This course analyzes legal and practical problems in the administration of criminal justice from police investigation through arrest and the commencement of formal proceedings, including: arrest; search and seizure; right to and assistance of counsel; entrapment; police interrogation and confessions; lineups, show ups and other pretrial identification procedures; grand jury investigations; and the exclusionary rule.

 

This course analyzes legal and practical problems in the administration of criminal justice after the commencement of formal proceedings, including: bail; pretrial release; prosecutorial discretion; preliminary hearing; grand jury review; the right to a speedy trial; discovery and disclosure; plea bargaining; trial by jury; sentencing; double jeopardy; and post-conviction proceedings.

 

This course addresses sentencing law. It begins by treating the philosophical, jurisprudential and political considerations which should guide sentencing and then examines current New Jersey and federal sentencing guidelines and practices, with an emphasis on the role of the prosecutor or defense attorney at sentencing. Finally, the seminar will address federal and state constitutional and statutory issues regarding the imposition of the death penalty.

Prerequisites: Criminal Law.

 

This course provides an in-depth study of corporate and white-collar crimes, including: RICO; mail fraud; federal drug offenses; criminal tax enforcement; bank secrecy statutes; false statements to law enforcement agents; criminal civil rights statutes; obstruction of justice; Hobbs Act; Mann Act; securities fraud; environmental crimes; workplace death and injury; and choice between federal and state prosecutions.

<p>Prerequisite: Criminal Law</p>

<p>NOTE: Students can only apply either Federal Criminal Law (CRJU7404), White Collar Defense (CRJU7402) or White Collar Prosecutions (CRJU 9421) towards degree requirements.</p>

 

Force and fraud are forms of malicious, wrongful conduct.  But in some contexts, they are also accepted ways of exercising political power.  Today, force and fraud are at the core of the substantive criminal law, and at the core of law’s enforcement mechanisms.  This seminar examines force and fraud from both perspectives.  Approximately the first half of the course will be devoted to the substantive criminal law.  Topics include: the types of physical force that are criminalized; the classification of offenses as “violent”; perjury and other forms of criminalized lying; theft-by-deception in contrast to theft-by-force; rape-by-deception in contrast to rape-by-force.   Approximately the second half of the course will be devoted to force and fraud as methods of law enforcement.  Here we will consider the use of physical force by police officers and prison officials; the deceptions of undercover work; “testilying” (police perjury); and interrogation techniques that employ either physical force or deception.  Students will be asked throughout the course to reflect on the relative vices – or virtues – of force and fraud.  *Students may write a seminar paper in this course to fulfill the AWR requirement, or they may elect to complete a take-home exam rather than an AWR paper.

Prerequisite: Criminal Law

 

This course will introduce the student to the law and practice of post-conviction remedies. The course will give primary focus to the Writ of Habeas Corpus, the "Great Writ of Liberty." The course will begin with a treatment of the common law background to the Great Writ and then trace the doctrinal development of the law from the time of the adoption of the Habeas Corpus Act of 1867 through to passage of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) of 1996. Topics considered will include: Habeas Jurisdiction, Meaning of the Custody Requirement, Exhaustion of Remedies, Procedural Default and other Defenses, State Post-Conviction Remedies, Successive Petitions, Abuse of the Writ, Statutes of Limitation, and the miscarriage of Justice Exception. Particular attention will be given to practice issues now arising under AEDPA and the impact on habeas law and practice of the U.S. government's recent use of military tribunals and detention without trial in the war on terror. Accountability will be accomplished through a take-home exam.

Prerequisites: Constitutional Law or Constitutional Law I and II; Criminal Law.



Note: Students cannot apply Postconviction Remedies (CRJU7416) and Postconviction Remedies Seminar (CRJU9404) towards degree requirements.

 

This course will introduce the student to the law of corrections and prisoners' rights. The course will begin with a historical overview of th state practice of incarceration and then consider the evolution of th elaw of prisoner's rights from the time of the era of the "hands-off doctrine" through the civil rights era of the mid-twentieth century and up to and including modern statutory and judicial developments. Special attention will be paid to the following topics: Speech and Religion in Prison, Access to the Courts, Discipline and Classification, Personal Injruy, Application of the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause, Parole, and Prisoners' Rights Litigation in the modern statutory environment. A visit by the class to a local state or federal prison is also planned. Each student will submit a paper satisfying the advance writing requirement.

Prerequisites: Constitutional Law or Constitutional Law I and II.

 

This seminar is about systemic issues that exist within the administration of the criminal justice system.  Over the course of the semester, we will explore the processes designed to implement the criminal law, encountering both substantive criminal law issues as well as procedural questions.  For example, we will discuss topics like punishment and incarceration, community policing, prosecutorial discretion, bail reform, risk-assessment based sentencing regimes, decriminalization, the right to counsel, post-conviction remedies and reentry, and the effect of big data and artificial intelligence on the administration of the criminal law.  This is a writing seminar and each student will be expected to produce a paper that conforms to the Advanced Writing Requirement (AWR).  Students will have an opportunity to present their research and paper to the class later in the semester.

 

The emergence of DNA testing over the past thirty years has exposed the conviction of thousands of factually innocent people. This course provides an opportunity to learn about the systemic errors in our legal system that lead to wrongful convictions of factually innocent defendants, as well as exploring more broadly the justice or injustice of our criminal legal system. We will question whether defendants can be wrongfully convicted or wrongfully sentenced regardless of their factual innocence, and what that means. This is a seminar course that also focuses on what happens after an individual’s criminal conviction becomes “final,” that is, after he or she has exhausted the appeals process. Students will learn fundamental basics of post-conviction law (habeas law) to enhance their understanding of wrongful convictions and available remedies.