The United States leads the world by a significant margin in prison population. Many citizens would be shocked to learn the United States has five percent of the world’s total population but more than twenty-five percent of its prisoners. After remaining relatively steady in the early nineteenth century, the country’s prison population began a steady…

In describing the necessity for the evidentiary standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, Justice Harlan proclaimed, “[I]t is far worse to convict an innocent man than to let a guilty man go free.” Yet, despite this assertion, the American justice system continues to incarcerate innocent citizens at alarming rates. As of December 18, 2022,…

The Alford plea is a rarely utilized but widely debated criminal plea. The Alford plea is a type of guilty plea where the defendant pleads guilty to avoid further punishment while simultaneously asserting their innocence. Alford pleas are most often used in sex offense cases, murders, and domestic violence cases, and are entered at higher…

Federal law governing the contempt power of the United States Courts is disorganized, cluttered, and poorly drafted. The lack of consolidation within and between various sources of federal legal authority is a critical problem. Contempt provisions lie scattered in piecemeal form across the entire breadth of the United States Code. Contempt provisions comprising federal common…

When former U.S. President Richard Nixon addressed drug abuse as America’s Public Enemy No.1 on June 17, 1971, a new drug policy began in the United States in which law enforcement has played a significant role to control drug offences. Under this policy, whether drug offenders committed a violent act or not, they had to…