By Chris Hemry Executive Editor, Vol. 24. The police have a lot of power over civilians. This is especially palpable on the roads.[1] The police can pull you over for a “broken taillight,” order everyone out of the car, frisk everyone, arrest the driver for the broken taillight, impound the car, and then search every […]
criminal justice system
Chilling Effect: Brooklyn Detainees Bang on Prison Walls as Temperatures Drop
By Elizabeth Morales Associate Editor, Vol, 24 On the first day of February, as temperatures in East Coast dropped below-freezing, a video showing inmates banging on the walls and windows of their cells at a Brooklyn jail went viral. The inmates were trying to alert people on the outside that their building had been with […]
Juries So White: Why the All-White Jury is Still so Prevalent in Michigan
By Christopher Hemry Executive Editor, Vol. 24 Michigan courts are insidiously tedious in the way they secure all-white juries.[1]For serious cases, more than 60 potential jurors are brought to the court, and then 14 are randomly selected to sit in the jury box.[2] From there, they are subjected, one by one, to a litany of […]
The First Step Act: It Needs to be the First Step
By Jules Hayer Associate Editor, Vol. 24 On December 21, 2018 the President signed into law the First Step Act. The First Step Act is a criminal justice reform bill that decreases mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, modifies the three strikes rule from requiring a life sentence to mandating a 25-year sentence, and […]
Is Gang Membership a Crime? How RICO Laws Turn Groups into Gangs
By Kerry Martin Associate Editor, Vol. 24 On June 18, 2018, in a courtroom at the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse in downtown Detroit, at the end of a long pretrial argument on a matter of evidence, defendant Corey Bailey stood up. The courtroom was nearly full: this was preparation for the blockbuster trial of the […]
What the Passage of Michigan’s Proposal One Means for Black and Latinx People
By Elizabeth Morales-Saucedo Associate Editor, Vol. 24 On November 6, 2018, 56% of Michigan voters supported the passage of Proposal One approving the legalization of recreational use and possession of marijuana by persons 21 and older.[1] Michigan is the tenth state in the United States, and the first state in the Midwest, to legalize the […]
California’s Efforts to Reform Bail Leaves Much to be Desired
By Jules Hayer Associate Editor, Vol. 24 Despite recent developments in California to overhaul the bail system, the state still has a long way to go in order to create effective change. In January of this year the California Court of Appeals ruled that, before setting bail, judges must take into account the financial situation […]
Undoing Past Wrongs: Chipping Away at Capital Punishment
By Hira Baig Associate Editor, Volume 23 The vast majority of countries, 140 to be exact, consider the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment.[1] The current constitution of Germany, for example, forbids use of capital punishment.[2] Lawyer and activist Bryan Stevenson comments on this policy choice by suggesting there is a connection between Germany’s consciousness of […]
The Continuing Significance of the Non-Unanimous Jury Verdict and the Plantation Prison
By Madeleine Jennings Associate Editor, Vol. 22 In 1934, Oregon voters amended their Constitution to allow for non-unanimous jury verdicts in all non-first degree murder and non-capital cases.[1] The Louisiana Constitution requires unanimity only in capital cases.[2] Grounded in xenophobia and anti-Semitism, the Oregon law was passed by a ballot measure following the trial of a […]
Whitewashing wrongful conviction: reflecting on Making a Murderer
By Breanna Caldwell Associate Editor, Vol. 21 Executive Editor, Vol. 22 On the off chance that you have been able to avoid the national phenomenon surrounding the Netflix documentary series, Making a Murderer, since it first aired in December 2015, I will provide a brief overview of the series before analyzing its effects on the […]
Michigan Journal of Race & Law 