In a previous paper we show how social pressure, in the form of informal sanctions by outside observers, affects choices made by defendants and prosecutors, both with respect to plea offers and to decisions to proceed to trial. In that paper, we assume that the defendant's guilt or innocence is his private information, and that evidence at trial is imperfect and may result in errors in convicti...

Abstract The prosecution—whether domestic or international—of international crimes and atrocities may implicate extremely aged defendants. Much has been written about the legalisms that inhere (or not) in trying these barely alive individuals. Very little however aesthetics encrust into architecture of courtrooms, optics defendants suffuse trial process, expressive value punishing them. This is...

In four empirical studies, we showed that laypeople apply the ignorance of the law defense differently depending on the perceived morality of the defendant’s course of conduct at the time of the illegal act. Moral and neutral defendants who pled ignorance of the law were afforded leniency, whereas immoral defendants were sentenced as though they were not ignorant, even when defendants in all th...

As prosecutors have increasingly invoked asset forfeiture laws in their war against crime, scholars have harshly criticized the use of forfeiture laws to seize attorneys' fees. In cases in which attorneys' fees are seized, prosecutors claim that defendants are paying their lawyers with the proceeds of criminal activity. For example, drug dealers might use the profits from cocaine or heroin sale...

The Supreme Court ruling Sell v. United States in 2003 (539 U.S. 166) set a new precedent by mandating federal judges function as decision makers on the issue of whether "nondangerous" incompetent defendants charged with federal crimes can be involuntarily medicated to restore their competency to stand trial. To provide data to inform future opinions by mental health professionals and decisions...

that summarized the Research Disclosure reference. Defendants further argue that Astra had motive to mislead the examiner with respect to compound 21076. Defendants allege that 21076 was structurally as close or closer to quetiapine than other prior art compounds, and since Astra allegedly had data showing that 21076 was potentially an atypical antipsychotic, Astra had reason to “divert the Exa...

The association between scores on MMPI-2 scales and cognitive symptom validity test (SVT) failure was investigated in 127 criminal defendants evaluated for competency to stand trial, criminal responsibility, and drug dependence, and 141 personal injury and disability claimants. Results indicated that SVT failure was associated with exaggerated symptom presentation involving somatic complaints i...

My research assesses the impact of changes to legally-aided representation in magistrates’ courts operating in East Kent (a designated court area) in the context of structural change driven by neoliberal forms of governance. This paper presents some findings following periods of observation at the relevant court area. Past socio-legal studies of magistrates’ courts, largely conducted when most ...

Competence to stand trial has long been considered “the most significant mental health inquiry pursued in the system of criminal law” (Stone, 1975, p. 200). Hoge, Bonnie, Poythress, and Monahan (1992) estimated that pretrial competence evaluations are sought in 2% to 8% of all felony cases. LaFortune and Nicholson (1995) reported that judges and attorneys estimate that competency is a legitimat...

To empirically investigate the usefulness and validity of clinical presentation and recent history variables in the detection of malingered psychiatric disorder, 30 criminal defendants involved in forensic evaluations, who had a documented history of psychiatric hospitalization preceding their arrest on the instant offense (low risk of malingering group) and 30 defendants who complained of psyc...