Browsing by Author "Robinson, Paul H."

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Murder Mitigation in the Fifty-Two American Jurisdictions: A Case Study in Doctrinal Interrelation Analysis
(Texas Tech Law Review, 2014) Robinson, Paul H.
Surveys the law in the fifty-two American jurisdictions with regard to the three doctrines that commonly provide a mitigation or defense to murder liability: common-law provocation and its modern counterpart, extreme mental or emotional disturbance, the so-called diminished capacity defense and its modern counterpart, mental illness negating an offense element, and the insanity defense. The essay then examines the patterns among the jurisdictions in the particular formulation they adopt for the three doctrines and the combinations in which those formulations commonly appear in different jurisdictions.
A System of Excuses: How Criminal Law's Excuse Defenses Do, and Don't, Work Together to Exculpate Blameless (And Only Blameless) Offenders
(Texas Tech Law Review, 2009) Robinson, Paul H.
This Article looks at excuses as a group. Do excuses represent a coherent conceptual category? Do they have common purposes and internal structures? If so, what, if anything, can be learned from looking at excuses as a group? (As used here, the term "excuses" is meant to refer to general defenses of excuse and does not include the many doctrines of mitigation.)