Customer Reviews

Criminal Procedure Examples & Explanations, 5e

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Title says it all. The Fifth Edition was out of date when I took Crim Pro last year, and it's even more out of date now. The depth of treatment is perfect if you simply want to learn a little about criminal procedure, but completely inadequate for a course that requires you to know the differences between different types of vehicle searches, precise rules about interrogations, etc.

Doesn't go into nearly as much depth as the Glannon books. It's quite short and cursory. The only examples I found useful are the ones to distinguish reasonable suspicion from probable cause.

I had access to a ridiculous array of resources in studying for Crim Pro--3 commercial outlines, 3 books of practice questions, a book of case briefs, and Emanuel's "Law in a Flash" cards, and tried all of them at least once. This review compares them all. NOTE: Whatever supplement you buy, try to GET A NEW(ish) EDITION--this is a rapidly evolving area of law with several cases in the last 2-5 years (and many in the last 2) that turned established doctrines on their heads.

E&E: I don't really like the narrative style/paragraph structure of E&E--it's hard to just pick up in the middle and grasp a narrow issue; hard to find stuff; and provides too little in the way of the facts of each case. Practice questions are fairly targeted, ie, you know what concept they are testing and you get several fact patterns to try your hand at. This may be good for initially grasping something you're struggling with, but very few real exam questions are written so narrowly--most mix in several issues. And Crim Pro is not an area of the law like Evidence or Property where there are very complex concepts that you would really need these targeted-type questions to understand/gain practice. The sticking point with Crim Pro is more that there are A LOT of fairly straightforward concepts you have to learn and understand as part of a system.

OTHER OUTLINES

Emanuel's was BY FAR the best of the commercial outlines I used--it was the one I kept coming back to. The Emanuel's outline was very well-organized, which allowed me to engage each topic in the depth that I needed for my course. I was quickly able to find the general rule for each topic, see what all the exceptions were and understand the key aspects of each relevant case (including the rule, holding and enough facts to show how the rule is applied--which many outlines leave out), all in 1-2 paragraphs per case. This does not replace actually reading the cases (these things are called "supplements" for a reason), but it's very useful for outlining and understanding how the cases fit together. It really covers a lot of ground, too--there was scarcely even a squib in my CB that wasn't in here. Other critical feature: has both a case index and a detailed topic index. There are even practice questions and answers for each section and practice essay questions at the end--wish I'd seen that when I was studying! I should note that I have the 2007 version (27th Ed.), but unless they revamped the whole thing with the 28th Ed., they should be pretty similar.

Kaplan/PMBR: too quick & dirty--misses a lot of the nuances in different doctrines. Doesn't include ANY facts of cases, just the rule/holding. It has NO CASE INDEX--this is a dealbreaker for me! Drives me CRAZY. I tried some of the practice MC questions, which were good in that they mixed several issues together, like a real exam, as opposed to just testing comprehension of one issue at a time--BUT, and this is a big problem--they tend to overgeneralize/avoid nuances that would totally change the outcome. I think some of their answers were actually wrong given the fact patterns due to this overgeneralization problem.

Casenotes Legal Briefs: This is exactly what it says it is. The briefs are longer than most squibs, so only save you time for the non-squibs...which are precisely the ones you probably should make sure you actually read.

TEST PREP SUPPS

Siegel's Crim Pro (Essay & MC Q&A): If you generally understand the concepts & don't need a commercial outline, this is a fantastic option. The questions were very much like what was on my exam, and the answers were thorough and (as far as I could tell) accurate. I didn't find any apparent mistakes, unlike in PMBR. This has NO explanation of the law outside of the Q&A itself (no chapters, outline, etc)--JUST practice questions, which there are a TON of. I really liked this book for end-of-semester practice once I already had a basic idea of the concepts, and it was great for helping me figure out what I needed to study the most. But for mastering the basics, get Glannon's MC or get a commercial outline (reviewed below).

Glannon Guide to Crim Pro: Learning through MC Q&A. Similar to E&E, but a lot shorter. 1-2pp, very general chapters with targeted practice questions. Where E&E's questions tend to be simple and numerous, allowing you to see different permutations of the law, Glannon's only has one question per concept, not terribly difficult, but trickier than E&E, and a thorough explanation.
Emanuel's "Law in a flash" cards: NOT BAD! Especially if you have a closed-book exam. Trick is to actually use them. ;-)

I have searched many books, but this is very simple to read and extremely informative.