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"The Crime Factory: Process, Pretext, and Criminal Justice"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this very interesting article by Professor Erin Murphy available through SSRN.  Here is the abstract: What do Bill Clinton, Roger Clemens, Martha Stewart and L'il Kim have in common? How about adding Marion Jones, Barry Bonds, Kwame Kilpatrick, Frank Quattrone, Donald Siegelman, and Lewis Libby?  The list of notable names could go on, each sharing a particular characteristic in common.  All have been accused of a "process crime" -- an offense not against a particular person or property, but against the machinery of justice itself. Process crimes have a long and storied history in the American criminal justice system. Familiar variations of such offenses include perjury, obstruction of justice, and contempt; more recent iterations materialize as violations of court orders or failures to appear...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).