CrimProf Blog

Growth in Forensic Science and White Collar Crime Courses in Colleges

No doubt CSI and Enron have something to do with this trend.  Story....

Oregon CrimProf Wins Teaching Award

University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer presented law professor Tom Lininger with a crystal apple – a symbol of teaching excellence  –  in a surprise visit to a law faculty meeting on Friday, May 12. 

Frohnmayer was accompanied by Lininger’s wife, Merle Weiner, also a professor at the law school, and the couple’s two sons. 

This university-wide award recognizes exemplary teaching by faculty members early in their careers. Two winners are chosen each year based on the recommendation of faculty members and students; they receive a $2,000 stipend added to their base salary. “I’ve learned a lot from the other faculty here at the University of Oregon Lininger said.  “There are some great professors at this school who provide a model for the junior faculty.”  Lininger, an assistant professor of law who joined the faculty in 2003, is the seventh law faculty member to receive the Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Lininger has taught evidence, ethics, criminal procedure, and alternative dispute resolution. He also directs the law school’s Public Interest/Public Service Program. In 2004, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski appointed Lininger to chair the state’s Criminal Justice Commission. 

FRANKLIN PIERCE LAW CENTER CRIMINAL PRACTICE CLINIC

This week, Franklin Pierce Law Center students Bonnie Howard of Concord, NH and Brian Heyesey of Allentown, NJ, both third year students, won a not guilty verdict for defendant Stephen Carter of Concord, a father accused of endangering his children when he locked them in their rooms without food of access to a bathroom.  Rest of story.....[Mark Godsey]

Emory Students Win Pro Bono Case

Emory Law students Daniel Schuman and Noah Robbins and alumna/adjunct faculty member Sarah Gerwig-Moore 02L scored a victory before the Supreme Court of Georgia in a case that focused on the right to effective assistance of counsel.

Schuman, who graduates in May, and second-year law student Robbins wrote an amicus curiae brief in support of prisoner Howard Harden's habeas appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court under the direction of Gerwig-Moore. Gerwig-Moore is Senior Appellate Supervising Attorney for the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council and teaches a course and clinic on Post-Conviction and Appellate Remedies at Emory Law School.

In petition for writ of habeas corpus, Harden explained that when he pleaded guilty to a number of crimes, his attorney had met with him for only ten minutes the day before the plea was to be entered. His attorney subsequently was disbarred for numerous counts of misconduct and refused to provide Harden his legal file. Harden has been imprisoned since 2001 and is serving a fifteen year sentence. The habeas court denied his petition and he appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia.

"It would be wonderful if all attorneys approached the profession with the required level of diligence and competency. This experience has taught me that it is often up to us, as attorneys, to monitor the performance of our peers," Robbins said.

The Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Justice Carol W. Hunstein, held that the Court of Appeals erred by failing to examine whether there had been a truly adversarial process with reasonably effective counsel for the accused. The Court of Appeals focused on Harden's unsworn monosyllabic response to the trial court's question of whether he was satisfied with his attorney, ignoring the facts surrounding his ineffective assistance of counsel claim. Harden's case was returned to the lower court for full consideration of the ineffective assistance claim.

“Because of the Supreme Court decision, other people in Mr. Harden's situation will now have the opportunity to have their cases reviewed to make sure that they had competent legal assistance,” Schuman said.

Besides writing a brief in Harden’s case, students in the Appellate Clinic have written several other amicus briefs for habeas petitioners to the Georgia Supreme Court. Third-year students qualified under the Third Year Practice Act may also sign briefs filed in the state's high court. Both Schuman and Robbins were allowed to sit at the counsel table while Gerwig-Moore argued the case before the Court, and all students may attend oral arguments.

Students said the experience was invaluable.

