The New Era of Administrative Regularization: Controlling Prosecutorial Discretion through the Administrative Procedure Act

Beginning in 1969, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia began developing and installing, with the help of management consultants, a computerized record keeping process that came to be known as the Prosecutor\u27s Management Information System, or PROMIS. I Unlike other federal prosecutors, the U. S. Attorney in the District of Columbia is responsible for prosecuting felonies under local law and shares many of the problems of court backlog and scarcity of resources familiar to local prosecutors in other large cities. PROMIS is a computer data bank in which six kinds of information are collected and correlated with each other for every criminal case litigated by the U. S. Attorney\u27s office. The computer will report information about the defendant (such as aliases, prior arrests and convictions, age, race, sex, and employment status), the crime (such as the amount of violence and property damage, the number of persons accused of working with the defendant, and the date and place of the incident), the arrest (such as the type of arrest and the names of the arresting officers), the offense or offenses charged (such as the charges at arrest, the charges actually placed after initial screening by a prosecutor, and the reasons for any changes), the witnesses (such as name, address, evidentiary value, and assessment of whether there will be problems getting a given witness to testify), and the court history of the case (such as the date and substance of every court event from arraignment to sentencing, the cause of each event, and the names of the prosecutor, defense attorney, and judge involved at each stage). Information about the defendant and the offense of which he is accused is computed through formulae that produce a case priority rating which allows the office to single out certain cases for special attention and provides the basis for detailed supervision, through guidelines, of each Assistant U. S. Attorney\u27s discretion. While PROMIS was being developed, and in conjunction with it, the U. S. Attorney\u27s office put many of its guidelines in the form of a Papering and Screening Manual for its Superior Court Division and Guidelines for First Offender Treatment. Neither the existence nor the contents of these documents was disclosed to the public

Declaratory Judgment - Declaring Rights under the Guise of Granting an Injunction

It has often been held that a party may obtain a judicial determination of his rights in respect to legislation alleged to be invalid, by means of an application to a court of equity for an injunction restraining the enforcement of the statute. Ex parte Young (1907) 209 U. S. 123, is the leading case of this type. There, a railroad rate statute was involved, which required compliance by all railroad companies in the state, under the threat of heavy penalties. The railroad actually violated the provisions of the statute after an injunction had been obtained by a stockholder restraining the company from complying, and prosecution for the violation was prevented by an injunction against the attorney general. The latter injunction, it must be noted, was an effective and appropriate order, because acts of violation were in fact taking place which would otherwise have called forth action by the attorney general. The injunction could not, therefore, be looked upon as anything but a genuinely operative remedy. Truax v. Raich (1915) 239 U. S. 33, Michigan Salt Works v. Baird (1913) 173 Mich. 655, and other like cases, were all similar in this respect. In each, the act for which the prosecution was feared had been committed, and the injunction was employed as a protection against a presently possible prosecution

GI Justice in Vietnam: An Interview with the Lawyers Military Defense Committee

According to Catch-22, they can do anything you cannot stop them from doing. In a war zone, the range of anythings expands to diabolical extremes. The Lawyers Military Defense Committee originated to un-catch Gis snarled in court-martial prosecutions in Vietnam. Their mission has made the attorneys of LMDC about as popular with the U. S. Command as General Giap. Early this year one of LMDC attorneys representing a black GI charged with murder argued that the GI was being deprived due process of law because the U. S. Command prevented the LMDC from operating effectively. Because the command allowed no military telephone lines to the defense group, the attorney claimed, he had to try 233 times to complete just four telephone calls to his military co-counsel in the case. The command also refused to grant the group mail and priority travel privileges. A full-colonel military judge hearing the attorney\u27s claims said he agreed that the GI\u27s right to civilian counsel had been abridged but that\u27s just a fact of life in Vietnam. Since then things have gotten more pleasant for the LMDC. The difficulty of getting justice for servicemen in Vietnam remains. Several members of the group this fall discussed their difficulties and achievements in response to questions by the Yale Review of Law and Social Action. The following is a transcription of their discussion

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE - RIGHT TO EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL

Robbery of a Federal Reserve Bank and jeopardizing lives by the use of dangerous weapons were the charges brought against defendant in a federal district court. Ten months after being taken into custody, he was finally brought to trial. On the latter date, for the first time, the defendant expressed to the court a desire to engage different counsel because of recent difficulties he had had with his original choice. The defendant was the complaining petitioner in a pending disbarment proceeding against his attorney. But the record did not show that the defendant disclosed the nature of those differences to the trial court, nor that the judge made any effort to ascertain what they were. The court refused the request, even though the attorney offered to withdraw. Conviction was followed by the imposition of a thirty-five year sentence. Defendant appealed from an order of the district court denying his unverified petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Held, defendant was not denied the constitutional right to assistance of counsel. McDonald v. Hudspeth, (C. C. A. 10th, 1940) 113 F. ( 2d) 984, certiorari denied (U. S. 1940) 61 S. Ct. 64

Letter, George Arkman to Franklin Dexter, December 4, 1841

This handwritten letter, dated December 4, 1841, is written from George Arkman to Franklin Dexter concerning the postponement of a case and the opportunity it provides for and accurate survey the stream and the works upon it. The letter is signed by Arhman and is addressed to Dexter in the U. S. District Attorney in Boston. A red wax seal is seen on both the front and back of the address page.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-manuscripts-original-manuscripts/1106/thumbnail.jp

The Political Career of James Brown.

