Criminal Law Commons^™

Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining Is A Bad Deal, Jacob Burns Center For Ethics In The Practice Of Law

Event Invitations 2021

When Americans think of the criminal justice system, they picture a trial. The right to a trial by jury is supposed to undergird our entire justice system – but that bedrock constitutional right has all but disappeared thanks to plea bargaining. In 2018, more than 97 percent of defendants pleaded guilty.

In Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining Is A Bad Deal, Carissa Byrne Hessick makes the case against plea bargaining and illustrates why we need to fix it if we ever hope to achieve lasting criminal justice reform.

Join the Jacob Burns Center for Ethics in the Practice …

A Screening Of Attica And A Conversation With Tyrone Larkins And Akil Killebrew, Cardozo Criminal Defense Clinic, Cardozo Public Service Scholars Program, Cardozo Civil Rights Clinic, E. Nathaniel Gates Scholars

Event Invitations 2021

Join us for a screening of the film in conjunction with a panel discussion featuring Tyrone Larkins and Lawrence Akil Killebrew, both of whom are formerly incarcerated people and were in their early twenties when they were serving their sentences at Attica Prison in 1971. They are survivors of the brutality that was witnessed at Attica between September 9 and September 13, 1971.

Fewer, Not Fairer, Victoria Smiegocki, Pamela R. Metzger, Andrew L.B. Davies

Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center

In 2019, police across Dallas County asked the District Attorney to prosecute fewer marijuana cases than the year before. This report examines whether the racial disparity in those cases improved at the same time. Fewer, Not Fairer shows that while the number of referrals declined, police were still more likely to refer a Black person for marijuana prosecution than a non-Black person. However, some cities achieved more fairness when their police departments almost entirely stopped requesting marijuana prosecutions altogether.

Grand Juries Should Not Hear Police Misconduct Cases: Grand Juries Will Indict Anything, But A Police Officer, Kaeleigh Wiliams

SLU Law Journal Online

Grand juries will indict everyone but police officers. In this article, Kaeleigh Williams argues that the time has come for a new mechanism to be used in police officer misconduct cases.

General Body Meeting, Cardozo Criminal Law Society

Flyers 2021-2022

No abstract provided.

When “Empty Is Not Closed”: Organizing Efforts To (Officially) Close St. Louis’ Infamous Workhouse, Brianna Coppersmith

SLU Law Journal Online

Despite years of community organizing, legal advocacy, and policy change to close St. Louis’ Medium Security Institution, the jail has reopened. In this article, Brianna Coppersmith provides a brief history of the campaign to close the jail, commonly called the Workhouse, and discusses what its reopening might mean for related pending litigation.

Budding Change, Pamela R. Metzger, Victoria Smiegocki, Kristin Meeks

Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center

Budding Change explores what happened when Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot (DA Creuzot) radically changed his office’s policies about the prosecution of first-time misdemeanor marijuana cases. The report concludes that DA Creuzot’s 2019 policies were associated with significant reductions in police enforcement of marijuana misdemeanor laws. As a result, marijuana screening caseloads within the District Attorney’s Office declined substantially. Budding Change shows that prosecutorial policies can have a profound impact on policing behaviors.

The Abcs Of Racial Disparity, Pamela R. Metzger, Kristin Meeks, Victoria Smiegocki, Kenitra Brown

Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center

Data show that Black and White people use marijuana at roughly equal rates. Yet in 2018, in six of Dallas County's biggest cities, Black people were vastly overrepresented in the enforcement of low-level drug crimes. With a look at enforcement trends before the election of District Attorney John Creuzot, this study launches a series of reports about how his reforms have impacted Dallas County.

The Rural Texas Sheriff, Andrew L.B. Davies, Valeria Liu, Elisa Torossian

Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center

The Rural Texas Sheriff reports on a focus group conducted in conjunction with the Deason Center's 2019 Rural Criminal Justice Summit. The report places rural Texas sheriffs and their agencies in a national context. It also offers insight into the focus group's perceptions of rural law enforcement and jail management. With first-hand accounts of these sheriffs’ experiences, the report offers a compelling look at the personal and professional lives of Texas’ rural sheriffs.

Series Preview: Screening And Charging Practices Of Three Mid-Sized Jurisdictions, Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center

Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center

Understanding how prosecutors make their screening and charging decisions is essential to criminal legal reform. This preview report is the first in a series of publications that explores the screening and charging practices of prosecutors in three mid-sized jurisdictions. Through an innovative mixed-methods empirical study, the series provides a holistic account of prosecutors’ charging practices.

Criminal Law Drafting Manual, Jean Mangan

Books

This textbook was created under a Round 19 Mini-Grant. It is hosted on the Open ALG (Affordable Learning Georgia) Projects platform.

2021: How Gender And Race Affect Justice Now - Final Report, Justice Sheryl Gordon Mccloud, Dana Raigrodski, Sierra Rotakhina, Kelley Amburgey-Richardson

Books

In 1989, the Washington Supreme Court’s Task Force on Gender and Justice in the Courts produced a groundbreaking report on the impact of gender on selected areas of the law. It concluded that gender did affect the availability of justice. We – the Washington State Supreme Court Gender and Justice Commission – are a product of that report and its recommendations. Now, in 2021, we have completed our follow-up study.

Our legal and social science research, our data collection, and our independent pilot projects all led us to the same frustrating conclusion about the effect of gender in Washington State …