CrimProf Blog

CrimProf Spotlight: Paul Marcus

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlight William and Mary College of Law CrimProf Paul Marcus.

Joined the faculty in 1992. Clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Practiced law at Loeb and Loeb in Los Angeles. Served as Dean of the University of Arizona School of Law, taught at the University of Illinois School of Law and was a visiting professor at the University of Geneva, University of Melbourne, University of Puerto Rico, University of San Diego and the University of Texas.

Author of Criminal Procedure in Practice, The Entrapment Defense, The Prosecution and Defense of Criminal Conspiracy Cases, and articles in the American Journal of Comparative Law and the Cornell, Georgetown, William and Mary, Florida, Southern California, and American Criminal law reviews. Co-author of Copyright and other Aspects of Law Pertaining to Literary, Musical and Artistic Works; Criminal Law: Cases and Materials; and Criminal Procedure: Cases and Materials.

Member of the American Bar Association Committees on the Rules of Criminal Procedure and Evidence, International Criminal Law, and Law School Curriculum. Chair and member of numerous committees within the Association of American Law Schools. Co-reporter for the National Right to Counsel Committee, 2004-2007.

Founder of the Literature and the Law Program at the Central Virginia Regional Jail.  Frequently interviewed by the media (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, CBS, NPR, ABC) as an expert in criminal law and procedure. Recipient of the Distiniguished Citizen of the Year Award, University of Arizona; Volunteer of the Year Award, Williamsburg Big Brothers Mentoring Program; the Walter L. Williams, Jr. Teaching Award; and nominated by the College of William and Mary for several state and national recognition awards.

CrimProf Spotlight: Yale Kamisar

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights University of San Diego School of Law CrimProf Yale Kamisar.

Professor Yale Kamisar is the Clarence Darrow Distinguished   University Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan Law   School and, since 2002, a tenured professor of law at USD. He   teaches and writes in the areas of criminal procedure, criminal   law, the administration of criminal justice and the politics of   crime. Known as the “Father of Miranda,” he is one of the nation’s   foremost authorities on criminal procedure, having written   a large number of the seminal articles and texts on the subject,   many of which have been quoted or cited by the U.S. Supreme   Court. 

Kamisar is author of Police Interrogations and   Confessions (University of Michigan Press) and co-author   of two widely-used casebooks: Constitutional Law: Cases, Comments & Questions (1st ed. 1964, 9th ed. 2001, West Publishing   Co.) (with William B. Locklear, Jesse H. Choper, Steven Shiffrin   and Richard Fallon) and Modern Criminal Procedure: Cases, Comments & Questions (1st ed. 1965, 10th ed. 2002, West Publishing   Co.) (with Wayne LaFave, Jerold Israel and Nancy King). Since   the mid-1960’s  Kamisar’s special interest has been   police interrogation and confessions.

He has also been a vigorous   defender of the “exclusionary rule” against attacks by courts   and scholars. In addition,  Kamisar is a noted expert   on issues related to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.   In 1996 he was awarded the American Bar Foundation Award   for his lifetime contributions to research and writing in law   and government. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Diane E. Eisenberg

This week, the CrimProf Blog spotlights Ave Maria Law School CrimProf Diane E.  Eisenberg.

Professor Eisenberg began her legal career in private practice, working first as an associate at the San Francisco firm of Steefel Levitt & Weiss, in the area of complex civil litigation and later at Townsend & Townsend & Crew, in the areas of intellectual property, antitrust and complex commercial litigation.

Professor Eisenberg has also served as an attorney for the administrative office of the Judicial Council of California, and has taught at Golden Gate University School of Law, the University of Michigan Law School, and Hastings College of the Law. Her course offerings include Professional Responsibility, Criminal Law, and Law and Literature.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Religious Studies from the State University of New York, Stony Brook, a Master of Arts in English and American Literature from Princeton University, and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Peggy Tonon

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights University of Montana School of Law CrimProf Margaret "Peggy" Tonon

Peggy Tonon is the Director for Student Affairs, Clinical Director, and a Clinical Supervisor. A graduate of Bates College and The University of Montana School of Law, she was a Deputy County Attorney for sixteen years, where she prosecuted everything from goats running at large to deliberate homicide before joining the faculty in 1990.

