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Volume 61, Issue 6


Introduction

Media, Justice, and the Law

by  Jessica Oats

The 2009 Stanford Law Review Symposium, "Media, Justice, and the Law," explores the intersection of media and criminal justice, and examines the ongoing dialogue among legal actors, policymakers, the media, and the American public that informs the opinions and behavior of all participants. The Articles presented in this Issue address media constructions of criminals, crime,…

Article

Investigating the ‘CSI Effect’ Effect

Media and Litigation Crisis in Criminal Law
by  Simon A. Cole & Rachel Dioso-Villa

Since 2002, popular media has been disseminating serious concerns that the integrity of the criminal trial is being compromised by the effects of television drama. This concern has been dubbed the "CSI effect" after the popular franchise Crime Scene Investigation (CSI). Specifically, it was widely alleged that CSI, one of the most watched programs on…

Article

Criminal Madness

Cultural Iconography and Insanity
by  Russell D. Covey

From Euripides to Shakespeare to Hitchcock, criminal madness has played a central role in the most popular and influential media of the day. This is, perhaps, not surprising. Not only is criminal madness an intrinsically powerful melodramatic plot device, it touches upon fundamental social and psychological issues central to cultural conceptions of justice, proper social…

Article

Virtue and Vice

Who Will Report on the Failings of the American Criminal Justice System?
by  William R. Montross, Jr. & Patrick Mulvaney

Above the fold: HUNTSVILLE, Texas—Texas executed [name of inmate or description of inmate as a killer] on [day of week] for [brief description of crime for which inmate was sentenced to death]. “[Final statement of inmate, made from lethal injection gurney],” [name of inmate] said. He was pronounced dead at [time], [number] of minutes after…

Article

Racing the Closet

by  Russell K. Robinson

In the last few years, despite scant empirical support, the media have identified as a primary reason for high HIV rates among black women the phenomenon of black men who live on the "down low" (or DL). Such men are said to maintain primary romantic relationships with women while engaging in secret sexual liaisons with…

Note

Ex Parte Blogging

The Legal Ethics of Supreme Court Advocacy in the Internet Era
by  Rachel C. Lee

Lawyers have been arguing their cases before the Supreme Court for over two centuries, while the phenomenon of legal blogs is perhaps a decade old. Yet legal blogs cannot be dismissed as merely a sideshow novelty—they are already capable of having a substantial impact on Supreme Court litigation. Events surrounding the recent decision in Kennedy…