Paul's Justice Blog

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Required Readings

Paul Leighton and Jeffrey Reiman, Criminal Justice Ethics

The companion website to Criminal Justice Ethics can be a helpful resource in clarifying parts of the reading and/or exploring topics that interest you. 

Student Conduct Code

University guidelines, policies, and procedures 

If you have problems keeping the right files with you, check out SugarSync, which makes your documents available from any computer by keeping them on a secure website - no more thumb drives or emailing yourself documents.

 

 

Recommended Reading 

Jeanne Flavin. Our Bodies, Our Crimes. (New York University Press) 0814727549. 

Seth Tobocman, You Don’t Have to Fuck People Over to Survive (Soft Skull) 1887125352

Murakimi. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. (Vintage)  0375725806.

Aaron James. Assholes: A Theory. (Doubleday) 0385535651.

Jack Olsen. Last Man Standing: Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt. (Anchor) 0385493681.

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How to Find Cheaper College Textbooks NY Times

The Study Hacks blog teaches students how to do (very) well without burning out. It preaches the idea that you should: do less; do better; and know why.

20 Tips to Reduce Academic Procrastination ~ book: Solving the Procrastination Puzzle: A Concise Guide to Strategies for Change ~ Procrastination Research Group

Paying student loans late can damage the credit scores of young adults. And one big reason it's happening is the fact that many among the indebted simply aren't sure how many loans they have, how and when to pay them back correctly and how to find and use programs for people who can't afford the full payments. [Article is helpful in by providing an overview of what you should do and links to information.]

Students’ “on-task behavior” (studying) started declining around the two-minute mark as they began responding to arriving texts or checking their Facebook feeds. By the time the 15 minutes were up, they had spent only about 65 percent of the observation period actually doing their schoolwork. Evidence from psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience suggests that when students multitask while doing schoolwork, their learning is far spottier and shallower than if the work had their full attention. They understand and remember less, and they have greater difficulty transferring their learning to new contexts.

Continuous partial attention arises from the desire to "connect and be connected." But "in large doses, it contributes to a stressful lifestyle, to operating in crisis management mode, and to a compromised ability to reflect, to make decisions, and to think creatively. In a 24/7, always-on world, continuous partial attention used as our dominant attention mode contributes to a feeling of overwhelm, over-stimulation and to a sense of being unfulfilled."

Click here for syllabus (.pdf) | Career & Job Info

• The Rights of Man... and Beast (NY Times) - lawyer's campaign to use habeas corpus to get a hearing for intelligent animals that are subjected to inhumane conditions. They are not human beings, he argues, but they are 'persons' who deserve legal standing because of their capabilities.

• companion materials on the insanity defense;
• Criminal Justice Ethics page related to the social adversity defense
• Why Hurricane Katrina's So-Called Looters Were Not Lawless: They Are Entitled to the Well-Established Defense of Necessity (Findlaw.com column)

• Material on mens rea and attempts (including impossible attempts). 

Part 2, Feinberg p 87-88 (skip section 4) & 92 (Mill) - 108

Class will cover substantial material not in the text

• Harm Principle, Paternalism & Legal Moralism
• One could stroll down Alabama's southern streets selling semiautomatic rifles and dildos, and be arrested for the dildos. There's a more detailed news article from law.com and a thoughtful analysis of the right to sexual privacy in a Findlaw.com column. 
• Michigan sodomy law info
• The 5th Circuit struck down the Texas ban on sex toys based on Lawrence v Texas; the 11th Circuit upheld Alabama's ban. (links go to court opinions - .pdf)
• YouTube video - 9 minutes on Texas law banning sex toys, The Dildo Diaries
• Griswold v. Connecticut: The Start of the [Privacy] Revolution ~ Public Nudity Laws and the Female Breast (Findlaw.com)

IN CLASS QUIZ #1: In the reading for today, Feinberg discusses ‘the presumptive case for liberty.’ Drawing from this section of the reading, your quiz will ask: (1) what is the relationship between liberty and self-realization; and (2) what are three of the ‘social benefits’ that are related to freedom? [5 points]

