Copyright (c) 2010 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins Recent documents in Ira P. Robbins en-us Fri, 15 Oct 2010 01:31:41 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/13 http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/13 Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:36:20 PDT The 2009-2010 edition of Habeas Corpus Checklists offers an expanded and thorough review of the habeas corpus provisions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), including more than 100 new cases – from the Supreme Court and the circuit courts of appeals – interpreting and applying the Act. Increased attention is paid to custody, statute of limitations and tolling, retroactivity, procedural default, standards of review under 28 U.S.C. §2254(d), evidentiary hearings and the presumption of correctness, certificates of appealability, successive petitions, and post-conviction motions filed by federal prisoners. Other highlights of this edition include coverage of new Supreme Court cases, including: District Attorney’s Office for the Third Judicial District v. Osborne, Harbison v. Bell, U.S. v. Denedo, Cone v. Bell, Jimenez v. Quarterman, Waddington v. Sarausad, and Knowles v. Mirzayance. Additionally, this volume includes new rules and forms for state and federal prisoners seeking post-conviction relief in the United States District Courts, updated statutory references to the U.S. Code, expanded black-letter law, and updated and improved Table of Cases. Ira P. Robbins Constitutional Law Habeas Corpus http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/12 http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/12 Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:36:19 PDT This volume is a guide for post-conviction remedies for state and federal prisoners contesting their detentions, convictions, or sentences. The author examines due process requirements for varying stages of custody, including an examination of prison disciplinary hearings. The volume contains notes on evidentiary hearings, standing, relief, discovery, and provides an in-depth analysis of the constitutional right to counsel¬or lack thereof¬ for state, federal, and death row inmates. Cases and statutory provisions are used to detail the limits on constitutional claims through the Fourth Amendment as assessed by the Supreme Court. Custody, jurisdiction, and venue are explored in great detail with respect to the case law. Additionally, non-retroactivity, procedural state standards, and remedy exhaustion offer direction on claims, in the latter case, greater insight on mixed (and other) petitions. There are analyses throughout on both the development and the application of the law in respective areas, which provides insight into the continued shaping of these issues. An examination of AEDPA rounds out the second half of the volume detailing filing deadlines, exhaustion of state judicial remedies, and stays of executions, among other aspects of the statute. The author additionally provides appendices and forms that serve as useful research and preparation aids. Ira P. Robbins Constitutional Law Habeas Corpus http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/11 http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/11 Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:36:18 PDT Habeas Corpus Checklists is organized as a topical analysis, identifying the elements of each issue or inquiry in an outline format. Major cases and statutory provisions are quoted or reviewed for each of the legal propositions examined. The book discusses the standards developed by the courts, together with pertinent statutes and leading case law for every jurisdiction. With new habeas corpus statutes and a divided Supreme Court, doctrine alone is insufficient to navigate the complex twists and turns facing both habeas corpus litigants and the habeas writ itself. Thus the book also examines the law's historical development and the current law, as well addresses the departures from previous law and practice. The author analyzes habeas corpus themes, patterns, and directions for current and future litigation. This guide provides the actual language of the court with complete citations to aid in further research. Ira P. Robbins Constitutional Law Habeas Corpus http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/10 http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/10 Mon, 11 Oct 2010 12:01:06 PDT In a separate article - Best Practices on “Best Practices”: Legal Education and Beyond - Professor Robbins formulated a paradigm for “best practices” and applied it to the book, Best Practices for Legal Education. Professor Robbins concluded that the book did not meet any of the criteria necessary to constitute best practices and, further, that using the concept of best practices when thinking and writing about legal education is misleading and inappropriate. The primary author of the book, Roy Stuckey, responded, claiming that “best” can mean something other than best, that the difference really doesn’t matter, and that the debate over the proper use of best practices in legal education is a distraction. This is Professor Robbins’ reply. Ira P. Robbins Legal Education http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/9 http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/9 Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:37:05 PDT Compared with other litigants, pro se prisoners are at an inherent disadvantage when they try to vindicate their rights. They lack many of the resources enjoyed by non-prisoner litigants. They have limited finances and limited access to legal-research materials. Even if they had such access, their illiteracy would lessen its effectiveness. Moreover, many attorneys are unwilling or unable to undertake full representation of prisoner litigants. As a result, pro se prisoners struggle to navigate the complex legal system, often losing their cases on procedural grounds before ever reaching a decision on the merits.This Article argues that, in order to provide pro se prisoners with the access to the courts that law and justice require, attorneys (and sometimes non-attorneys) should be permitted to ghostwrite pleadings for them - that is, to draft pleadings that prisoners will then file pro se. Attorneys who may otherwise be reluctant to represent prisoner litigants as counsel of record might still be amenable to providing services in this limited way. Limited-scope representation - or “unbundled legal services” - is not an anomaly. Indeed, most states accept the practice in at least some contexts, and the American Bar Association recently gave its stamp of approval to ghostwriting. Nevertheless, many courts and commentators contend that ghostwriting by attorneys is unethical, that it gives pro se litigants an unfair advantage (because their pleadings are entitled to judicial benevolence), and that it encourages the unauthorized practice of law. Addressing these concerns, this Article considers the various forms that ghostwriting could take - i.e., whether ghostwriting attorneys should be required to disclose their names, the fact of their assistance, or the nature of their assistance - and concludes that ghostwriting should be allowed without any disclosure of attorney assistance at all. Indeed, disclosing such assistance may, in some instances, actually violate ethical rules. While ghostwriting likely constitutes the practice of law and might justifiably be rejected in other contexts, this Article recommends that courts and bar associations endorse the practice of ghostwriting for pro se prisoners, to give these disadvantaged litigants a more even playing field on which to challenge alleged violations of their constitutional rights. Ira P. Robbins Constitutional Law http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/8 http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/8 Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:37:05 PDT “Best practices” has become one of the most common research and development techniques in the United States and throughout the international community. Originally employed in industry, the concept sought to identify superior means to achieve a goal through “benchmarking,” thereby allowing companies to obtain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. In recent decades, the use of best practices has become widely popularized, and is frequently utilized in the areas of administrative regulation, corporate governance, and academia. As the term has grown in popularity, however, so too has room for its abuse. In many instances, the term has been invoked to claim unsupported superiority in a given field.This article examines the history behind the emergence of best practices, summarizes the prevailing models of the concept, surveys the worst practices on best practices, and proposes a working definition. It then applies that definition to the Clinical Legal Education Association publication, Best Practices for Legal Education. While there are contexts in which identifying and applying best practices may be appropriate, the article concludes that using best practices when thinking and writing about legal education is misleading and inappropriate. Ira P. Robbins Legal Education http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/6 http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/6 Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:37:04 PDT Prisoners and the Law provides expert guidance critical to successfully handling cases involving prisoners’ legal rights, and includes in-depth articles written by leading authorities on the background, development, and current status of the law. The text focuses on legal issues affecting our prison population, such as AIDS, drugs, overcrowding, security, appeals, weapons, correspondence, visitation issues, and prisoner safety. This loose leaf guidebook presents scholarly views on alternative policies regarding the future of prison reform, the death penalty, restitution, new correctional systems, and inmate welfare funds. It is also a resource for issues relating to private incarceration, disenfranchisement of ex-felons, and deaf prisoners’ rights. Special features include: comprehensive resource on prisoners’ legal rights; expert guidance for handling prisoners’ rights cases; current prisoners’ rights issues; and prisoner, prison, probation, and parole statistics. Ira P. Robbins Constitutional Law http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/4 http://works.bepress.com/ira_robbins/4 Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:37:03 PDT Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters ever to strike the United States, in terms of casualties, suffering, and financial cost. Often overlooked among Katrina's victims are the 8,000 inmates who were incarcerated at Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) when Katrina struck. Despite a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, these men and women, some of whom had been held on charges as insignificant as public intoxication, remained in the jail as the hurricane hit, and endured days of rising, toxic waters, a lack of food and drinking water, and a complete breakdown of order within OPP. When the inmates were finally evacuated from OPP, they suffered further harm, waiting for days on a highway overpass before being placed in other correctional institutions, where prisoners withstood exposure to the late-summer Louisiana heat and beatings at the hands of guards and other inmates. Finally, even as the prison situation settled down, inmates from the New Orleans criminal justice system were marooned in correctional institutions throughout the state, as the judicial system in New Orleans ceased to function.The resulting effects were both tragic and unconstitutional, as the suffering at OPP could have been prevented. This Article asserts that prison administrators have a constitutional duty to plan for emergencies, and argues that the failures of New Orleans officials to do so violated prisoners' Sixth and Eighth Amendment rights, as well as internationally recognized human rights standards. With the wealth of training and planning materials available to prison officials and the knowledge of possible emergencies, it is unconscionable for prisons to have nonexistent or inadequate plans. Assessing change through litigation and legislation, this Article advocates a mixed approach, using judicial and legislative remedies for the abhorrent violations of well-established prisoners' rights. The Article recommends that states develop mechanisms, such as emergency courts, to enable the administration of justice to resume promptly following serious natural or man-made disasters. Prisons and courts should internalize the lessons of Hurricane Katrina, which demonstrated the consequences of inadequate preparation and planning for prisoners' safety during and after a major emergency. Ira P. Robbins Constitutional Law