Death Penalty Jurisprudence in New York and the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution: How Supreme Is It?

This article deals with the treatment of the Supremacy Clause by the New York Court of Appeals in the evolution of its death penalty jurisprudence. It traces the application of the Clause by the Court and its abandonment in its imposition of stronger guarantees under the New York State Constitutio

Real-time futures graph tracking visualization and analysis tool

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 34-35).A hybrid envisionment is a novel representation of a simulated state graph, specifying all possible states and transitions of the system, characterized by both qualitative and quantitative state variables. The Deep Green project creates a hybrid envisionment, called a futures graph, to depict all possible occurrences and outcomes of a combat engagement between friendly and enemy units on a battlefield. During combat, Al state estimation techniques are utilized to efficiently track the state of the battle in a futures graph, giving the commander an up-to-date analysis of what is taking place on the battlefield and how it the battle could turn out. Because state estimation of highly complex hybrid envisionments is a relatively unexplored and novel process, it is important to ensure that it is handled efficiently and accurately enough for usage on the field. This paper explores an approach for discerning the behavior in state estimation through the use of an analysis suite. By accompanying Deep Green state estimation with the analysis suite developed, estimation techniques could be benchmarked and analyzed over various implementations through both numerical and graphical metrics. The metrics generated greatly helped to improve the estimation algorithm over the course of its development.by Joseph M. Fahey.M.Eng

Discretionary Persistent Felony Offender Sentencing In New York: Can it survive Apprendi ?

This article examines the Discretionary Persistent Felony Offender sentencing provision contained in New York Penal law section 70.10 and its vitality in the wake of Apprendi v. New Jersey. It examines the disparity in the controlling New York Court of Appeals cases and the holdings in Apprendi and its progeny. It also discusses ways in which the sentencing court can apply the sentnecing statute and avoid Apprendi pitfalls

Throwing Away The Key: An Examination of New York\u27s Sex Offender Civil Commitment Law

This article examines New York\u27s newly enacted sex offender civil commitment law entitled Sex Offenders Requiring Civil Commitment or Supervision. It examines the statute in detail, commenting on its various statutory and constiutional defeciencies, as well as its potential impact on the New York State Unified Court System

An Overview of Four Traditions on War and Peace in Christian History

This essay examines four traditions on war and peace that have developed in Christian history. They are: Pacifism, Just War, Total War, and World Community.Pacifism characterized the earliest Christians; Just War appeared in the late fourth and fifth centuries; Total War in the eleventh century; and World Community began in the sixteenth century. All four positions continue today and are held by people who sincerely call themselves Christian

Catholic Conscience and Nuclear Weapons

This essay briefly explores the history of Catholic ethics on war and peace. It then discusses Catholic social teaching regarding nuclear weapons, and the movement from conditional acceptance to the position of the unacceptability of even possessing nuclear weapons because they are intrinsically evil. The essay concludes with a discussion of the meaning of this development for policy makers and those who work in the nuclear weapons field as well as for average Catholics

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and Pax Christi USA\u27s Contribution to the 1983 United States Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Letter, The Challenge of Peace: God\u27s Promise and Our Response

This essay is a personal reflection on the contribution that Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and Pax Christi USA made to the creation of the U.S. Bishops’ 1983 pastoral letter on peace. It begins with the early history of Pax Christi USA and discusses activities through the years that led to the U.S. Bishops’ letter on peace in 1983. These activities include: Call to Action 1976; Bishops’ Masses for Peace; the Pax Christi USA Disarmament Commission; a discussion of the debate on May 1-3, 1983 on the letter that resulted in a 238-9 vote in favor of the letter; pastoral letters published by European nations and Japan in 1983; and the impact the letter had on the careers of Bishop John O’Connor and Bishop Thomas Gumbleton. The essay concludes with a reflection on the necessity for global governance

Short of the Goal: New York\u27s Legislation to Compel HIV Testing from Accused Sex Offenders

Short of the Goal: New York\u27s Legislation to Compel HIV Testing from Accused Sex Offenders examines New York\u27s newly enacted legislation allowing for such court ordered testing upon the filing of charges and prior to conviction.Although this legislation was designed to augment and improve the existing legislation which allows it only post-conviction, it contains significant flaws which leave it short of its intended result. This article examines the legislation and its flaws

Quiet Victory: The Professional Identity American Women Forged Through Delsartism

Many American women viewed the “Americanized” version of Delsartism as a means for them to assert a professional identity that was unusual for the Victorian era. The author explores the limitations of current theater scholarship in regard to the complexity of the Delsarte system as a cultural phenomenon, and to argue for its role in encouraging a professional orientation for women. To better understand the support Delsartism lent to the professional aspirations of its female adherents and the backlash those adherents encountered, he considers several key Delsarte training manuals and examines two of the most popular lampoons written to ridicule American Delsartism. The efforts of women to forge a professional identity through Delsartism represent a quiet victory for American women at the turn of the century and an important advance in American theater training

The Elusive Promise: Northern Ireland and the Quest for Peace; An Examination of the Peace Process

The Elusive Promise:Northern Ireland and the Quest for Peace; An Examination of the Peace Process is a comprehensive analysis of the Peace Process, the various institutions, enactments, and court decisions concerning the issues of arms decommissioning, parmilitary groups, and political parties in Northern Ireland from the date of the Good Friday Agreement to December 31, 200