Criminal Appeals Symposium: New Issue of Marquette Law Review Hits Newstands

Congratulations to the editors of the Marquette Law Review on the publication of a new issue.  This issue features papers presented at the Criminal Appeals Conference here in June 2009.  All of the articles can be downloaded from the Law Review‘s website.  Here are the contents:

  • Criminal Appeals: Past, Present, and Future , by Chad M. Oldfather and Michael M. O’Hear
  • Stories of Crimes, Trials, and Appeals in Civil War Era Missouri, Frank O. Bowman III
  • Scottsboro, by Michael J. Klarman
  • A Fair Trial, Not a Perfect One: The Early Twentieth-Century Campaign for the Harmless Error Rule, by Roger A. Fairfax Jr.
  • Justice on Appeal in Criminal Cases: A Twentieth-Century Perspective, by Paul D. Carrington
  • The Impact of Government Appellate Strategies on the Development of Criminal Law, by Andrew Hessick
  • Death Penalty Appeals and Habeas Proceedings: The California Experience, by Gerald F. Uelmen
  • Taking Strickland Claims Seriously, by Stephen F. Smith
  • “You Can’t Get There From Here?”: Ineffective Assistance Claims in Federal Circuit Courts After AEDPA, by Gregory J. O’Meara S.J.
  • Innocence Protection in the Appellate Process, by Keith A. Findley
  • Judicial Blindness to Eyewitness Misidentification, by Sandra Guerra Thompson
  • Robust Appellate Review of Sentences: Just How British Is Indiana?, by The Honorable Randall T. Shepard
  • The Future of Appellate Sentencing Review: Booker in the States, by John F. Pfaff
  • Appellate Review of Sentencing Policy Decisions After Kimbrough, by Carissa Byrne Hessick
  • Appellate Review of Sentence Explanations: Learning from the Wisconsin and Federal Experiences, by Michael M. O’Hear
  • Context and Compliance: A Comparison of State Supreme Courts and the Circuits, by Sara C. Benesh and Wendy L. Martinek
  • Federal Criminal Appeals: A Brief Empirical Perspective, by Michael Heise
  • Temporary Victims: Interpreting the Federal Fraud and Theft Sentencing Guideline, by Ryan N. Parsons
  • Congressional Legislation: The Next Step for Corporate Deferred Prosecution Agreements, by Rachel Delaney
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Seventh Circuit Cleans Up the “Other Bad Acts” Mess (a Little)

I’ve blogged on a number of occasions about the messy state of the law relating to the admissibility of “other bad acts” evidence (e.g., here and here).  Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) indicates that other bad acts may not be used against a criminal defendant to show bad character or a propensity to commit crime.  However, the Rule includes a number of exceptions, and courts have not only tended to interpret those exceptions expansively, but have also recognized an additional exception for evidence that is “inextricably intertwined” with proof of a charged offense.

Given the expansively interpreted exceptions set forth in Rule 404(b) itself, the inextricable intertwinement exception seemed to me an unnecessary and confusing addition to the law.  The Seventh Circuit has now indicated its agreement with that view.  

Continue ReadingSeventh Circuit Cleans Up the “Other Bad Acts” Mess (a Little)