George C. Thomas

Progression of myocardial abnormalities in experimental alcoholism

Abstract To determine those characteristics of left ventricular functional and metabolic alterations in chronic ethanolism that may be time-dependent, up to 36 percent of total daily calories as ethanol was fed to dogs for an average of 18 months (study group 1) or 52 months (study group 2). The short- and long-term study groups were fed the same diet with vitamin supplements and were compared with simultaneously studied control animals. Left ventricular function was assessed in the intact anesthetized dogs using the thermodilution method for end-diastolic volume and stroke volume determinations. During preload increments with saline solution, a significantly greater increase in end-diastolic pressure was observed in both groups receiving ethanol as compared with the control animals; this increase was associated with reduced end-diastolic and stroke volume. However, the responses were similar in the short- and long-term study groups. Increased left ventricular collagen was the apparent basis for the compliance abnormality, but neither variable differed in the groups receiving ethanol. In contrast, the first derivative of ventricular pressure (dP/dt) normalized for preload and afterload, an index of left ventricular contractility, and the velocity of the contractile element (Vce) were significantly reduced only in the long-term study group while tissue calcium was normal. When chromium-51-EDTA was used as an extracellular marker, accumulation of water and sodium in myocardial cells was observed only in the long-term study group, without a reduction of cell potassium. In view of the dilatation of sarcoplasmic reticulum observed on electron microscopy, It is postulated that distortion of the tubular membranes may limit the rate of calcium availability to contractile protein and thus diminish contractile function in chronic alcoholism.

Confessions of Guilt: From Torture to Miranda and Beyond

This book examines the history of the law of interrogation, beginning with England in the late eighteenth century and ending with an examination of American practices in the years following the September 11 terrorist attacks. The authors explore how the law of interrogation has moved from indifference about extreme force to concern about the slightest pressures on suspects, and back again. They argue that a culture’s perception of threats to its existence is an important determinant of the level of interrogation pressure that its legal system will tolerate. The greater the perceived threat, the more coercion a culture will tolerate to eradicate threats to its existence and control. The book concludes with an examination of the future of the law of interrogation, arguing that, in the United States, the law of interrogation will fracture between investigation of ordinary domestic crime and investigation of terrorism.The downloadable document includes the following excerpts from the book: Chapter 1, Introduction; Chapter 4, Early American Interrogation Law; Chapter 7, The Miranda Revolution; Chapter 8, Miranda Changes the Confession World; Chapter 9, Miranda Today; Chapter 10, Interrogation Law: The Future?

Stories About Miranda

Two studies of compliance with Miranda v. Arizona were conducted in the 1990s, one by Richard Leo and one by Paul Cassell and Bret Hayman. This essay presents a 2002 study that drew on the Westlaw database to measure Miranda compliance. Drawing a sample of cases from a legal database suffers from distorting effects that are largely absent when one observes police interrogation, as Leo did, or when one observes prosecutors screen cases by questioning police, as Cassell and Hayman did. Nonetheless, the 2002 study confirmed five basic findings of the earlier studies: (1) police almost always give Miranda warnings as required by the Supreme Court’s doctrine; (2) suspects overwhelmingly waive their rights; (3) police usually cease questioning when suspects invoke the right to silence or to counsel; (4) police rarely use overtly coercive tactics to obtain waivers; (5) police rarely use overtly coercive tactics to obtain confessions after suspects have waived their rights. Because this study focused on reported cases, it was also able to assess how prosecutors use the various doctrinal exceptions that were either built into the Miranda opinion or added by later Courts. For example, by its own terms, Miranda applies only to custodial interrogations, and prosecutors often succeed in persuading judges that the police conduct did not entail either custody or interrogation. Less commonly used were later doctrines that permitted statements to be used for impeachment or when obtained in the protection of public safety.

Review essay / evil in an indifferent universe

Samuel H. Pillsbury, Judging Evil: Rethinking the Law of Murder and Manslaughter New York: New York University Press, 1998, vii + 264pp.