April 15, 2016

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Friday 4/15, I collected the Warren case briefs,and we went over the brief. I plan to grade them this weekend and return them on Monday. I also distributed my version of the case brief. We then resumed out discussion of dictum, and the Butler case. I discussed the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Harris v. New York, and we went through the votes of the six Justices who heard both cases (Miranda and Harris) as well as the three Justices who were new to the Court. We saw how none of the six Justices would have agreed with a rule that imposed Miranda exclusion for purposes of the case in chief, but not for purposes of impeachment. We will finish our Butler discussion on Monday. The assignment for Monday 4/18 is to review Butler and to read in the text through p. 110 (Dempsey).


POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Friday 4/15, I distributed one handout, a chronicle of the Scottsboro Boys cases, and the place of Powell v. Alabama in that history. We finished up our discussion of Nightingale, going over the Seibert two-step, and the lies my policeman told me. The assignment for Monday 4/18 is to review Powell v. Alabama, and to read today's handout regarding the rest of that case's story.