NCJ Number
171964
Journal
Florida Law Review Volume: 48 Issue: 5 Dated: (December 1996) Pages: 743-759
Date Published
1996
Length
17 pages
Annotation
The author argues that the U.S. Supreme Court is unfairly oriented toward the prosecution but that only some asymmetries in the court's jurisprudence are unfair.
Abstract
The prosecution-oriented focus of the court is analyzed in relation to defendant expectations of privacy, juror bias, plea bargaining, conflicts of interest, and attorney misconduct during discovery. In addition, the impact of the court's tendency to favor the prosecution on State constitutional law is discussed. The author concludes that only certain features of the court's jurisprudence are unfair. The problem is that the court is willing to find for the prosecution even when doing so requires it to be unjustifiably inconsistent. To the extent the court's unfairness becomes common knowledge, its credibility with the general public may be damaged. 103 footnotes