Guest post: Dan Subotnik: “Redefining Rape”? Let's Hope Not; Or Catharine MacKinnon is at it Again

Our Genitals, Ourselves. For many years, chaired Harvard law professor, feminist icon, and mother of sexual harassment jurisprudence Catharine MacKinnon has held that, far from being an emotional and physical blessing, sex is an attack on women's bodies and a...

"Federal judge blasts Philly DA's 'juvenile lifers' policy"

From The Philadelphia Inquirer, via the NACDL news scan: An openly frustrated U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Savage - who ordered a new sentence for Songster four years ago, and again in August with a 120-day deadline - said the...

Dissent from cert denial in ineffectiveness/death penalty case

Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ginsburg, dissented from the denial of certiorari in Elmore v. Holbrook.

"James Cartwright, Ex-General, Pleads Guilty in Leak Case"

From The New York Times: The plea completes a stunning fall from grace for General Cartwright, who was known as “Obama's favorite general,” and it adds a new twist to a surge of leak-related criminal cases in the Obama era....

"Florida: death sentence unconstitutional without unanimous jury vote"

From Jurist: JURIST - Florida: death sentence unconstitutional without unanimous jury vote The Florida Supreme Court [official website] on Friday held [opinion, PDF] that a trial court may not impose the death penalty unless the jury's recommended sentence of death...

Anderson on Use of Deadly Force

José F. Anderson (University of Baltimore - School of Law) has posted From Fugitives to Ferguson: Repairing Historical and Structural Defects in Legally Sanctioned Use of Deadly Force (Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, Vol. 49, 2015) on SSRN....

Ristroph on The Constitution of Police Violence

Alice Ristroph (Seton Hall University - School of Law) has posted The Constitution of Police Violence (UCLA Law Review, Vol. 64, No. 5, 2017 Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Police force is again under scrutiny in the United...

"Why 'Public Defender' Has Become An Oxymoron"

From The Philadelphia Citizen, via NACDL's news scan: In Kuren v. Luzerne County, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said: “We recognize for the first time in Pennsylvania a prospective cause of action enabling indigent criminal defendants to prove that the level...

Carpenter on Commander Bias in Sexual Assault Cases

Eric R. Carpenter (FIU College of Law) has posted An Empirical Look at Commander Bias in Sexual Assault Cases (21 Berkeley J. Crim. L. (2017 Forthcoming)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In response to the American military's perceived inability...

"Despite Ken Thompson's Short Stint as Brooklyn Prosecutor, Agenda May Endure"

From The New York Times: Though he could be a prickly manager and was recently fined for using taxpayer money to buy his daily meals, Mr. Thompson instinctively grasped the broader implications of his work, Ms. Reiss and others said,...

Schulz on Law and Justice on TV

Jennifer L. Schulz (University of Manitoba, Faculty of Law) have posted A Transnational Study of Law & Justice on TV: Canada (A Transnational Study of Law & Justice on TV, Peter Robson & Jennifer L. Schulz (eds.) published by Hart,...

"San Francisco Fields a Mental-Health SWAT Team"

From The New York Times: Officials said the idea was to let highly trained clinicians try to pacify troubled individuals, and hopefully avoid the sorts of deadly police confrontations that have recently set off protests around the country. During any...

Stinneford on The Original Meaning of "Cruel"

John F. Stinneford (University of Florida - Levin College of Law) has posted The Original Meaning of 'Cruel' (Georgetown Law Journal, Vol. 105, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Article demonstrates that the word “cruel” in the Cruel...

Malkani on Dignity and the Death Penalty

Bharat Malkani (University of Birmingham) has posted Dignity and the Death Penalty in the US Supreme Court (Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 2, 2016) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The US Supreme Court has repeatedly invoked the...

Webb on Slave Narratives and the Sentencing Court

Lindsey Webb (University of Denver Sturm College of Law) has posted Slave Narratives and the Sentencing Court (NYU Review of Law and Social Change, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The United States incarcerates a greater percentage of its...

"Inside the Chicago Police Department's secret budget "

This piece in the Chicago Reader, cited on the NACDL website, is based on freedom-of-information-act requests and addresses expenditures of funds acquired through forfeiture. In part: The Chicago Police Department doesn't disclose its forfeiture income or expenditures to the public,...

"Could Officers Have Avoided Shooting Keith Scott? Experts Weigh In"

The New York Times has this interesting piece, with law enforcement experts analyzing how the encounter might have been handled differently.

UCLA Criminal Justice Program

is seeking an executive director. This is a non-tenure track position. The release follows the jump. The UCLA School of Law is seeking a highly energetic individual with significant criminal justice policy and/or legal practice experience to be the Executive...

West on Crimes During Protests

Jessica L. West (Vermont Law School) has posted Protest Is Different (University of Richmond Law Review, Vol. 50, No. 2, Pp. 737-81, 2016) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Acts of civil disobedience, long used to provoke social change, ignite...

Stratmann & Thomas on Emergency Response Time and the Decline in Homicides

Thomas Stratmann and David Chandler Thomas (George Mason University - Buchanan Center Political Economy and Ball State University) have posted Dial 911 for Murder: The Impact of Emergency Response Time on Homicides on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Several theories...

Nunn on Pretrial Attorney Speech

Kenneth B. Nunn (University of Florida - Levin College of Law) has posted Ideology, Gentile and Pretrial Attorney Speech: A Response to Professor Tarkington (66 Fla. L. Rev. Forum 35 (2015)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In this brief...

Perlin & Lynch on Arrests of Persons with Mental Disabilities

Michael L. Perlin and Alison J. Lynch (New York Law School and Disability Rights New York) have posted 'To Wander Off in Shame': Deconstructing the Shaming and Shameful Arrest Policies of Urban Police Departments in Their Treatment of Persons with...

Holroyd & Picinali on Implicit Bias, Self-Defence, and the Reasonable Person

Jules Holroyd and Federico Picinali (University of Sheffield and London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)) have posted Implicit Bias, Self-Defence, and the Reasonable Person (The Criminal Law's Person, edited by Claes Lernestedt and Matt Matravers (OUP 2017 Forthcoming))...