As a Clinical Supervisor, she supervises the three external prosecution clinics which represent city, county, and federal governments. As Director for Student Affairs, she is responsible for academic advising and student organizations.

She has been the recipient of the Robert and Pauline Poore Faculty Service Award and the Margery Hunter Brown Faculty Merit Award recognizing service to the law school community.

She is a member of the Western Montana Bar Association and the American Bar Association. She is also a member of the Clinical Section of the Association of American Law Schools and the Clinical Legal Education Association.

Her service to the Montana Bar includes membership on the Commission on Courts of Limited Jurisdiction and the Evidence Commission.

Tonon resides in Hamilton, Montana, with her husband, Warren Neyenhuis.

CrimProf Spotlight: Cynthia Alkon

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights Appalachian School of Law CrimProf Cynthia Alkon.

Cynthia Alkon joins the Appalachian School of Law after working to promote the development of rule of law in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union and after many years experience as a criminal defense attorney with the Office of the Los Angeles County Public Defender. She earned an LL.M. in Dispute Resolution from the University of Missouri-Columbia, a Juris Doctor from the University of California-Hastings, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, magna cum laude, from San Francisco State University.

From 1991-1998 she worked as a Deputy Public Defender in Los Angeles handling a full range of criminal cases including a serious felony caseload in the courts in Compton and Downtown Los Angeles. In 1998 she began working in Eastern Europe. She worked in Belarus for the American Bar Association Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative promoting rule of law reform in the country. She left Belarus to work as the head of the legal department for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Albania.

From 2002-2006 she was the Head of the Rule of Law Unit for the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, based in Warsaw, Poland. During those years she worked in countries of the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia primarily focusing on providing assistance in criminal justice reform. Her main area of academic interest is dispute resolution including how alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is used in criminal cases, and how ADR might contribute to rule of law development in countries in transition to democracy. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Blog spotlight: Orde Kittrie

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights University of Maryland School of Law CrimProf Orde Kittrie

Orde Félix Kittrie is a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Law during the 2007-8 academic year. He has been an Associate Professor of Law at Arizona State University since 2004.

Professor Kittrie teaches and writes in the areas of Criminal Law and International Law. Prior to joining the ASU law faculty in 2004, Professor Kittrie served for eleven years at the United States Department of State. Kittrie most recently served as the State Department's Director of International Anti-Crime Programs, overseeing United States policy and technical assistance programs for combating transnational crime worldwide. Prior to that assignment, Kittrie served as a Senior Attorney and Adviser to the Under Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy, assisting with efforts to improve America's image and promote human rights and democracy in the Arab world.

Kittrie earlier served as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business & Agricultural Affairs. In that capacity, he worked on economic aid for Pakistan following September 11, 2001 and assisted with planning for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Kittrie also worked on U.S.-Mexico border issues and negotiation of the world's first multilateral agreement to combat computer crime. Prior to that, Kittrie served as the State Department's Senior Attorney for Nuclear Affairs. In that capacity, he negotiated five nuclear non-proliferation agreements between the United States and Russia and served as counsel for the U.S. Government's sanctions and other responses to the 1998 Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests.

Earlier in his State Department career, Kittrie specialized in trade controls governing arms and dual-use items, in which capacity he was a principal drafter of U.N. Security Council Resolutions, U.S. Executive Orders, and U.S. regulations imposing and implementing arms embargoes on terrorism-supporting and other outlaw regimes, including Rwanda during the genocide.

