Publications: Essays - Legal

Year	Title	Author(s)	Publisher	Issue	Description
2020	2003 Chicago Murders: 140 Death Eligible Murders in Cook County, Illinois in 2003	Leigh B. Bienen	2003 Chicago Murders website	N/A	This is a snapshot of a bureaucracy. The website is a compendium of numbers, system identifiers, dates and other information regarding 140 death eligible murders in Cook County, all cases where an indictment for murder, a true bill, was returned during the period January 1, 2003 to June 30, 2003.
2010	Capital Punishment in Illinois in the Aftermath of the Ryan Commutations: Reforms, Economic Realities, and a New Saliency for Issues of Cost	Leigh B. Bienen	Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology	Vol. 100, Issue 4 (Fall), Article 2	In 2000 when Governor George Ryan unilaterally imposed a statewide moratorium on executions in Illinois, in response to accumulating evidence of more than a dozen wrongfully convicted persons on death row in Illinois.. [read more]
2008	Anomalies: Ritual and Language in Lethal Injection Regulations	Leigh B. Bienen	Fordham Urban Law Journal	Vol. 35, No. 4	The state lethal injection protocols do not regulate lethal injections, but instead describe hypothetical rituals meant to reassure the reader—whomever that might be—that a controlled and orderly process, in accordance with the rule of law, will take place. [read more]
2008	Not Wiser After Thirty Five Years of Contemplating the Death Penalty	Leigh B. Bienen	Studies in Law, Politics and Society	Vol. 42, pp. 91-133	Is the death penalty dying? This autobiographical essay offers observations on the application of capital punishment in three very different legal jurisdictions at three different time periods when...she was a homicide researcher, a participant and an observer of profound changes in the jurisdiction's application of the death penalty. [read more]
2002	Afterword to Lunatics and Anarchists: Political Homicide in Chicago	Leigh B. Bienen and Thomas J. O'Gorman	Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 2002, Volume 92, Issues 3-4, pp. 805-807	Vol. 92, Issues 3-4, pp. 805-807	On the assassination of Mayor Carter Harrison, the trial and failed use of the insanity defense, and execution of his assassin, Eugene J. Prendergast, in Chicago in 1893. [read more]
2002	Learning from the Past, Living in the Present: Understanding Homicide in Chicago, 1870-1930	Leigh B. Bienen and Brandon Rottinghaus	Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology	Vol. 92, Issue 3/4, pp 437-554	The Chicago Historical Homicide Project at Northwestern Uni-versity School of Law began with the discovery and recent availability of a rich log of more than 11,000 homicides from 1870-1930 maintained consistently by the Chicago Police. [read more]
2001	Center for the Study of Disability Ethics Community Board Forum; Execution of the Mentally Disabled: A Discussion of Medical and Legal Perspectives		New England Journal of Criminal and Civil Confinement	Vol. 27, No. 2	A discussion of medical and legal perspectives relating to execution of the mentally disabled.
1998	Can the Death Penalty Be Administered Fairly—No	Leigh B. Bienen	Spectrum—The Council of State Governments, 1998, Volume 71, No. 1	Vol. 71, No. 1	Since 1976, 38 states have re-enacted capital punishment statutes, and the state supreme courts have upheld these statutes, But from coast to coast, the death penalty remains fundamentally unfair and unjust. [read more]
1998	Defining Incest	Leigh B. Bienen	Northwestern University Law Review	Vol. 92, No. 4, pp. 1501-1640	This article examines the statutory formulations and interpretations of incest in American jurisdictions against the backdrop of the author's experiences as an advocate and reporter on rape reform legislation in the late 1970s and later as a public defender. [read more]
1998	Socially-Assisted Dying: Media, Money, & Meaning	Leigh Bienen	Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy	Vol. 7, Issue 2, Article 2	Introductory remarks to a legal media conference held held April 10 and April 11, 1997 at the Northwestern University School of Law. [read more]
1998	The Quality Of Justice In Capital Cases: Illinois As A Case Study	Leigh B. Bienen	Law and Contemporary Problems	Vol. 61, No. 4, pp. 193-217	Bienen uses Illinois as a case study of injustice in capital cases. The quality of justice in the trial and appeal of capital cases in Illinois is of a very low standard. [read more]
1997	Socially-assisted Dying and People with Disabilities: Some Emerging Legal, Medical, and Policy Implications	Peter Blanck, Kristi Kirschner, and Leigh Bienen	Mental and Physical Disability Law Reporter	Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 538-543	Dive into the research topics of 'Socially-assisted dying and people with disabilities: some emerging legal, medical, and policy implications.' Together they form a unique fingerprint. [read more]
