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Post-Conviction Release and Defacto Double Jeopardy: Making the Case for Felons as a Quasi-Suspect Class Due to the Collateral Consequences of a Felony Conviction
Full text linkFelons are a prime example of a sub-class of individuals that, once convicted in a court of law, are classified, punished, stigmatized, stripped of their rights as American citizens, and discriminated against. Could this be a form of De Facto double jeopardy? While felons are not literally subjected to a second trial within the judicial system for the same offense, felons face a pseudo trial with society, as its jury, upon re-entry into society, based on the continual discrimination for crimes they have already served time for. The enactment of discriminatory laws against felons dehumanizes the individual by discarding their rights as citizens and encourages, perpetuates, and condones such a societal trial upon their re-entry into society from which these individuals need protection, not more punishment
Professor Robert Abrams
No full textPUBLICATIONS:
Brief of Amici Curiae Law Professors in Support of Defendants, Mississippi v. Tennessee, 135 S. Ct. 2916 (2021) (No. 143). Professor Abrams was a co-author of the amicus curiae brief.
Robert Abrams, The AFC Water Wars Final Episode: Is Florida Entitled to Greater Flow in the Apalachicola River?, PRVIEW U.S. SUP. CT. CAS. 8 (2021).https://commons.law.famu.edu/homepage-images/1005/thumbnail.jp
The ACF Water Wars Final Episode: Is Florida Entitled to Greater Flow in the Apalachicola River?
Full text linkThis case marks the second trip to the Supreme Court for Florida’s equitable apportionment case seeking to obtain greater flows into Apalachicola Bay, the estuary of the ApalachicolaChattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin. In a 2018 decision, the Supreme Court reviewed a report of then-Special Master Ralph Lancaster recommending that the Court deny relief to Florida because of the Court’s inability to provide relief without having the Army Corps of Engineers as a party to the litigation. At that time, a 5–4 majority ruled that the Special Master had applied too demanding a standard of proof to the issues surrounding redressability and balance of the equities. The case was remanded with instructions calling for a revised standard and for making additional fact-findings requisite for application of the Court’s equitable apportionment jurisprudence. See 138 S. Ct. 2502, 2512–17 (2018). Subsequently, Paul Kelly Jr., a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals judge, was appointed Special Master for the current phase of the case. Special Master Kelly’s report was succinct in its conclusions: I do not recommend that the Supreme Court grant Florida’s request for a decree equitably apportioning the waters of the ACF Basin because the evidence has not shown harm to Florida caused by Georgia; the evidence has shown that Georgia’s water use is reasonable; and the evidence has not shown that the benefits of apportionment would substantially outweigh the potential harms. (Report of the Special Master, December 11, 2019, at 81.) Florida took exception to the fact-finding and conclusions of the Special Master
Historically Black Colleges & Universities: A Model for American Education
Full text linkHungry for freedom and knowledge, enslaved Blacks engaged in a massive general strike against slavery by transferring their labor from the Confederate planter to the Northern invader, and this decided the Civil War. In 1865, the North conquered the South, and slavery officially ended. Having been starved of the opportunity to learn to read or write, the recently emancipated Blacks were eager to learn. Within a year after slavery ended, however, Florida and other Southern states enacted laws to ensure the continuation of the vestiges of slavery in the United States. The legacy of slavery and racism evolved into an equally insidious system by controlling opportunities available to Blacks. Although the South seemed to guide the construction of the development of this new system to control Blacks, the North was complicit as well. This legacy was particularly evident in education. Even after slavery, white-dominated political bodies enacted laws to prevent or interfere with the opportunities for Blacks to obtain an education. White obstruction to Black education existed at all levels, including in higher education. Driven to learn, newly freed Blacks, often with the help of others, founded their own higher educational institutions, which are now called historically Black colleges and universities. From their inception to the present, these schools have embraced educating all who knocked on their doors, including whites, without regard to race or color. This should be modeled in American education where race and color continue to slam doors to Black education
Traffickers\u27 F ing Behavior During a Pandemic: Why Pandemic Online Behavior has Heightened the Urgency to Prevent Traffickers from Finding, Friending, and Facilitating the Exploitation of Youth via Social Media