Prior to entering law school, Kittrie served as Press Spokesman and Legislative Assistant to U.S. Congresswoman Connie Morella (MD). Kittrie is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a board member of the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations. A Mexican-American, Kittrie is active in the Latino community. During 2006, he served as President of Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) Region XIV, representing Arizona and Nevada on the HNBA Board of Governors and overseeing HNBA activities in those states.

He has also served as faculty advisor to ASU's Chicano Latino Law Students Association and as a member of the board of directors of Los Abogados, the Hispanic Bar Association of Arizona. Kittrie was honored by the Chicano Faculty Staff Association of ASU with the Dr. Manuel Servin Faculty Award for 2006. Kittrie was also recently named by Hispanic Outlook on Higher Education magazine as one of the U.S.'s top Hispanic professors of international law. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Mark Alexander

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlight Seton Hall CrimProf Mark Alexander.

Mark C. Alexander is Professor of Law, Seton Hall University School of Law. He writes and teaches in the areas of Constitutional Law, Law & Politics, The First Amendment and Criminal Procedure. His scholarship focuses on the intersection of law, politics and government and on free speech issues, with an emphasis on exploring new constitutional approaches to campaign finance reform. A recent article was cited by the Supreme Court in a major decision from 2006. In addition to his scholarly work, he recently filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, defending the right of governments to limit campaign spending.

Active in politics, Prof. Alexander recently took a leave of absence to serve as General Counsel to Cory Booker and the Booker Team in the 2006 Newark Municipal elections. He then served in the same capacity for Newark in Transition, as Mayor Booker moved to assume the office. He continues to consult with the Mayor and his staff on a wide range of matters.

Other political work includes serving as Issues Director for the Bill Bradley for President campaign in 1999-2000. He was Issues Director for Senator Edward Kennedy’s Re-election in 1988, and before that, a legislative assistant to Senator Howard Metzenbaum. He also served a two-year term as an elected official in the Washington, D.C. government.

Professor Alexander also has significant international experience, including year in Spain on a Fulbright Scholarship, where he taught American law and politics. In addition he has taught in the Seton Hall Law-in-Italy program. He is also a fellow of the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program.

Professor Alexander clerked for Chief Judge Thelton Henderson of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and was a litigator with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in San Francisco before joining the Seton Hall Law School faculty in 1996. Professor Alexander was the 1996-1997 Student Bar Association Professor of the Year, and he has been nominated for the award on numerous other occasions. He received his B.A. and J.D. from Yale University. In the spring 2003 semester, Professor Alexander returned to Yale Law School as a Visiting Scholar. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Blog Spotlight: Barry McCarthy

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights University of Pittsburgh Law School CrimProf Barry McCarthy.

Barry McCarthy is an expert in criminal law and procedure and in juvenile law, both in the United States and abroad. He is the former chair of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's Criminal Procedural Rules Committee (1993-1999) and currently is the chair of the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Rules Committee.

He served as a consultant to the Law Reform Commission of Ireland for almost 20 years, and has also been a consultant to the U.S. Department of State. He was an adviser to Ireland's director of public prosecutions, and an active member of the International Bar Association. Author of Pennsylvania Juvenile Delinquency Practice and Procedure (West/Thomson 1984-2005) and coauthor of Juvenile Law and Its Processes (Lexis 1979 2003), Professor McCarthy is former chair of the Family and Juvenile Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools.

His scholarly work has appeared in New York University Law Review, Temple Law Review, and University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, among others. He previously taught law at Capital University and University College Dublin. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Blog Spotlight: Charles P. Bubany

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights Texas Tech Law School CrimProf Charles P. Bubany.

Admitted to practice in Missouri, Professor Bubany was a note editor for the Washington University Law Quarterly. He attended a year of graduate school at the University of Illinois College of Law, taught law at West Virginia University, was a Navy JAG officer, and practiced law in St. Louis before joining the Law School faculty.

