Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(A)  In General.  The movement to protect women against domestic violence resulted in passage of new criminal laws penalizing behavior characterized as “stalking.”[133]  The constitutionality of some of these new, vague, and broad statutes may be questionable.  Constitutional challenges to state stalking statutes have been successful on a number of occasions.[134]

                The federal stalking statute is codified at 18 U.S.C. § 2261.   There is an argument that the federal definition of “stalking” should control, but there is as yet little authority for this specific proposition.

[133] Annot., Validity, Construction and Application of Stalking Statutes, 29 ALR 5th 487; Domestic Violence, Stalking and Anti-stalking Legislation: An Annual Report to Congress Under the Violence Against Women Act (March, 1996).

[134] See A Bridge to Cape Fear: Stalking in a Brave New World, 17 Criminal Practice Report 39 (Feb 19, 2003).