Dismissals As Justice

54 Pages Posted: 12 May 2017 Last revised: 10 Dec 2017

Date Written: November 7, 2017

Abstract

More than a third of our states have given judges a little-known power to dismiss prosecutions, not because of legal or factual insufficiency, but for the sake of justice. Whether phrased as dismissals “in furtherance of justice” or dismissals of de minimis prosecutions, these exercises of judicial power teach two important lessons.

First, judges exercising these dismissals are rebutting the common notion that in the face of over-criminalization and over-incarceration they are powerless to do more than rubber-stamp prosecutorial decision making. In individual cases, they push back against some of the most problematic aspects of our criminal justice system: its size, harshness, and bias.

Second, these cases converge on shared principles of justice. These principles conjure a vision of a very different criminal justice system: one in which an alleged criminal act is viewed not in isolation, but within a broader context that includes the apparent motivations for it, the state’s role in and response to it, and possible responses other than the criminal law. There is no logical reason to confine these principles to this procedural context, and the Article urges their broader consideration.

Keywords: prosecutorial discretion, over-criminalization, over-incarceration, ultima ratio, collateral consequences, motive, clean hands, judicial bias, implicit bias, implicit stereotypes, de minimis, Clayton

JEL Classification: K14, K41

Suggested Citation

Roberts, Anna, Dismissals As Justice (November 7, 2017). 69 Ala. L. Rev. 327 (2017), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2967562

Anna Roberts (Contact Author)

Brooklyn Law School ( email )

250 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
United States

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