In my last post, I gave a preliminary assessment of Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent speech on reforming charging policy for low-level drug offenders. I pointed out that whether or not this really marks a major policy change depends in large part on the details outlined in an internal memorandum Holder issued to federal prosecutors. […]
Archive | Crime Victims Rights
Florida’s Self-Defense Laws
By David Kopel on March 27, 2012 11:59 pm in Crime Victims Rights, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Guns, Self-Defense
Media coverage of Florida’s self-defense laws in recent weeks has often been very inaccurate. While some persons, particularly from the gun prohibition lobbies, have claimed that the Martin/Zimmerman case shows the danger of Florida’s “Stand your ground” law, that law is legally irrelevant to case. So let’s take a look at what the Florida laws […]
The Machinery of Criminal Justice #6: Equality, Vengeance, and Competence
By Stephanos Bibas (University of Pennsylvania), guest-blogging on March 16, 2012 10:57 pm in Crime Victims Rights, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure
In the past week’s posts about my new book, I’ve sketched out some of the hidden costs of professionalizing our system and suggested ways in which we might deliberately slow down our speedy, impersonal assembly-line justice. This set of posts has focused on one aspect: giving victims larger roles. (The book offers an even more […]
The Machinery of Criminal Justice #5: Returning Power to the Public in a Lawyer-Driven System
By Stephanos Bibas (University of Pennsylvania), guest-blogging on March 16, 2012 11:04 am in Crime Victims Rights, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure
In this week’s guest-blog posts on my new book, I’ve explored just a few of the ways in which our criminal justice machine has drifted far from its moral roots. Today I want to summarize the range of problems and offer just a couple of possible solutions, though the book goes into many more. Lawyers’ […]
The Machinery of Criminal Justice #4: Semi-Privatizing Criminal Justice
By Stephanos Bibas (University of Pennsylvania), guest-blogging on March 15, 2012 11:05 am in Crime Victims Rights, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure
In yesterday’s guest-blog post on my new book, I explored the gulf between criminal-justice insiders and outsiders, the lawyers and laymen who see criminal justice very differently. The book explores in detail some of the human needs that criminal justice professionals overlook, such as the thirst for remorse, apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Today I’ll suggest […]
The Machinery of Criminal Justice: The Gulf Between Insiders and Outsiders, and Its Costs
By Stephanos Bibas (University of Pennsylvania), guest-blogging on March 14, 2012 10:43 am in Crime Victims Rights, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure
In yesterday’s guest-blog post on my new book, I discussed some of the ways in which criminal justice developed from a common-sense morality play into a professionalized machine during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Now I want to describe what the gulf between criminal justice insiders and outsiders looks like today; offer a few examples […]
The Machinery of Criminal Justice: From Public Morality Play to Hidden Plea Bargaining Machine
By Stephanos Bibas (University of Pennsylvania), guest-blogging on March 13, 2012 9:22 am in Crime Victims Rights, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, History
In yesterday’s guest-blog post on my new book, The Machinery of Criminal Justice, I surveyed how colonial American criminal justice was public, participatory, informal, and run by laymen. To be clear in response to some comments, I did not imply that we should go back to Salem witch trials, let alone medieval European trial by […]
The Machinery of Criminal Justice: Colonial Criminal Justice as a Morality Play
By Stephanos Bibas (University of Pennsylvania), guest-blogging on March 12, 2012 10:46 am in Crime Victims Rights, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, History, Uncategorized
I’d like to thank Eugene and his fellow co-conspirators for graciously letting me guest-blog this week about my new book, The Machinery of Criminal Justice, which was just published by Oxford University press and is available here. In a nutshell, the book is about: 1) how America moved from a populist system of public jury […]
Golden Retriever Takes the Stand in New York Criminal Trial
A golden retriever named Rosie recently became the first judicially approved dog allowed in the witness box for the purpose of comforting a witness while she testifies: Rosie, the first judicially approved courtroom dog in New York, was in the witness box here nuzzling a 15-year-old girl who was testifying that her father had raped […]
Should a Criminal Conviction Be Automatically Vacated if the Defendant Dies While the Case is on Appeal?
The old answer seemed to be “yes,” but in recent years the states have split on the subject. State v. Carlin, decided by the Alaska Supreme Court last Friday, switches Alaska from the “yes” column to the “no” column, partly because of growing concerns about victims’ rights: While abatement [i.e., erasure of the conviction -EV] […]
Significant Child Pornography Restitution Ruling in the Fifth Circuit
Today the Fifth Circuit gave victims of child pornography who are seeking restitution a significant victory. The Fifth Circuit agreed with my arguments that the relevant restitution statute does not contain a proximate cause requirement for most categories of losses for which restitution can be awarded. As a result, a victim of child pornography need […]
D.C. Circuit Argument on Victim’s Right to Restitution in Child Pornography Cases
On Monday, I’ll be in the D.C. Circuit arguing an interesting case concerning a crime victim’s right to restitution in child pornography cases. I represent “Amy”, who is the victim depicted in the “Misty” child pornography series — apparently the most widely disseminated series on the web. She has filed restitution requests of approximately $3,000,000 […]
A Crime Victim’s Right to Appellate Review?
The Denver University Law Review has just published my latest article, entitled “Protecting Crime Victims in Federal Appellate Courts: The Need to Broadly Construe the Crime Victims’ Rights Act’s Mandamus Provisions.” The article deals with the question of appellate review of denials of assertions of crime victims’ rights by federal district courts. There […]
Restitution for Victims of Child Pornography
By Paul Cassell on January 5, 2010 11:57 am in Computer Crime Law, Crime Victims Rights, Criminal Law
Yesterday U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz of the District of Minnesota issued an interesting order regarding a restitution application in a child pornography case. In his order, found here, Judge Schiltz chastises the government for failing to pursue restitution for child pornography cases in his district, even though Congress has made restitution mandatory in such cases. […]
Should Crime Victims Have the Right to Be Heard on Federal Sentencing Guidelines Issues?
I recently argued that they should to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Currently the procedures at sentencing envision the parties arguing the various factors, but not a crime victim. This approach reflects an outdated way of thinking about criminal procedure — that only the state and the defendant have legitimate interests in the outcome of a criminal […]