Even-Handed Justice in Nebraska: The Preliminary Hearing and the Plea in Abatement

Abstract

In Stone v. Powell,1 the Supreme Court of the United States put the states on notice that they would become increasingly the last fora for the adjudication of the rights of criminally accused. The decision's withdrawal of federal habeas corpus as a routine remedy for those desiring to challenge the use by a state of illegally seized evidence emphasizes the necessity for the states to fashion fundamentally fair criminal procedures. The formation of fair criminal procedures by the states must be undertaken with reference to federal constitutional standards of due process, state constitutional norms, statutory schemes enacted by their legislatures, rules developed by scholars and practitioners, and respected judicial precedents. Underlying the entire enterprise should be the notion that the end product be an even-handed system of justice.