chevron-down Created with Sketch Beta.

    Spring 2002 - Criminal Justice

    Volume 29 Issue 3  

    Civil Rights & Constitution

    Introduction: Is Price No Object in Our Bid to Make Crime Never Pay?

    by Wilson Adam Schooley

    Deep in the heart of America is a visceral animus against injustice, especially when it is suffered by the powerless at the hands of the powerful. We hate unfairness to children, old people, and dogs. We abhor the heavy hand of authority inequitably wielded. Yet, despite our organic passion for mercy and fair play, we find ourselves riding into twenty-first century law enforcement on the dark horse of retribution.

    Featured Articles

    Civil Rights & Constitution

    Protecting Constitutional Rights in an Age of Anxiety: A New Approach

    by Laurence A. Benner

    This article looks at why the traditional "rights/remedy" paradigm has failed and proposes a fundamentally different approach. Employing the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, this new approach would generate proactive rather than reactive solutions to the problem of maintaining constitutional protections for human rights. In particular, we will see how the right to travel, now firmly established as a privilege of national citizenship, could be used to address the problem of racial profiling.

    Civil Rights & Constitution

    Behind Bars in America

    by Joanne Mariner

    Judging simply by the numbers, one might expect that the subject of incarceration in the United States would be too big to be ignored. Some two million adults are behind bars, and over $40 billion a year is budgeted toward keeping them there. But despite the enormous human and financial costs, there is little public debate over the country’s imprisonment policies, certainly much less than that accorded education, health care, and other serious issues of the day.

    Civil Rights & Constitution

    A Federal Prosecutor's Pursuit of Justice

    by John McKay

    As U.S. Attorney, I am considered the chief federal law enforcement officer in western Washington, with responsibility for counterterrorism, drugs, cybercrime, and a myriad of criminal prosecutive and civil representation duties on behalf of the United States. In this article, I do not purport to speak for the Department of Justice (DOJ); rather, as a personal perspective, I seek to describe one lawyer’s journey in the law.

    Civil Rights & Constitution

    Three Strikes Laws: A Real or Imagined Deterrent to Crime?

    by Michael Vitiello

    The 1990s were dominated by get-tough-on-crime measures, dramatically increasing the nation’s prison population and the length of prison sentences. Those measures culminated with the enactment of "three strikes" legislation around the nation. Beginning with Washington State in 1993, by the end of the decade, the federal government and over half of all states had enacted some form of a "three strikes" law.

    Civil Rights & Constitution

    Human Rights Hero: Honorable Nancy Gertner

    by Carol V. Rose

    Standing at five-foot, three inches, Judge Nancy Gertner, of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, may or may not be physically able to carry someone from a burning building, but in her twenty-three-year career as a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer, and—since 1994—in her capacity as a federal judge, Judge Gertner has rescued an untold number of people from the imminent danger of unjust imprisonment. In doing so, she has become a human rights hero.