Toward Closing the Achievement Gap: A One-Year Progress Report on Education Reform in Massachusetts

Highlights early outcomes of school reform efforts launched under a new state law with support from the Race to the Top program, including progress in turnaround schools, charter schools, and innovation schools. Outlines challenges and recommendations

The Pinkerton Doctrine and Murder

[Excerpt] Suppose that A hires B to rob a bank in Massachusetts and A then hires C to rob a bank in Rhode Island. B and C have not met face to face, but each knows he is part of a conspiracy to rob banks in more than one state. All agree that no one will be killed in the robberies. A then procures D to get a car for use in the robberies. B uses D’s car to rob his bank. During the robbery of C’s bank, C pulls out a gun and shoots and kills the bank guard. Clearly, A, B, C, and D are all guilty of conspiracy to rob banks, the act to which they agreed. Clearly too, A, B, C, and D are not guilty of conspiracy to murder, because they never agreed to kill anyone. C, however, is guilty of murder, since he intentionally killed the bank guard without justification or excuse. But can A, B, and D also be charged with this murder? There are, of course, several ways in which one person may be guilty of a murder committed by another person. One is by the felony-murder rule, which historically has meant that one is guilty of murder if, in the course of committing a felony, one causes the death of another person. In this example, if the felony-murder rule applies, A, B, and D could be guilty of felony murder of the bank guard – a murder committed by their cofelon, C. But if the felony-murder rule is not applicable, either because the state has rejected the rule, as most commentators have long been urging states to do, or because the state legislature has defined felony murder as second degree murder and the prosecution wants to convict A, B, and D, as well as C of first degree murder of the guard, is there another basis for finding A, B, and D guilty? The doctrine of complicity, also known as aiding and abetting, is, of course, another way to make a person guilty of a murder committed by someone else. But would A, B, and D be guilty of murder of the bank guard on an aiding and abetting theory in this instance? On mens rea grounds, A, B, and D intended at most to encourage a robbery by C. In Model Penal Code terms, that was their purpose or “conscious objective.” But their purpose was not to encourage C to kill anyone. They had expressly agreed that no one would be killed. They did not know that C would kill during the robbery. If aiding and abetting requires a purpose to facilitate the particular crime at issue, A, B, and D would not be guilty of murder of the bank guard by aiding and abetting. On actus reus grounds, there also would be a problem with complicity. A did hire C to rob the bank. He did actively set in motion the crime which resulted in the killing of the guard. But what did B and D really do to assist or encourage the robbery by C, much less C’s murder of the guard? All they did was to agree to be part of a larger conspiracy to rob banks. One could argue that they never facilitated C’s specific robbery, and that they did nothing to facilitate his killing of the guard. There is, however, an alternative way in which A, B, and D can be convicted of C’s murder of the guard. If the court finds that A, B, C, and D were in a conspiracy to rob the banks, and if C committed murder in furtherance of that conspiracy, then A, B, and D are all also guilty of murder, as long as they could reasonably have foreseen that such an event would occur in the course of their conspiracy. They could all be guilty of first degree murder, even though A, B, and D never met the bank guard, never assisted or encouraged C to kill him, never wanted C to kill him or knew C would kill him, and never even visited the bank or entered the state in which the bank was located! The rule by which this result is reached, called the Pinkerton rule, is one of the most controversial doctrines in modern criminal law. Broadly stated, the rule is that “any conspirator in a continuing conspiracy is responsible for the illegal acts committed by his cohorts in furtherance of the conspiracy, within the scope of the conspiracy, and reasonably foreseeable by the conspirators as a necessary or natural consequence of the unlawful agreement.” This rule permits conviction of a crime that the accused did not intend, plan, want, or even know about, committed against a victim whom the defendant did not know or want to harm. The rule applies throughout the life of the conspiracy to all who originally agreed to join the conspiracy, unless the defendant overtly acted to disavow and/or defeat the conspiracy. The Pinkerton rule “is not universally followed.” It is rejected in the Model Penal Code. Many state courts have interpreted their statutes to require more than membership in a conspiracy for complicity in substantive crimes committed in the course of that conspiracy. Commentary on Pinkerton in the academic world, much like commentary on felony murder and on conspiracy in general, is overwhelmingly negative. On the contrary, this article argues that the Pinkerton doctrine, far from being an aberration, is rather more an illustration of our existing criminal law and of some of the important theoretical assumptions behind it. [...

