Wrongful Convictions, Constitutional Remedies, and \u3ci\u3eNelson v. Colorado\u3c/i\u3e

The end result in Nelson will satisfy nearly everyone’s sense of basic justice, at least insofar as the monetary refund is concerned. Still, the case is interesting not for its outcome but because the Court’s analysis touches on, but fails to fully engage with, subtle and difficult questions of constitutional law. This Article examines three important aspects of the case—outside of the procedural due process balancing question—that receive little, if any, attention in the Court’s opinion. Part I shows that the Court’s procedural due process analysis skips over the logical first step and doctrinally harder question of whether Nelson had a constitutionally protected property interest once Colorado took the money pursuant to her conviction. On this point, Justice Ginsburg seems to set aside the Court’s previously settled doctrine about the nature and source of property protected by the Due Process Clause. Instead, the Court opts for an ad hoc definition of property, perhaps because application of the settled doctrine may have allowed Colorado to keep the money, a result which seven Justices very much wanted to avoid. Part II argues that the Court could have and should have taken a different analytical pathway toward the outcome it reached. In particular, Part II describes a rationale for reversal that would have resulted in return of the money without sowing confusion in Fourteenth Amendment doctrine. This analysis hinges on the rules governing Supreme Court review of state court judgments. Ordinarily, the Court will not examine the state law grounds for a state court’s decision in such cases. An exception to this rule exists, however, for cases in which the relied-upon state law undermines federal rights and lacks fair support in prior state law. The Supreme Court could readily have found that the Colorado court’s interpretation of the Exoneration Act met the requirements of this exception, thus allowing the Court to reverse the lower court’s judgment without relying upon a new and controversial notion of the meaning of property. Part III turns to the Court’s distinction between deprivations of property and liberty. Nelson holds that “[t]o comport with due process, a State may not impose anything more than minimal procedures on the refund of exactions dependent upon a conviction subsequently invalidated.” Some of Justice Ginsburg’s reasoning strongly suggests that there is no due process right to obtain redress for the lost liberty. Yet the Fourteenth Amendment seems to draw no such distinction between liberty and property. It guarantees “due process” when the state deprives a person of “life, liberty, or property.” Part III asks whether there are grounds upon which a backward-looking money-damages remedy can be justified for the deprivation of property alone, or whether the liberty/property distinction is simply an arbitrary one

Nozzle fabrication technique

A block of electrically conductive material which is to be formed into a body with internal and/or external surfaces that approximate hyperboloids of one sheet is placed so that its axis is set at a predetermined skew angle with relation to a traveling EDM electrode wire. The electrode wire is then moved into cutting proximity of the body wire. Thereafter, by revolving the body about its own axis, the external and/or internal surfaces of the body will be cut into an approximate hyperbolic surface of revolution depending upon whether the body is positioned with the cutting wire outside of the body or in a previously formed longitudinal passage in the body. As an alternative technique, elongated channels can also be cut into the wall of the body by successively orienting the body to a selected number of angular positions, with the electrode wire being either outside of the body or in a previously formed passage in the body. At each of these angular positions, the electrode wire is moved orthogonally with respect to the axis of the wire, while both the body axis skew angle and the rotational position about that axis is controlled by cutting a channel or groove in the body to relieve stresses in the body material or to convey a coolant fluid

Can children with speech difficulties process an unfamiliar accent?

This study explores the hypothesis that children identified as having phonological processing problems may have particular difficulty in processing a different accent. Children with speech difficulties (n = 18) were compared with matched controls on four measures of auditory processing. First, an accent auditory lexical decision task was administered. In one condition, the children made lexical decisions about stimuli presented in their own accent (London). In the second condition, the stimuli were spoken in an unfamiliar accent (Glaswegian). The results showed that the children with speech difficulties had a specific deficit on the unfamiliar accent. Performance on the other auditory discrimination tasks revealed additional deficits at lower levels of input processing. The wider clinical implications of the findings are considered