• Drug Legalization debate pages
• 9 drawings were done by an artist under the influence of LSD -- part of a test conducted by the US government during the late 1950's (be sure to go through all 9 drawings and commentary)
• "the other drug legalization movement" pharmaceutical companies make drugs that have the same effect as illegal drugs; they make money, the rich get access to the effect legally, while the poor are criminalized for self-medicating.
• The Peace Drug: Rape-induced post-traumatic stress disorder had destroyed Donna Kilgore's life. Then experimental therapy with MDMA, a psychedelic drug better known as ecstasy, showed her a way out. Was it a fluke -- or the future? (Washington Post, 25 Nov 2007)
• Alex Stevens has studied drug policy in five countries and summarizes the key points in this 7 minute video.
• Marijuana Law and Policy blog (curated by a law professor)

• More about Prostitution & Sex Work from the Criminal Justice Ethics site 
• Full text of In re P with a few helpful links
• Urban Institute report, The Hustle: the size and dynamics of underground markets (prostitution, drugs). Through interviews with convicted pimps, we uncovered information on how businesses are operated, how men and women enter and are recruited into the trade, and how the Internet is changing the street-based commercial sex economy. Report ~ nice overview
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Feminist Perspectives on Sex Markets

IN CLASS QUIZ #2: Read the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Feminist Perspectives on Sex Markets. Read section 2.2 on harms to women. Your quiz will ask you to summarize the arguments of multiple authors who are reviewed. Specifically, 1) for those authors who argue prostitution causes harm to women, what are their arguments? And 2) what is the critique of these positions and what is the argument of those who claim prostitution does not harm women? (You do not need to know the names of those making the arguments, but you need to include the argument of more than one author/theorist on each side of the debate.) [6 points]

• Full text of Mitchell case, with some helpful links (Remember that this link and what is in the book is the Wisconsin Supreme Court opinion. The US Supreme Court opinion in Wisconsin v Mitchell unanimoiusly held that sentencing enhancement for bias motivation is constitutionally acceptable.)
• CJ Ethics: Hate Crimes
• StopViolence: Hate Crimes
• Without Sanctuary: Lynching Postcards and Photographs
• Update: VA v Black 
• Findlaw.com column about the KKK and the NYPD

• More on Tobacco and Corporate Violence (inc summary of Reiman's argument)
• I recommended the article When Workers Die about the failings of OSHA.
• Link for the public health blog that describes the controversy over the microwave popcorn additive and the failure of numerous agencies
• Findlaw.com article, The U.K.'s "Corporate Manslaughter" Statute.

TEST 1  remember to be on time because no one will be admitted to take the final after the first person has left

There will NOT be extra credit later in the semester, so take this test seriously and study for it.

• More on Police Ethics
• Read a copy of the Appendix that has working links and some additional info
• Don't Talk to the Police - Google Video by Professor Duane (27 min)

Part 3, Skolnick & Leo; 

• Miranda v Arizona abstract, opinion & audio of oral argument
• Brewer v Williams ('Christian Burial' case): Good police work or unfair interrogation?

WORKSHEET #1: Download the worksheet, then watch the video "Why I Don't Talk to the Police." Type the answers to the questions on the worksheet, print it off and turn it in at the beginning of class. [10 points]

• The Tobias opinion with some working weblinks about entrapment
• "Sting Operations" (72p .pdf) NIJ/COPS series)

• More info on Legal Ethics and some lawyer jokes
• Read the true story about the behavior of a lawyer, taken from a book called The Moral Compass of the American Lawyer. 

• FourthAmendment.com
• Flex Your Rights: Civil Liberties and Police Encounters case law
• 10 rules for talking to police (38 minute YouTube)
• More on habeas corpus

• Read the Findlaw column A RIGHT OF JURY NULLIFICATION IN SOUTH DAKOTA?, esp the section “Why the legal status of jury nullification matters."
• PBS - "The Plea" Watch or read the transcript.
• Judge Rakoff: Why Innocent People Plead Guilty
• Roy Clay could plead guilty to trafficking one kilogram of heroin, and they would recommend a sentence of 10 years. Or, if he asked for a trial, they would invoke his earlier drug convictions from 1993 and 2004 and, if found guilty, he would face an automatic sentence of life without parole.
• Short summary of An Offer You Can’t Refuse: How US Federal Prosecutors Force Drug Defendants to Plead Guilty

TEST 2 remember to be on time because no one will be admitted to take the final after the first person has left

There will NOT be extra credit later in the semester, so take this test seriously and study for it. 

• The text for the first edition of Just and Painful is available online.
• Could Flogging solve our prison crisis?

