Studying Wrongful Convictions: Learning from Social Science

There has been an explosion of legal scholarship on wrongful convictions in the last decade, reflecting a growing concern about the problem of actual innocence in the criminal justice system. Yet criminal law and procedure scholars have engaged in relatively little dialogue or collaboration on this topic with criminologists. In this article, we use the empirical study of wrongful convictions to illustrate what criminological approaches—or, more broadly, social science methods—can teach legal scholars. After briefly examining the history of wrongful conviction scholarship, we discuss the limits of the (primarily) narrative methodology of legal scholarship on wrongful convictions. We argue that social scientific methods allow for more precise and accurate depictions of the multifactorial and complex nature of causation in wrongful conviction cases. In the main body of this article, we discuss and illustrate several social science approaches to the study of wrongful conviction: aggregated case studies, matched comparison samples, and path analysis. We argue these methods would help criminal law and procedure scholars to better understand the causes, characteristics, and consequences of wrongful convictions than a purely narrative approach. Finally, we offer concluding thoughts about improving the dialogue between criminal law and criminology on the subject of wrongful conviction

Phytoplankton species composition and abundance in a Gulf Stream warm core ring. I. Changes over a five month period

During the spring and summer of 1982, Gulf Stream warm core ring (WCR) 82B was sampled during four cruises from April to August to investigate the changes in the phytoplankton flora with time. Discrete water samples from 28 stations were collected for identification and enumeration of phytoplankton. The spring increase in WCR 828 occurred from late April to mid-May and was multiphasic; early periods were dominated by the diatoms Minidiscus trioculatus (4–5 μm diam.) and a small Thalassiosira, possibly T. bulbosa, while later periods were dominated by a small (2–3 μm) biflagellate. In June, another diatom concentration was detected at ring center, but this one was dominated by Chaetoceros cf. vixvisibilis and Leptocylindrus danicus. After interactions with and overwashes by the Gulf Stream and Slope Water in July, diatom numbers in the surface waters of the ring in August were greatly reduced relative to June, and no single species dominated. Changes in phytoplankton abundance in the ring core occurred on different time sequences from changes in the surrounding Slope Water or in the source water, the Sargasso Sea. The dominant taxa in the ring changed rapidly, on time scales of 1.5 months or less (intercruise time period). Successional changes were more important in altering the phytoplankton composition during the first two cruises, while sequential changes characterized the end of the study period. The ring center showed dramatic differences from its source water just 2 months after ring formation but remained distinct from the Slope Water for 4–5 months

Phytoplankton species composition and abundance in a Gulf Stream warm core ring. II. Distributional patterns

During the spring and summer of 1982, Gulf Stream warm core ring (WCR) 82B was sampled during four cruises from April to August to investigate phytoplankton distributional patterns. Discrete water samples from 28 stations were collected for identification and enumeration of phytoplankton. In April, when the water column was well mixed to 350 m, quantitative samples clustered by station when the 100 most frequently observed taxa were used as variables, indicating fairly unique assemblages at each station that were consistent with depth. Two transects across the ring in June showed a symmetrical diatom abundance maximum, dominated by Chaetoceros cf. vixvisibilis (maximum abundance 31,900 cells l–1) and Leptocylindrus danicus (maximum abundance 21,000 cells l–1), situated in the surface water at ring center. Dinoflagellate and coccolithophorid maxima were situated slightly deeper than the diatom maximum, in the seasonal thermocline from 20 to 35 m. A biomass maximum observed in a Shelf Water entrainment feature wrapping around the eastern perimeter of the ring contained elevated numbers of coccolithophorids and coccoid, unicellular monads (1–3 μm in diameter) and was thus compositionally distinct from the ring center biomass maximum. In July and August the ring underwent numerous interactions with and overwashes by the Slope Water and Gulf Stream. August samples from the ring, Sargasso Sea, Gulf Stream, and Slope Water all contained similar taxa and abundances. Different phytoplankton groups may be responding to different nutrient input mechanisms at the ring edge and center. Diatom maxima at ring center may form as a result of pulsed nutrient input from storms and a slight upwelling due to the gradual relaxation of the thermocline as the ring ages, while concentrations of ultraplanktonic algae (monads, coccolithophorids) toward the ring margin may result from near steady-state nutrient input along sloping isopycnals and/or advection from the ring exterior

Spear-throwers

42 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 40-42)

Controlling structural transitions in AuAg nanoparticles through precise compositional design

We present a study of the transitional pathways between highsymmetry structural motifs for AgAu nanoparticles, with a specific focus on controlling the energetic barriers through chemical design. We show that the barriers can be altered by careful control of the elemental composition and chemical arrangement, with core@shell and vertex-decorated arrangements being specifically influential on the barrier heights. We also highlight the complexity of the potential and free energy landscapes for systems where there are low-symmetry geometric motifs that are energetically competitive to the high-symmetry arrangements. In particular, we highlight that some core@shell arrangements preferentially transition through multistep restructuring of lowsymmetry truncated octahedra and rosette-icosahedra, instead of via the more straightforward square-diamond transformations, due to lower energy barriers and competitive energetic minima. Our results have promising implications for the continuing efforts in bespoke nanoparticle design for catalytic and plasmonic applications

Stone artifacts

9 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 9).Tula adze blades -- Knives (yutchawunta) -- Endscrapers (kalara) -- Hammerstones (coolkie) -- Pirris