Nozzle fabrication technique

This invention relates to techniques for fabricating hour glass throat or convergent divergent nozzle shapes, and more particularly to new and improved techniques for forming rocket nozzles from electrically conductive material and forming cooling channels in the wall thereof. The concept of positioning a block of electrically conductive material so that its axis is set at a predetermined skew angle with relation to a travelling electron discharge machine electrode and thereafter revolving the body about its own axis to generate a hyperbolic surface of revolution, either internal or external is novel. The method will generate a rocket nozzle which may be provided with cooling channels using the same control and positioning system. The configuration of the cooling channels so produced are unique and novel. Also the method is adaptable to nonmetallic material using analogous cutting tools, such as, water jet, laser, abrasive wire and hot wire

Formulation of continuous/discontinuous Galerkin methods for strain gradient-dependent damage

Continuum damage models are widely used to represent the development of microscopic defects that coalesce into a macroscopic crack. The microscopic defects cause a progressive weakening or softening of the material (damage). Strain gradient-dependent terms have been included in some damage theories to regularize them, and thereby avoid a pathological mesh-dependence in the solution. A strain gradient-dependent damage model is considered here for the simulation of this feature in quasi-brittle materials. In the model considered, the damage parameter depends upon a regularized equivalent strain. The regularization is introduced through a dependency on the Laplacian of an equivalent strain measure. The introduction of the Laplacian of the strain leads to numerical difficulties as the governing differential equations are fourth-order, and additional boundary conditions must be specified. The application of such a model in a standard finite element framework requires $C^1$ continuity of the shape functions. Here, a continuous/discontinuous mixed Galerkin method is presented which avoids the need for high-order continuity. The formulation allows the use of $C^0$ or $C^{-1}$ interpolations for the regularized strain field and a $C^0$ interpolation of the displacement field. Numerical examples are presented to validate the formulation in one and two dimensions. Several interpolations are tested extensively in one dimension in order to provide guidance for the most appropriate formulations in two dimensions. The formulation is applied to crack propagation in a three-point bending test, with the computed result being independent of the discretization

Shock-operated valve would automatically protect fluid systems

Glandless valve shuts down high-pressure fluid systems when severe shock from an explosion or earthquake occurs. The valve uses a pendulum to support the valve closure plug in the open position. When jarred, the valve body is moved relative to the pendulum and the plug support is displaced, allowing the plug to seat and be held by spring pressure

A continuous/discontinuous Galerkin formulation for a strain gradient-dependent damage model: 2D results

The numerical solution of strain gradient-dependent continuum problems has been hindered by continuity demands on the basis functions. The presence of terms in constitutive models which involve gradients of the strain eld means that the $C^0$ continuity of standard nite element shape functions is insu cient. In this work, a continuous/discontinuous Galerkin formulation is developed to solve a strain gradient-dependent damage problem in a rigorous manner. Potential discontinuities in the strain field across element boundaries are incorporated in the weak form of the governing equations. The performance of the formulation is tested in one dimension for various interpolations, which provides guidance for two-dimensional simulations

Apparatus for experimental investigation of aerodynamic radiation with absorption by ablation products

A description is given and calibration procedures are presented for an apparatus that is used to simulate aerodynamic radiant heating during planetary entry. The primary function of the apparatus is to simulate the spectral distribution of shock layer radiation and to determine absorption effects of simulated ablation products which are injected into the stagnation region flow field. An electric arc heater is used to heat gas mixtures that represent the planetary atmospheres of interest. Spectral measurements are made with a vacuum ultraviolet scanning monochromator

Some experience with arc-heater simulation of outer planet entry radiation

An electric arc heater was operated at 800 amperes and 100,000 pa (1 atm) with hydrogen, helium, and two mixtures of hydrogen and helium. A VUV-scanning monochromator was used to record the spectra from an end view while a second spectrometer was used to determine the plasma temperature using hydrogen continuum radiation at 562 nm. Except for pure helium, the plasma temperature was found to be too low to produce significant helium radiation, and the measured spectra were primarily the hydrogen spectra with the highest intensity in the pure hydrogen case. A radiation computer code was used to compute the spectra for comparison to the measurements and to extend the study to simulation of outer planet entry radiation. Conductive cooling prevented ablation of phenolic carbon material samples mounted inside the arc heater during a cursory attempt to produce radiation absorption by ablation gases