James Brown was born in Virginia in 1766, son of the reverend John Brown, a Presbyterian minister. He was educated in his father’s schools and at William and Mary College. Trained for the law, he mowed to Kentucky to be with his brother John. The latter, also a lawyer, was prominent, serving in the U. S. Senate, 1792-1806. President Washington appointed James Brown attorney for Kentucky in 1790. CM admission of Kentucky to statehood, the Governor named Brown secretary of state for a four year term. Brown moved to New Orleans in 1804. Jefferson appointed him successively secretary of the district, Judge of the superior court, and district attorney. With Moreau Lislot, he was delegated by the Legislature to prepare a civil code which ms published in 1808. Elected to the Constitutional Convention of 1811-1812, Brown was active in drafting the constitution. In December, 1812, he was elected to the U. S. Senate, the third man to serve therein from Louisiana. Defeated for re-election by W. C. C. Claiborne, he retired in 1817. Two years later he returned to the Senate and served until he accepted President Monroe’s appointment as Minister to Trance in 1823. He was the first Minister to that country after enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine. Brown tried to settle the spoliation claims but failed. He retained the office under Presidents Adams and Jackson, resigning In June, 1829. On his return, ho lived in Philadelphia, where he died In April, 1836. James Brown’s career was without climax. He worked hard but was unable to do anything to catch Berne\u27 s nod. It was his lot to be overshadowed by his brother-in-law, Henry Clay

A Man for All Reasons: The Uses of Alexis de Tocqueville\u27s Writings in U.S. Judicial Opinions

The United States has never been given to particular adoration of foreign observers of its mores, who quite often turn out to be critics rather than admirers. Nevertheless, one of its favorite visitors since his one and only appearance on the scene in 1831-1832 is the 25-year-old magistrate Alexis de Tocqueville, sent by his government to study penal reform in the new republic. Tocqueville and his good friend Gustave de Beaumont, like young adventurers before and since, took the opportunity to extend their stay, and turned their tour of prisons into a journey through the young nation that furnished the raw material for what readers ever since have considered to be the single most insightful study of the United States ever written. Since the publication of Tocqueville\u27s study, titled De la democratie en Amerique, which appeared in English in 1835, the second volume following in 1840, all manner of students of U. S. society have pored over it, studying it, quoting and misquoting it, and claiming it as support for their varied ideas. Both conservatives and liberals have claimed Tocqueville as a founding father of their thought. But as John Lukacs points out, Tocqueville cannot be so simply categorized. Through all of these evaluations, assessments and hagiographies, commentators sometimes lose sight of the fact that Tocqueville was, by training and choice, an attorney, and what is more, a civil law trained attorney, a magistrate, a member of the Legislative Assembly, a drafter of the Constitution of France\u27s Second Republic and a member of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte\u27s Cabinet. Ultimately, as one student of his thought points out, it may not matter.As a civilian, Tocqueville was trained in a newly formed legal regime. As an attorney practicing within a code enacted only a year before his birth, he had a vital interest in determining how such new codes could be integrated into existing social, political, and legal environments. His interest in the new republic across the ocean, which was engaged in a similar experiment, was at once philosophical and practical. Thus, what use U. S. judges have made of his words in their own opinions is certainly of interest

Floyd J. Mattice, Tokyo War Crimes Trial Scrapbook

Floyd Julius “Jack” Mattice (1882-1970) served as an American Associate Counsel at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials (officially known as the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.) Specifically, Mattice was counsel for defendants Seishiro Itagaki and Iwane Matsui. Born in New York and raised in the Lima, Ohio area, Mattice moved to Rochester, Indiana in 1901. He read law in his Grandfather’s law office before enrolling at the University of Michigan School of Law, where he graduated in 1905. After law school Mattice began a legal career that spanned fifty years. Besides practicing law, Mattice held a variety of positions in public service and government, including Fulton County Prosecutor; Chief Deputy Prosecutor for Marion County; Indianapolis City Attorney; U. S. District Attorney in Indianapolis; Instructor of criminal law at the Indiana Law School; Special Agent for the U. S. Bureau of Investigation; Counsel for the U. S. States House of Representatives Select Committee on Lobbying; and Prosecutor of U. S. War Frauds. (Source: Rochester News-Sentinel, Dec. 30, 1970) This digitized scrapbook is believed to have been compiled by Mattice’s secretary while he served in Japan. Dated documents range from 1946 to 1950. It eventually became the property of his granddaughter, Linda M. Prall of Bloomington, Indiana. Ms. Prall presented the scrapbook to the Jerome Hall Law Library in July of 2015. The scrapbook contains both personal and professional papers documenting Mattice’s time in Japan. These materials were glued and taped into the scrapbook. In addition several documents were found loose within the pages of the scrapbook. Images were digitized, whenever possible, in the order they were found in the scrapbook. Among the contents of the scrapbook are official orders; memorandums; newspaper clippings; photographs; souvenirs; maps; telegraphs; and handwritten personal letters to Mattice. Additionally, the scrapbook contains several typed manuscripts, assumed to have been written by Mattice, and a three page handwritten Japanese character manuscript. The typed manuscripts include the following: - Typed manuscript entitled, “The Japanese People. - Typed manuscript entitled, “Causes of the Pacific War,” dated July 16, 1946.- Typed manuscript entitled, “International Military Tribunal for the Far East.”- Typed manuscript entitled, “Observations While Riding around Tokyo in a Jeep.”- Typed manuscript entitled, “Observations anent Japan,” dated July 11, 1946.- Typed manuscript entitled, “A Japanese Director’s Meeting,” dated July 12, 1946.- Typed manuscript entitled, “Small World,” dated July 12, 1946.- Typed manuscript entitled, “A Weekend in Tokyo,” dated July 15, 1946. The scrapbook measures 14” x 10.75” and contains twenty-five leaves. Documents are adhered to both front and back of each leaf. The book is bound between two red cover boards with ribbons holding the boards in place. A three dimensional origami figure is on the cover.https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/histdocs/1008/thumbnail.jp