Next AALS Meeting (2007) Moved From SF to DC

Story from TaxProf Blog here.  [Mark Godsey]

Emory Law Student Tries Federal Criminal Case

Working with the U.S. Attorney's Office, and utilizing the 3rd year practice rule, an Emory law student helped try a major drug case in federal court and got the conviction.  Story. . .   [Mark Godsey]

Emory Law School Adds Two New Clinics

The law school’s Indigent Criminal Defense and Juvenile Justice Clinics will begin in the fall semester 2006. The Criminal Defense Clinic is a joint project with the Office of the DeKalb County Public Defender. Students in the Criminal Defense Clinic will work directly with clients and will participate in courses taught by O’Connor. They will have the opportunity to represent criminal defendants, primarily in misdemeanor cases, in DeKalb County.

The Juvenile Justice Clinic is a unit of the Law School's Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic. Waldman will develop the Juvenile Justice course, teach fundamentals of juvenile law and litigation, interview and represent children. Also, she will supervise certified legal interns who represent children in delinquency and other proceedings – providing advocacy in the areas of school discipline, special education, mental health, and public benefits. More details on the clinics here. [Mark Godsey]

Criminal Law Opening at DePaul

The DePaul College of Law in Chicago is seeking a visitor in criminal law for either the entire year, 2006-2007, or just the spring semester, 2007.  The teaching program, besides criminal law, is negotiable.
Please reply to:
Brian Havel, Chair
Faculty Recruitment Committee
bhavel@depaul.edu

Cincinnati's New Criminal Appellate Clinic Hits the Ground Running

From The National Law Journal:  University of Cincinnati College of Law students are getting their feet wet in some high-profile murder and drug cases through a new clinic that allows them to prepare and argue cases before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.  Believed to be the first program of its kind in the Midwest, the school's yearlong appellate clinic got off the ground this fall after the 6th Circuit approved a rule allowing third-year law students to argue before the court under attorney supervision.  So far, the nine students participating in the clinic have taken on some heavy-duty cases, including the murder conviction of a man who claims that new DNA evidence will exonerate him, a drug conspiracy case and an immigration case that involves the application of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Leocal v. Ashcroft decision, in which the court ruled that a drunken driving conviction does not allow for mandatory deportation of legal immigrants.

"It gives students an opportunity to understand the complexity that exists in a real live case with a real live client," said Barbara Watts, associate dean at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. "Teaching the theory of law and precedent is one thing. But there's nothing quite like a real client with life or freedom or property that's on the line to sort of bring it alive for students."

According to Watts, the clinic's existence is largely due to the help of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. The 800-lawyer global firm volunteered one of its appellate lawyers, Pierre Bergeron, to direct and teach the clinic.

'DEMYSTIFYING' THE LAW

Bergeron, who had taught a one-semester course in appellate law at the University of Cincinnati a few years ago, looks forward to giving students a break from the classroom for some real-world experience.

"They've had such a heavy classroom schedule through the last two years, and this really gives them the opportunity to get out and do something real and practical," said Bergeron, who is based in Cincinnati. The clinic will also help students get over any fears they have of judges, he added.

"The natural reaction for students is to be intimidated by judges-that's certainly how I was when I was in law school," Bergeron said. "Part of our goal is to demystify the appellate practice and show them how the courts work."

According to Bergeron, only two other law schools offer appellate law clinics: Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Virginia School of Law.

Bergeron said that one of the benefits of the year-long appellate clinic is allowing students to follow cases through from initial review and research to argument.

In helping launch the program, he said, his first job was to find good cases for students to work on. Through professional and court referrals, he landed three. The most prominent involves Clarence Arnold Elkins, who was convicted in 1998 for the murder and rape of a grandmother and the rape of her 6-year-old granddaughter.

Bergeron said that his students hope to exonerate Elkins through new DNA evidence that exculpates Elkins and allegedly implicates another inmate.

The students started class on Aug. 26 and immediately started working on Elkins' behalf. Ohio v. Elkins, No. CA22834 (Ohio Ct. App.). As Bergeron put it, "they've hit the ground running."  (Bergeron pictured) [Mark Godsey]

Pace to Host Crim Moot Court Competition

The International Program of Pace Law School Proudly announces

The First Annual Pace International Criminal Court Moot Competition

October 14-16, 2005

Please join us for the keynote address

Presented by

Professor David Scheffer

Former U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes &
Chief U.S. Negotiator for the Rome Statute

Friday October 14^th at 6:00 p.m.

