University of Oxford - Faculty of Law) has posted Blaming All Women: On Regulation of Prostitution in State Socialist Czechoslovakia ((2016) 36 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 165) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The article explores how...

Ferguson on Predictive Prosecution

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson (University of the District of Columbia - David A. Clarke School of Law) has posted Predictive Prosecution (Wake Forest Law Review, Symposium 2016) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Police in major metropolitan areas now use “predictive...

SMU seeks director for criminal justice reform center

The SMU Dedman School of Law is seeking a full-time Director to establish and operate its new Deason Family Criminal Justice Reform Center. This is a full-time position. The initial contract term is one year, renewable for additional one to...

"American Law Institute rejects affirmative consent standard in defining sexual assault"

This story appears in The Washington Times. The ALI website says: After an extensive discussion, membership approved an amended version of Subsection 213.0(3) (definition of consent), presented by motion. There was insufficient time to discuss Section 213.2.

Gruber, Cohen & Mogulescu on Human Trafficking Intervention Courts

Aya Gruber , Amy J. Cohen and Kate Mogulescu (University of Colorado Law School , Ohio State University (OSU) - Michael E. Moritz College of Law and The Legal Aid Society) have posted Penal Welfare and the New Human Trafficking...

A promising motion to fix the central problems with the ALI's sexual assault draft

With the ALI scheduled to begin discussion tomorrow on its sexual assault draft, seven ALI members--two advisors to the drafting process and five members of the Members Consultative Group--have prepared a motion that would remedy the draft's central problem. A...

DiBattista on Excessive Force

Michael S. DiBattista has posted A Force to Be Reckoned With: Confronting the (Still) Unresolved Questions of Excessive Force Jurisprudence After Kingsley (Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Vol. 48, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In Kingsley v. Hendrickson,...

Gupta et al. on High Bail

Arpit Gupta , Christopher Hansman and Ethan Frenchman (Columbia University - Columbia Business School , Columbia University, Barnard College - Department of Economics and Maryland Office of The Public Defender) have posted The Heavy Costs of High Bail: Evidence from...

Marcus et al. on Comparative Plea Bargaining

Paul Marcus , Carol A Brook , Bruno Fiannaca , David John Harvey , Jenny McEwan and Renee Pomerance (William & Mary Law School , Government of the United States of America - U.S. District Court for the Northern District...

Fan on Police Body Cameras

Mary D. Fan (University of Washington - School of Law) has posted two pieces on police body cameras. The first is Privacy, Public Disclosure, Police Body Cameras: Policy Splits (Alabama Law Review, Vol. 68, Forthcoming). Here is the abstract: When...

Bagaric & Alexander on Legality and Sentencing

Mirko Bagaric and Theo Alexander (Deakin University, Geelong, Australia - Deakin Law School and Deakin University, Geelong, Australia - Deakin Law School) has posted Addressing the Curious Blackspot that is the Separation between the Principle of Legality and Sentencing (Monash...

Horner & Ivacko on Local Officials and Law Enforcement

Debra Horner and Thomas M. Ivacko (University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy) have posted Most Local Officials...

Mens Rea and the ALI's Sexual Assault Draft

I previously argued that the ALI draft on sexual assault makes its intended point about the perils of coy sex while making an unintended point about the perils of coy legislation. In my view, the draft convincingly advocates for a...

Corrado on Retribution

Michael Louis Corrado (University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - School of Law) has posted Chapter Two. Retribution and the Limits of Criminal Justice on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Those who claim that retributivism is a morally...

Chiao on Kleinfeld on Reconstructivism

Vincent Chiao (University of Toronto - Faculty of Law) has posted A Response to Professor Kleinfeld's 'Reconstructivism: The Place of Criminal Law in Ethical Life' (Harvard Law Review Forum, Vol. 129, p. 258, April 2016) on SSRN. Here is the...

Chow on Making Payments to China's Police

Daniel C. K. Chow (Ohio State University College of Law) has posted Why Multinational Companies Doing Business in China Fall into the Trap of Making Payments to China's Police (Richmond Journal of Global Law and Business (2016, Forthcoming)) on SSRN....

Morse on Law and the Sciences of the Brain/Mind

Stephen Morse (University of Pennsylvania Law School) has posted Law and the Sciences of the Brain/Mind (Oxford Handbook on Law and the Regulation of Technology, Oxford, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This chapter is a submission to the...

Capers on Race, Policing, and Technology

I. Bennett Capers (Brooklyn Law School) has posted Race, Policing, and Technology (North Carolina Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: I am a black man. So begins the essay, “Race, Policing, and Technology,” which makes an argument...

Anderson on Campus Sexual Assault

Michelle J. Anderson (CUNY School of Law) has posted Campus Sexual Assault Adjudication and Resistance to Reform (125 Yale Law Journal, 2016 (Forthcoming)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The forty-year history of rape law reform sheds light on current...