Today we do not have the reassurance that injustice as a result of jury nullifications are behind us. Racism is still a prevalent issue in our society and it is concentrated at times within communities, making it possible to have a majority within Continue Reading...
United States Jury System
In United States courts, the jury is a system by which, in theory, defendants are given a trial that is fair and unbiased. The ideal is that twelve persons from the same peer group as the defendant will be able to delibera Continue Reading...
Trial by Jury
One of the most controversial issues today in the area of criminal justice is that of the right of all defendants to a trial by jury their peers. While most arguments are for or against this right, careful consideration of specific iss Continue Reading...
Trial by Jury -- a right that must be upheld, in part
One of the most controversial issues today in the area of criminal justice is that of the right of all defendants to a trial by jury of his or her peers. Often, as seen in the pairing of the essa Continue Reading...
Research also showed that offenders tend to be part of or return to communities with high concentrations of offenders. The concentration of offenders in these neighborhoods affects the community negatively by increasing the stigma associated with th Continue Reading...
ethnicity influences courtroom proceedings and judicial practices.
The law making against racial discrimination has reduced the intensity of ethnical influences on courtroom proceedings yet the judicial practices are not free from the impurities of Continue Reading...
Judicial Interpretation Theory
Judges draft no legislation, but they create law nevertheless, through their powers of judicial interpretation. Judges determine the outcome of particular cases by interpreting the meaning of a single phrase, and somet Continue Reading...
Christie provides a few examples of how lawyers use the superimposition of several vague terms to arrive at a workable precision. From the 1938 Restatement of Torts:
An activity is ultrahazardous if it (a) necessarily involves a risk of serious har Continue Reading...
Inquisition / Jeanne D' Arc (Joan of Arc)
1412 was the time of civil war and military unrest between France and England. And 1412 was the year Jeanne d' Arc was born. When she was 17 she commanded a battle against the English domination and made eff Continue Reading...
The 16th Amendment was the first to be passed in the 20th century. It allowed incomes to be taxed as a clear response to the Supreme Court decision in the Pollock v Farmers' Loan and Trust Company (Fonder and Shaffrey 2002). Congress previously pas Continue Reading...
Baker reviewed three landmark Supreme Court decisions on capital punishment and concluded that the death penalty is capriciously imposed on Black defendants and thus serves the extra-legal function of preserving majority group interests. He viewed d Continue Reading...
However, post-Reconstruction, 'states rights' often became a code word for Jim Crow legislation. Southern states demanded the 'right' for the majority to engage in de facto segregation of schools and to institute limits upon how voting rights were e Continue Reading...
The Los Angeles Police Department and the Coroner's Office apparently did allow enough room for error to make it difficult for the prosecution to meet its burden of proof and those mistakes were no doubt compounded by the decision to put Detective Continue Reading...
4th Amendment's evolution and history, together with the "search and seizure" law.
4th Amendment Background
People's rights of being secure in personal effects, papers, houses and persons, against unreasonable seizures and searches, may not be bre Continue Reading...
Civil War
While compromise over the system of slavery was possible in 1850 it was not effective in 1860's." The paper is an analysis of the compromise of 1850, which was the continuation of the system of slavery, and the description of the events, w Continue Reading...