Full text linkDuring the trans-Atlantic slave trade, millions of native Africans were tricked into slavery. Today trans-continental deception continues, ensnaring victims from every corner of the world, many of whom are vulnerable children deceived and enslaved through violence and abuse. Ranked as the second most prevalent criminal enterprise, human trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar enterprise in the United States and across the world, with many of the victims recruited, solicited and exploited via social media. The correlation between this social media exploitation and the use of technology during the 2020 pandemic (hereinafter referred to as Pandemic Online Behavior or POB ) highlights the need for action to mitigate the number of child trafficking victims
Introduction to Law Librarianship
No full textThough law librarians have been acknowledged as instrumental in legal education and law practice, questions about the need for law librarians and law librarians’ ability to adapt to new demands of conducting and teaching legal research have been raised. Law librarianship also faces debates as to whether it should be considered a distinct profession by those who do not see law librarians as having specialized qualifications that set them apart from other librarians. This chapter will discuss the need for law librarians to advocate for their professions so they can show how they are needed in legal education and by society and they are distinct from other librarians as legal professionals to ensure that they can effectively advocate for themselves and their patrons on a variety of issues.https://commons.law.famu.edu/faculty-books/1048/thumbnail.jp
Does the Doctrine of Equitable Apportionment Apply to Conflicts between States over Groundwater Resources When Such Resources Are Derived from an Aquifer That Lies beneath More than One State?
Full text linkThe Middle Claiborne Aquifer is a large sand formation that contains groundwater within its sand’s porous spaces. The Aquifer spans beneath Mississippi, Tennessee, and at least six other neighboring states. Since 1886, the City of Memphis has withdrawn water from the aquifer to supply drinking water. Memphis also has withdrawn water for irrigation and industrial purposes. Due to increased water pumping, water levels in the aquifer have dropped, lowering the piezometric head (water pressure) in different locations, including between the two states’ borders. In 2005, Mississippi filed suit against the City of Memphis and the Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division (MLGW) on territorial property rights theory, claiming that the city and MLGW were stealing Mississippi’s groundwater resources. The District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi dismissed the case on a procedural ground. Mississippi subsequently filed a new complaint within the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction, this time including Tennessee. Mississippi is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief as well as more than $600 million in damages for conversion of the groundwater. Mississippi argues its territorial property rights are being invaded. The suit explicitly disclaims reliance on equitable apportionment, which is the typical remedy supplied by the Supreme Court for disputes between states involving interstate water resources. The Court appointed a Special Master who found that the water of the aquifer was not “owned” by Mississippi and was, instead, an interstate resource subject to equitable apportionment. Both states objected to aspects of the Special Master’s Report
Cases and Materials on Combating Racism in Criminal Procedure
No full textCases and Materials on Combating Racism in Criminal Procedure addresses the emerging national concern over the unwanted, but often ignored, role of race in American criminal justice. Legal scholars have long noted that race plays a role in how our criminal process works. However, no previous casebook has systematically traced the role that race has played at each major stage of the criminal process, while noting analytical and practical strategies that have been used to minimize race’s influence. The purpose of this work is not simply to acknowledge and accept the presence of race in our criminal courts, but to actually provide tools — both conceptual and practical — for counteracting its influence.
The timing for addressing this hole in legal education is now. The recent attention that has been drawn to racially disproportionate mass incarceration, wrongful convictions, and violent interactions with law enforcement, make it imperative that our legal educational system produce persons trained in the law to bring about positive, transformative change. On July 14, 2015 President Barack Obama, in a historic and unique statement for a United States President, declared that the American criminal justice system is particularly skewed by race and wealth. Across the country there is a growing realization that racial injustice in the criminal process cannot continue.https://commons.law.famu.edu/faculty-books/1046/thumbnail.jp
Am I Angry? You Bet I Am! Watching the George Floyd Murder Trial
Full text linkWe have come a mighty long way in our criminal justice system. We have gone from a period of time when people of African descent were not considered humans and were deliberately excluded from serving on jury panels to seeing Black judges, defense attorneys and prosecuting attorneys taking part in selecting more diverse juries. Progress has been made, but how far have we really journeyed, and are the vestiges of racial animus and discrimination from the Jim Crow era truly eradicated? One need not look further than the current criminal trial we are witnessing of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, to see that the answer is an unequivocal and resounding, no