2011 Conference Program (PDF) - Syracuse University College of Law

identification techniques. What would a good criminal defense attorney in Max's shoes,
or a good prosecutor in Buckley's shoes, do today in the trial of a contemporary Bigger
Thomas
John E. Stannard
Godly Jealousy, Righteous Anger and Loss of Self-Control
The focus of this paper is the perceived boundary between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ emotions,
and the way in which it is reflected in the common law defence of loss of self-control in
cases of murder. Jealousy and anger are now often seen in negative terms, but this
contrasts with an older notion seen in the Bible and other literature, whereby such
emotions can be both righteous and justified. Similarly, modern English law no longer
allows the defendant in a murder case to rely on loss of self-control triggered by sexual
infidelity, in contrast to the traditional doctrine where the finding of a wife in adultery
was one of the few factors, short of a physical attack, that would allow the defence to be
raised. The paper seeks to explore the parallels between these two developments, the aim
being to cast light on the broader relationship between emotion and criminal culpability.
Andrea Stone
‘The Ignominious Cord’: Executing the Enemy in 18th-Century African American Print
The 1797 “Address of Abraham Johnstone, A Black Man, Who Was Hanged at
Woodbury…New Jersey” implicitly questions the distinction between ‘enemy’ and
‘criminal,’ which the new government was meant to secure; it fashions the narrator as
simultaneously both and neither. From the confines of prison on the eve of his execution
for murder, Johnstone hybridizes the popular print genres of the execution sermon and
criminal’s dying words and casts the republic as a (necro)political order — its subjects as
much in bondage as when under imperial governance. More than a critique of republican
ideals and an exhortation undermining U.S. institutions of government, law, and slavery,
Johnstone’s work is also — if not more — a project of construction, of community and
self-creation, just as he is about to die. The paper explores the relation between print
representations of wrongful prosecution, actual execution, and the project of belonging
and becoming.
5.1 Leaving Arizona: Human Smuggling, Border Walls, and SB 1070. How Arizona is leaving human
rights behind and why the boycott of Arizona will not stop
Nicholas Daniel Natividad
Violence to the spirit: border walls and the separation of people
On June 12, 1987 United States President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at the
Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Germany. The speech was aimed to bring attention to
the divisive nature of the Berlin Wall. President Reagan’s speech referenced the human
rights violations the wall created for all humans who have the “right to travel.” He
described how the checkpoints, armed guards, barbed wire, and closed gates questioned
“freedom for all mankind” and therefore the wall is a clear indication of “the will of a
totalitarian state.” On October 26, 2006 United States President George W. Bush signed
the Secure Fence Act approving construction of a 700-mile border fence to be built along
the U.S.-Mexico border. Bush stated during the signing “the bill will help protect the
American people…we are the modernizing the southern border of the U.S.” This
presentation examines the racialized history of U.S. immigration laws and its relation to
current political ideological propaganda and justification for border walls, immigration
laws, and imprisonment of undocumented workers in Arizona. It seeks to uncover how
Arizona has become a racist and totalitarian state.
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