Moot Court Room

For more information or to RSVP, see www.law.pace.edu/icc

New Crim Program at Illinois

Illinios Law Announces the Creation of the New Program in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, Co-Directed by CrimProfs Andy Leipold and Richard McAdams

From a press release:  For decades the College of Law has enjoyed renown in the areas of criminal law and criminal procedure. Today, twelve faculty members--almost a quarter of the faculty!--write about or teach domestic and international criminal law and criminal procedure. As a means of fostering synergies amongst this group, Professors Andy Leipold and Richard McAdams have launched a new Program in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure with an ambitious agenda that extends from faculty enrichment to curricular innovation. Partnering with Professors Margareth Etienne and Patrick Keenan, who initiated a lively criminal law discussion group two years ago, Professors Leipold and McAdams intend to sponsor public lectures, conferences, and debates about the use of the criminal law to address society's most pressing social problems. They are contemplating the development of new courses and seminars and an expansion of the College's clinical and experiential opportunities that would supplement the innovative live-client Prisoners's Rights Research Project that is supervised by Professor Kit Kinports and the popular Appellate Defender course taught by Daniel Yuhas.

The Program is off to a tremendous start, with a slate of impressive scholars scheduled to speak at the College in the coming weeks: Professors Bill Stuntz (Harvard), Leo Katz (Penn), Ron Allen (Northwestern), Sara Beale (Duke), Jeannine Bell (Indiana), Anne Coughlin (Virginia), Tino Cuellar (Stanford), John Donohue (Yale), Sam Gross (Michigan), Susan Klein (Texas), Tracey Meares (Chicago), Paul Robinson (Penn), and Jim Whitman (Yale).  [Mark Godsey]

Dayton Law Trumpets Merits of Its 2-Year JD Program

Increase in applicants . . .  improvement in stats.  Press release.  [Mark Godsey]

Is 3L Worth It?

Discussion at Volokh here.  [Mark Godsey]

Watch Out CrimProfs--Students May Be Blogging Your Every Move

Story here.  [Mark Godsey]

CSI Law School

An adjunct professor at Capital Law School, who is an AUSA by day, has created a new advanced forensics course.  Topics to be covered include explosives, dna, computer analysis, lifting fingerprints, etc.  Details. . .  [Mark Godsey]

Teaching Postition Open

Chair of the Criminal Justice Department at Fayetteville State University.  Details here.  [Mark Godsey]

Positions Open at Cardozo Innocence Project

3 positions open in the clinic.  Cardozo is the mothership of all innocence projects, and these spots might be ideal for some of your recent graduates.  Details here.  [Mark Godsey]

Homer Simpson and the Law

We previously blogged here about how the TV show The Simpsons is full of legal gems.  Now Homer Simpson will help law students in the UK learn the law.

From Yahoo News:  "London, Jun 10 (ANI): Homer J. Simpson, a popular character from hit TV show 'The Simpsons', will now help students prepare for A-level law courses.  According to the Mirror, clips from the show would be shown to the students and they would be asked to analyse Homer's illegal tricks - how they would be viewed in court.  "Nobody breaks the law quite as much as Homer in The Simpsons - and he always seems to get away with it. In real life, someone who commits as many crimes would be in prison. So it's a bit of fun with a serious side to it," the paper quoted course director Gary Durrant as saying."  Story . . . [Mark Godsey]

Creative Fundraising Technique: Seton Hall Law Gets Endowed Chair Through Restitution Order in Criminal Case

White Collar Crime Prof Blog has an interesting story about the restitution agreement in the Bristol-Meyers Squibb prosecution.  The company agreed as part of its restitution deal to endow a chair at Seton Hall Law School in the area of business ethics.  [Mark Godsey]

Law Student Evaluations Apparently Hinge on Professor's Sex Appeal

Story from TaxProf blog here.  [Mark Godsey]

For information about Professor Godsey's teaching awards, see here and here. [Jack Chin]

Law School Rankings By LSAT

Brian Leiter has a new ranking of law schools by LSAT scores here.  [Mark Godsey]