Reporting rates of assaults on licensed premises by licensed premises staff: 2012-2013

There is no evidence licensed premises are systematically concealing assaults in a bid to avoid losing their liquor license or to avoid having restrictions imposed on their trading hours, according to this report. Aim To determine whether there has been any change in the rate of reporting of assaults on licensed premises by staff in 2012-2013 in both the top 100 and unranked licensed premises for assaults. This paper also briefly examines the characteristics of both offenders and victims of assaults on licensed premises. Method A random sample of 800 assaults (400 from top 100 premises and 400 from unranked premises) from January 2012 to December 2013 were tabulated and coded for relevant information. SPSS was then used to determine proportions of victims and offenders in various categories and any trends in reporting. Trend tests were carried out using χ2. Results There was no statistically significant trend in the proportion of reports of assaults emanating from staff on licensed premises

L-Arabinose Isomerase Formation in a Conditional Mutant of Gene \u3cem\u3earaA\u3c/em\u3e of \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e B/r

A temperature-sensitive mutant of Escherichia coli in which the synthesis of l-arabinose isomerase is blocked during growth at 42 C was found to possess the following properties. (i) The mutation occurred in the structural gene for the isomerase, gene araA. (ii) During growth at elevated temperatures the mutant accumulates a product which is a precursor to the active enzyme. (iii) The precursor produced at 42 C is slowly converted to active enzyme at 28 C in the absence of protein and ribonucleic acid synthesis. It is concluded that the mutation results in a change in the structure of isomerase which causes formation of active enzyme to be thermolabile at a step beyond the level of translation

Re-offending in NSW

Overview Aim: To provide an overview of adult and juvenile re-offending over the last 10 years in New South Wales (NSW). Method: Descriptive analysis of data from the NSW Re-offending Database (ROD). Results and conclusion: Most offenders convicted in the NSW criminal courts were reconvicted of a further offence within 10 years of their offence, and this was especially so for juveniles and Indigenous offenders. Those reconvicted tended to be reconvicted for a variety of offences

Disciplinary Differences, Rhetorical Resonances: Graduate Writing Groups Beyond the Humanities

When we first established graduate student writing groups across the curriculum at Ohio University in the summer of 2003, we had several goals and outcomes in mind. Initially, we understood the usefulness of these groups as outreach projects to students and faculty in disciplines outside of English and the humanities–in other words, departments that are not always closely affiliated with our writing center. Second, we had a strong desire to help frustrated and often very lonely graduate research writers gain a greater sense of control and authority over their professional projects. Through our work with graduate students across the curriculum, each of us had noticed the gap in our current system of education where, as Carrie Shively describes, “expertise has been formally separated into domain knowledge and rhetorical knowledge. As a consequence, novices may have access to domain knowledge without access to rhetorical knowledge” (56). Given this separation between domain knowledge and rhetorical knowledge, we realized that graduate student writing groups could serve to bridge this gap between the conventions of discourse that are specific to each discipline and the conventions of writing that exist across different disciplines.University Writing Cente

The Effect of Interest-Rate Movements on Real Estate Investment Trusts

The rising interest-rate environment in early 1994 in the United States raised questions by investors as to how REITs will react to interest-rate movements. This study analyzes the movement of REIT price changes during past interest-rate cycles. The results indicate that REIT price movements have a low correlation with changes in interest rates and a lower correlation with interest rates than with movements in the stock market as a whole. The findings lead to a call for research into other areas in order to ascertain the determinants of REIT price movement.

Effect of Tryptophan Analogs on Derepression of the \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e Tryptophan Operon by Indole-3-Propionic Acid

The abilities of 14 tryptophan analogs to repress the tryptophan (trp) operon have been studied in Escherichia coli cells derepressed by incubation with 0.25 mM indole-3-propionic acid (IPA). trp operon expression was monitored by measuring the specific activities of anthranilate synthase (EC 4.1.3.27) and the tryptophan synthase (EC 4.2.1.20) β subunit. Analogs characterized by modification or removal of the α-amino group or the α-carboxyl group did not repress the trp operon. The only analogs among this group that appeared to interact with the trp aporepressor were IPA, which derepressed the trp operon, and d-tryptophan. Analogs with modifications of the indole ring repressed the trp operon to various degrees. 7-Methyl-tryptophan inhibited anthranilate synthase activity and consequently derepressed the trp operon. Additionally, 7-methyltryptophan prevented IPA-mediated derepression but, unlike tryptophan, did so in a non-coordinate manner, with the later enzymes of the operon being relatively more repressed than the early enzymes. The effect of 7-methyltryptophan on IPA-mediated derepression was likely not due to the interaction of IPA with the allosteric site of anthranilate synthase, even though feedback-resistant mutants of anthranilate synthase were partially resistant to derepression by IPA. The effect of 7-methyltryptophan on derepression by IPA was probably due to the effect of the analog-aporepressor complex on trp operon expression

Asphalt Specifications for Local Paving Projects

Proper asphalt specification and design is paramount to an economical and long-lasting road. In 2017, INDOT significantly revised their specifications to achieve higher durability asphalt pavements. As a local public agency or transportation designer, how do those changes affect you as you specify mixes for city and county roads and commercial sites? This session will cover the fundamentals of selecting the right mix designs for your project