• Death Penalty links from Criminal Justice EthicsBackground information from Cornell Law School about Roper v Simmons (the juvenile death penalty case), where the Supreme Court abolished executions for juveniles. 
• How to Kill a Human Being (search for a humane method of execution). (alternate link for video)
• Louisiana's 60 page execution protocol - and a critique of it
• Executions Stall as States Seek Different Drugs (NYT 11/8)

Part 5: National Council of Churches on death penalty; Nathanson, Reiman, van den Haag exchange; American Medical Association

• Statement by the president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists on why they should not be involved with lethal injection protocols. 
• The Court dealt with lethal injection in in Baze v Rees. The ASA (pdf) and the other by some veterinarians (pdf) filed a brief on the chemicals used in lethal injection. If it is helpful, see the background brief written by Cornell Law School, and there are links to additional briefs and information through my blog entry on this case. The Supreme Court upheld Kentucky's lethal injection - link to summary of opinion and full written opinions. 
• Death Row Improvises, Lacking Lethal Mix ~ Execution changes occur without public scrutiny, input ~ lethal injection worse than firing squad?
• Good lethal injection news from the Sentencing blog (written by a law professor)
• Innocence Project’s ‘Priority Issues.’

WORKSHEET #2: Please download the worksheet about wrongful convictions that is available on the class webpage. Follow the directions to access the materials. Type your answers on the worksheet and turn it in a printed copy at beginning of class. [11 points]

EXTRA MATERIAL ON WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS IF YOU ARE INTERESTED

• Best reporting on wrongful convictions

• Wrongful Convictions: The Latest Scientific Research and Implications for Law Enforcement (Dept of Justice)

• A talk by Dr Ron Huff on wrongful conviction that was part of a distinguished lecture series that is available on Youtube in seven segments. Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3 ~ Part 4 ~ Part 5 ~ Part 6 ~ Part 7. 

• As DNA testing frees increasing numbers of innocents from prison, Maryland and other states across the country are facing a politically sensitive and morally complex calculus: What is the value of a life unjustly spent behind bars? "What's a prison rape worth?" asked Ronald Kuby, a New York lawyer who has worked on compensation cases. "What's missing your child's first day of school worth? Not being with your parents as they lay dying? Having your parents go to their graves with you branded a convict?" ("Putting A Price on Innocents' Lost Years" Washington Post, 4 Oct 2004, p A1)

• A story about a 17 year old who was convicted but recently freed from death at 34 is here: Vindicated by DNA, but a lost man on the outside. The New York Times has interviewed many people who were wrongfully convicted and put them together in a multimedia feature where you can read their stories. 

• The Australian Govt released a study of wrongful convictions in that country, with recommendations for compensation to "help bring these Australian jurisdictions into line with international human rights best practice."

• Did the Supreme Court Recognize an Innocent Person’s Right Not to Be Executed?

• MSNBC had a good piece on 'child erotica' - nonnude but suggestive pictures of young teenage girls; there's also a link to the Knox case where a circuit court decides nudity is not a requirement for 'lewd and lascivious exhibition of the genitals' required for a child porn conviction. 
• Read the column in Findlaw.com about the virtual child pornography case. 

• Findlaw.com column about RFID chip implants and employment.
• Read Schneier's The Eternal Value of Privacy. (Schneier's blog is here and recommended.)
• How Your Data Are Being Deeply Mined (Acxiom has servers that process more than 50 trillion data transactions per year, and an average of 1,500 pieces of data per consumer.)
• As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, we get trapped in a "filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. (9 min video)
• technology turns to tracking people offline (following your cellphone) and Information police can suck out of your cell phone (without a warrant)

IN CLASS QUIZ #4: Read Schneier's post The Eternal Value of Privacy. The quiz will ask you: (1) the author rejects the idea that privacy is only about hiding a wrong and he says it is about what (2) why does he say it never occurred to the framers of the Constitution to mention privacy (3) what does he say will happen if we are observed in all matters and (4) the author rejects the debate about security v privacy and suggests it is about what? [7 points]

PLEASE NOTE: Professors do not have regular office hours after the last class. Make sure to get in touch before classes end if you have an important issues to resolve. All back work should be turned in before the end of the last class. The late penalty escalates sharply at this point; papers turned in after the last day of class will be worth a maximum of 1 point. Work turned in at the final exam will only be counted if you have made prior arrangements with me.

• Televising executions
• Televising McVeigh's execution was dealt with in Lappin v Entertainment Network.
• My research on televising McVeigh's execution - description of the work and 25 minute mp3 file

Final Exam  - 9:30 - 11:00 (not regular class time)

BONUS: What is this about?

remember to be on time because no one will be admitted to take the final after the first person has left

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