Florida State Prison Clinic Wins National Award

A clinic at Florida State, the Childen in Prison Project, won the Award for Excellence in a Public Interest Project from the Clinical Legal Education Center.  Law students in the clinic litigate and advocate for better conditions for children in prison.  Details. . .  [Mark Godsey]

A 3Ls Thoughts on the Last Day of Law School

Here.  [Mark Godsey]

The Rankings Racket

Here's an article about the U.S. News rankings and how schools are playing the numbers game.  Here's some details about a recent symposium on law school rankings.  [Mark Godsey]

Law School Teaching Loads

Here's a survey of teaching loads of law professors at various schools.  (thanks to instapundit.com for the tip).  [Mark Godsey]

2005 Law School Hires

Here is a link that has updates on which law schools hired new professors, and who they hired, during the 2004-05 hiring season.  If your newest recruit isn't on the list, send them an e-mail and they'll update it.

Also, if you recently hired a new crimprof at your school to start in Fall 2005, drop me an e-mail (mark.godsey@uc.edu) and let me know.  I'll do a post introducing all the soon-to-be crimprofs with short bios.  [Mark Godsey]

Criminal Procedure Professors Asked to Join Appellate Support Network

The National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) is initiating the  Appellate Support Network, a project that connects criminal procedure academics with public defenders working on important federal appellate matters.  The network is composed of criminal procedure professors that are available to provide assistance to public defenders on significant issues in front of the Supreme Court and U.S. Courts of Appeals. The professors provide a limited number of hours of assistance on a case, and they are considered of counsel and have the option of co-signing the brief.  More information on the Appellate Support Network is available at http://www.nlada.org/TestingGround/Appellate_Network.

If you are interested in participating in the Appellate Support Network, please send your contact information along with your areas of expertise to Adam Neufeld at a.neufeld@nlada.org.  [Mark Godsey] 

Northwestern Law Professor Slams Law School Exams

Steven Lubet's article in The American Lawyer argues:  "There is almost nothing about the typical law school examination that is really designed to test the skills involved in law practice. And many aspects of exams are positively perverse. Take time pressure, for example. By their nature, exams are time-limited, usually to about three or four hours, during which it is necessary to assess the problems, decide on the answers, marshal the material (whether strictly from memory or from an "open book"), and then write, hopefully, coherent answers. There is no opportunity for reflection, research, reconsideration or redrafting. You simply dash off your answer and hope you got it right. No competent lawyer would approach a serious problem under comparable conditions (except in an extreme and extraordinary emergency); in fact, that would probably be malpractice."  More . . .   [Mark Godsey]

BTK Serial Killer Case Studied in the Classroom-UPDATED

UPDATE: There has been a break in the case and a suspect arrested. Here's some video. [Jack Chin] 

CNN.com reports:  "The BTK serial killer investigation in Kansas is being used as a teaching tool in college criminal justice courses around the country.  The killer known as BTK -- which stands for 'Bind, Torture, Kill' -- has been linked to eight unsolved killings in Wichita from 1974 through 1986. BTK resurfaced last March with letters to Wichita media and police. Police have collected more than 4,000 DNA swabs in an effort to find the killer.  'It's a very compelling case,' said Volkan Topalli, an assistant professor in the criminal justice department at Georgia State University in Atlanta. 'There's a lot of material to work with.'  Topalli said he will touch on the case next semester during the serial-murder portion of his course on aggression and violence.  At Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, students in a master's-level forensics class are tackling the case much in the way that Wichita authorities have been investigating it since it first surfaced.  Graduate student Jackie Hoehner is trying to recreate the crime scene and layout of the home where the serial killer struck first in 1974, strangling four members of the Otero family.  'It is extra exciting because of the way he has resurfaced,' she said.  Hoehner said one of the key mysteries is what happened to BTK during all the years he was not communicating publicly. Her theory: He moved away, then returned.  Jeri Myers, a forensic science coordinator at Nebraska Wesleyan, said her students treat the BTK case as if they were professionals solving the mystery. She said her students learn what they can about the initial investigation, then analyze communications and look for similarities to create a suspect profile."  Story . . .  [Mark Godsey]

Gambino Crime Family 101

A law school in Italy has added a new course to its criminal law curriculum:  the Mafia.  According to Law.Com, the class will "look at the roots of organized crime in Italy and follow its development under Fascist rule, in postwar years and up until the present day. It explains the differences between various syndicates in the country -- including the Sicilian Mafia and the Calabrian 'ndrangheta, which investigators say is becoming the most powerful crime organization in Italy -- and examines how they raise money."   