1996	The Proportionality Review of Capital Cases By State High Courts after Gregg: Only 'The Appearance of Justice'?	Leigh B. Bienen	Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology	Vol. 87, Issue 1, pp. 130-314	Both the seriousness of the crime and the economic health of the county influence decisions to on how to treat a potentially death eligible capital case. Results of the Proportionality Review Project of the Supreme Court of New Jersey are presented. [read more]
1993	A Good Murder	Leigh B. Bienen	Fordham Urban Law Journal	Vol. 20, No. 3, Article 15, pp. 585-607	This essay will describe a pattern which emerged when researchers examined all homicide cases in the state of New Jersey during the years immediately after the reimposition of capital punishment in 1982. [read more]
1993	Helping Jurors Out: Post-Verdict Debriefing for Jurors in Emotionally Disturbing Trials	Leigh B. Bienen	Indiana Law Journal	Vol. 68, Issue 4, Article 13, pp. 1333-1355	Lawyers and judges sometimes forget that being a juror is a human experience on a continuum with other human experiences. [read more]
1990	The Reimposition of Capital Punishment in New Jersey: Felony Murder Cases	Leigh B. Bienen, Neil Alan Weiner, Paul D. Allison, Douglas Lane Mills	Albany Law Review	Vol. 54, Issue 3/4, pp. 709-817	This article reports research findings from the analysis of the nature and processing of felony murder cases in New Jersey after August 6, 1982, the effective date of the capital punishment statute. [read more]
1988	The Reimposition of Capital Punishment in New Jersey: The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion	Leigh B. Bienen, Neil A. Weiner, Deborah W. Denno, Paul D. Allison, and Douglas L. Mills,	Rutgers Law Review	Vol. 41, No. 27, pp. 27-342	Despite the attempt of the New Jersey legislature to comply with the mandate of Furman, application of the statute has resulted in clear and significant discrepancies in the treatment of potentially capital defendants based on the race of the victim, the county of jurisdiction, and the race of the defendant. [read more]
1983	A Question of Credibility: John Henry Wigmore's Use of Scientific Authority in Section 924a of the Treatise on Evidence	Leigh B. Bienen	California Western Law Review	Vol. 19, Issue 2 (Winter), pp. 235-268	Prior to the movement of the mid-1970’s to reform the rape laws, and the passage of the first rape reform legislation in Michigan in 1974, the law, as expressed in statutes, reported appellate opinions, and legal commentaries, typically expressed denial, suspicion, and disbelief when confronted with allegations of incest or sexual abuse of young girls. [read more]
1983	Rape Reform Legislation in the United States: A Look at Some Practical Effects	Leigh Bienen	Victimology	Vol. 8, Issues 1/2, pp. 139-151	The author, who was actively involved in drafting rape reform legislation in New Jersey, comments upon the purpose and effect of the passage of seemingly radical reforms. [Read more]
1980	Rape III National Developments in Rape Reform Legislation	Leigh Bienen	Women's Rights Law Reporter	Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 170-213	This Article analyzes legislative changes in the area of rape reform since 1976. [read more]
1980	Rape IV A State-by-State Chart of the Sex Offense Statutes	Leigh Bienen	Women's Rights Law Reporter	Vol. 6, No. 3, Special Supplement	A state-by-state chart of sex offense statutes. [read more]
1978	Mistakes	Leigh B. Bienen	Philosophy & Public Affairs	Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 224-245	In response to Professor Curley's article on D.P.P. v. Morgan, I shall discuss some recent developments concerning the mistake-of-fact defense in rape cases in the United States. [read more]
1977	Rape II	Leigh Bienen	Women's Rights Law Reporter	Vol. 3, Issues 3/4, pp. 90-137	This is the second of a special two-part survey of rape laws in the United States. [read more]
1976	Rape I	Leigh Bienen	Women's Rights Law Reporter	Vol. 3, pp. 45-57	Work began in the fall of 1975. Research was started with the specific intention of designing a chart which would summarize the rapidly changing rape laws in every jurisdiction in the United States. [read more]
1976	The Determination of Criminal Insanity in Western Nigeria	Leigh Bienen	The Journal of Modern African Studies	Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 219-245	The Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty was published a few months before the United States Supreme Court handed down McCleskey v. Kemp. [read more]
1975	Sex Discrimination in the Universities: Faculty Problems and No Solution	Leigh Bienen, Alicia Ostriker, J. P. Ostriker,	Women's Rights Law Reporter	March, pp. 3-12	In the five years from 1968 to 1973, despite all governmental and private group pressures, the fraction of faculty women has increased by less than one percent. [read more]
1974	Criminal Homicide in Western Nigeria 1966-1972	Leigh B. Bienen	Journal of African Law	Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 57-78	This research began as an attempt to add a codicil to the work on homicide done by Paul Bohannan in the 1950s. [read more]