Paul's Justice Blog

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Required Readings

Paul Leighton and Jeffrey Reiman, Criminal Justice Ethics

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

More information on Plagiarism and citing internet sources

Student Conduct Code

Recommended Reading 

Henry & Hinkle, Careers in Criminal Justice (Sheffield) 1879215438

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.

Randall Kennedy, Nigger (Pantheon Books) 0375421726

Jack Olsen. Last Man Standing: Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt. Anchor (2001) 0385493681.

PEAK OIL? Oil and gas prices increased greatly over the last year even before the effect of Katrina. Some believe the price will never drop substantially again because we're entering the time of peak oil - where demand is higher than our ability to produce oil and discover new oil to replace the diminishing supply. See the Peak Oil Primer (from EnergyBulletin, which has daily reviews of relevant headlines). Many articles mention Simmons, a Harvard MBA and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, who researched the state of Saudi oil fields and has been interviewed about his book, Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy. (The previous link s a good overview, check out Simmons' site for more speeches.) See also TheOilDrum and OilCast for more extensive and in depth coverage. 

Date

Required Reading

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

• more information about moral reasoning and moral systems from the CJ Ethics website

• 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). 

IN CLASS QUIZ #1: The Katz reading in the textbook on impossible attempts discusses a number of cases. One case is Commonwealth v Dunnaway. What are the facts of this case, the problem with the attempted incest charge, and the final decision of the court (did attempted rape or attempted incest better fit the facts)? 

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
• Meiwes, a German citizen, has freely admitted to dismembering another German man and eating his flesh. Indeed, Meiwes carefully preserved the killing on videotape and still had pieces of the body in his freezer when he was arrested. During much of the process of dismemberment, the victim reportedly remained conscious.
  
  The obstacle to a murder charge is the fact that the evidence incontrovertibly shows that Meiwes's victim wanted to be eaten. Indeed, he had agreed to the arrangement over the Internet, answering an ad placed by Meiwes that specifically sought a person who wanted to be slaughtered and cannibalized.
  
  In the U.S., the victim's consent is no defense to murder, and it would be easy to prosecute an American counterpart to Meiwes. But in Germany, the victim's consent renders the crime a "killing on request" -- that is, an instance of illegal euthanasia. Unfortunately, this offense is punishable by a very modest sentence of from six months to five years of incarceration. [Is it Always Torture to Dismember and Eat a Conscious Human Being? Findlaw.com]

• 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)

PAPER 1 DUE: For this paper, you will need to read two Washington Post stories that you will (free registration to the site is required). Both of these articles deal with differences between the U.S. and Canada on a variety of issues involving paternalism and legal moralism. The first is "Whoa! Canada!" and the second is "A Tolerance for IV Drug Users".

In a 2-3 page paper, define what legal moralism is, identify the issues raised in the articles that relate to moralism, and discuss how Canada is different from the U.S. on these issues. Do the same for paternalism. Make sure to structure your paper in terms of moralism and paternalism; do not simply summarize one article, then the next. I realize people have strong reactions to some of these issues, but the paper is to make sure you understand the newspaper articles and place them in the framework of concepts provided by the book. The paper should not be full of your personal feelings about Canadian policy (our class discussion will give you a chance to discuss your reactions).

• More about Prostitution & Sex Work from the Criminal Justice Ethics site 
• Full text of In re P with a few helpful links
• check out the feminist stripper page

• Full text of Mitchell case, with some helpful links
• CJ Ethics: Hate Crimes
• StopViolence: Hate Crimes
• Without Sanctuary: Lynching Postcards and Photographs

IN CLASS QUIZ #2: Read the Findlaw.com column about the KKK and the NYPD. The quiz will ask you (1) what was at issue here, (2) what were the grounds for the court's decision, and (3) why does the author of the column critique the court? As with quiz 1, answers do not need to be long, but should try to be specific about the issue, ground and critique. 

• More on Tobacco and Corporate Violence (inc summary of Reiman's argument)
• Read Etzioni's article from the Washington Post "Profit Without Honor 
  When It Comes to Ethics, Business Schools Get an F".

• Review Sheet
• BONUS LINK:  What was the issue in VA v Black, and what did the court decide (was law upheld, and why/why not)?

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

• More on Police Ethics
• Read a copy of the Appendix that has working links and some additional info

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

• The Tobias opinion with some working weblinks about entrapment

• 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

• Read the Findlaw column A RIGHT OF JURY NULLIFICATION IN SOUTH DAKOTA?, esp the section “Why the legal status of jury nullification matters.” 

• BONUS LINK: See review sheet for details about A RIGHT OF JURY NULLIFICATION IN SOUTH DAKOTA?

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

NO CLASS: I WILL BE OUT OF TOWN FOR A CONFERENCE - 

QUIZ 4 WILL BE ON NOV 29

• The text for the first edition of Just and Painful is available online.

IN CLASS QUIZ #4 (Moved to Nov 29): spanking machines. The quiz will ask about spanking machines: (1) what some people see as the problem with whipping and (2) how the spanking machine could promote the administration of justice.

Thanksgiving [No classes, but University open Wed; Classes resume Monday]

• Death Penalty links from Criminal Justice Ethics
• A study by the Texas Defender Service concludes that capital defendants in the state have more than a 1 in 3 chance of being executed without benefit of competent appellate attorneys.

• 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)

• Can Juveniles Constitutionally Be Executed? The Supreme Court Will Consider the Question in a Pending Case (Findlaw.com)

• Background information from Cornell Law School about the juvenile death penalty case the Supreme Court will be hearing this term. 

• column in Findlaw.com about the virtual child pornography case
• 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. 

PAPER #2 Due: Read the materials on the class webpage about the virtual child pornography case. The quiz will ask you about (1) what is 'virtual child porn', (2) what is the significance of the Ferber case, and (3) why doesn't the law prohibiting 'real' child porn also apply to 'virtual' child porn? (4) why is the reasoning in the majority and dissent about whether virtual child porn should be illegal? (last question should be a large portion of the paper)

• Televising executions

Final Exam  - 11:30 - 1  

Bonus: Rumsfeld v. FAIR (Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights)

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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