Will the class have any problems with enrollment?  Fuggetaboutit...more than 500 students have already signed up.

For more, click here.

Mark Godsey

A 1L's Risk Factor Quiz for Getting Called on in Class

Here's how 1Ls apparently hedge their bets as to whether they'll be called on in a given class.  Risk Factor Quiz here.  [Mark Godsey]

Gonzaga Program on Teaching Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure

The Institute for Law Teaching at Gonzaga is running a one day conference on "Teaching the Law School Curriculum" at Villanova on Friday, March 11.  The conference includes workshops on teaching 15 standard law school courses (including Crim subjects) as well as workshops on exams and assessments, on using technology in and out of the classroom, on collaborative learning, and on reflective learning.  Details here. [Mark Godsey]

Dayton Becomes First U.S. Law School to Offer 2-Year JD

Press release here.   [Mark Godsey]

William & Mary Law Students Teach Literature and Law Classes to Virginia Inmates

Paul Marcus, a CrimProf at William & Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law, has helped some of his law students become teachers to a non-traditional group of students--a group of 17 inmates at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail.  The law students lead discussion among the inmates about literature involving legal issues.  This past week, the class discussed Sister Helen Prejean's Dead Man Walking, a book that looks at the human consequences of the death penalty. 

Third-year law student Janelle Lyons asked her discussion group, "What do you think about the statement that race, poverty and geography determine who gets the death penalty?"  "Do you think there's a way to make the system fair?" she asked.  Inmate Josi Smiley doesn't think so.  "Money or power could tip the scales in someone's favor," said Smiley, who is in jail for forgery and passing bad checks.  Lyons has found the inmates are "much more intelligent than most people probably believe...Just because they're in jail doesn't mean they don't have a love of learning."

"It's one thing to read opinions that look at the same set of facts and come up with conclusions," said David Lacy, a third-year law student. "But it's another thing to hear someone who knows what it's like to be incarcerated or knows what it's like to deal with the system...It's good to hear someone with real life experience," he said. "We are - I don't want to say - sheltered," but leading the discussions has offered the law-students valuable real-world experience.  More... [Mark Godsey]

Students in Tulane Law Clinic Win Big Case in LA Supreme Court

In an opinion issued yesterday, the Louisiana Supreme Court handed a victory to the Tulane Law Clinic and to mentally ill criminal defendants throughout Louisiana.   Relying on positions briefed and argued by student lawyers, under the direction of CrimProf Pamela R. Metzger, the Louisiana Supreme Court struck down La.C.Cr.P. 648(B)(2), a statute that applies to criminal defendants who (a) are permanently incompetent to stand trial; and, (b) do not pose a danger to themselves or others.  The challenged law placed those defendants on probation for a period of a time that could extend up to the maximum punishment that could have been imposed on a competent defendant who was found guilty of the underlying crime.

The Tulane Criminal Clinic has represented the defendant, Ms. Denson, since her initial arrest. She was quickly adjudged permanently incompent to stand trial, and not dangerous either to herself or others.  Nevertheless, Ms. Denson spent three years on probation and approximately two years in the general population of a women's prison, because there was no room for her in  an appropriate psychiatric facility.  The opinion can be found here.

The next step for Ms. Denson and her student lawyers illustrates the intradisciplinary nature of the work performed in Tulane's legal clinics, work that builds off of the theoretical work of many fine CrimProf scholars.  Students in Tulane's Legislation Clinic are drafting a proposal for legislation that would meet the needs of people like Ms. Denson.  And, the Tulane Civil Clinic is evaluating the viability of a lawsuit challenging the State's practice of using jails to house mentally ill people when the State Forensic Hospital is full.  [Mark Godsey]