At Texas Tech, Professor Bubany coached the School of Law's National and International Champion team of the 1987 ABA Client Counseling Competition. He received the Faculty Ethics Award in 1988, 1989, and 1994; the Outstanding Law Professor Award in 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2003; the Texas Tech Continuing Education Award in 1990; and the Faculty Service to the Professions Award from the National University Continuing Education Association in 1991.

A regular teacher of continuing education classes dealing with criminal law subjects for lawyers and nonlawyers, Professor Bubany is co-author of a casebook, Texas Criminal Procedure, and co-editor of Texas Traffic Law and Related Statutes; 1999.  An N.A.I.A. All-American golfer in college, Professor Bubany is currently engaged in research for a book on Golf and the Law. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Blog Spotlights Earl Dudley Jr.

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights Virginia Law CrimProf Earl Dudley Jr.

Beginning in 1982, Earl Dudley taught trial advocacy seminars at the Law School while he was a partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Nussbaum Owen & Webster. Then, in 1989, he became a full-time faculty member. Dudley's career, before he came to Virginia, was in private practice, except for two years when he was general counsel for the Committee on the Judiciary in the U.S. House of Representatives. At the Law School, Dudley teaches civil and criminal procedure, evidence, criminal law, constitutional law, and trial advocacy.

As a law student, Dudley was editor-in-chief of the Virginia Law Review. After graduation, he clerked for Justice Stanley Reed and Chief Justice Earl Warren of the Supreme Court of the United States. He serves on the Virginia State Bar Committee on Professionalism and was a member of the boards of directors of the Stuart Stiller Memorial Foundation, the Disability Rights Center, and the Center for the Study of Psychiatry. He was a public member of the ethics committee of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and he has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, as well as a faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy in programs in various cities.

[Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Blog Spotlight: Fredric Lederer

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights William and Mary School of Law CrimProf Fredric Lederer.

Joined the faculty in 1980. Clerked for Judge Frederick P. Bryan, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, held various legal positions with the U.S. Army including four years on the faculty of the Judge Advocate General’s School and was a Fulbright-Hays Scholar.

Author of Fundamental Criminal Procedure, Military Law and articles in the Military Review, William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, and Emory Law Journal. Editor of Basic Virginia Law for Non-Lawyers. Co-author of Court-Martial Procedure; An Introduction to Law, Law Study, and the Lawyer’s Role; Concepts of American Law; Aspects of American Law; Courtroom Criminal Evidence; and Defending Criminal Cases in Virginia. Co-drafter of Proposed Virginia Rules of Evidence. A principal author of the Military Rules of Evidence. Co-author and production consultant for three law-related television series and a frequent lecturer on courtroom technology.

Member of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section’s Committee on Rules of Evidence and Procedure. Member of the Board of Directors, Virginia Consortium for Law Related Education. Founder and Director of the Center for Legal and Court Technology Project. [Mark Godsey]

Crimprof Blog Spotlights Marie Failinger

This week the CrimProf Blog highlights Hamline University School of Law Marie Failinger.

CrimProf Failinger was admitted in Indiana and is currently a member of the Minnesota bar. Formerly a staff attorney with Legal Services Organization of Indiana, she has continued her work on behalf of the disadvantaged as a founding member of the National Equal Justice Library, AALS Poverty Law Section, Law Teachers for Legal Services, American Indian Policy Institute, and MiCAEL (arts and law organization.)

She is the editor of the internationally recognized Journal of Law and Religion, as an editorial board member and contributor to the online Journal of Lutheran Ethics, and a founding Board member of Church Innovations Institute and Lutheran Innovations.

She has been professionally active in the American Association of Law Schools and Minnesota Women Lawyers, and has served on nonprofit boards or committees on legal services to the poor, adoption, fair housing, medical ethics, children and the law, and human rights issues. She has also taught in the clinical program at Valparaiso University School of Law. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Blog Spotlight: Penny White

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights University of Tennessee School of Law CrimProf Penny White.

Before joining the faculty at the UT College of Law in 2000, Professor Penny White served as a judge in all courts of record in the state of Tennessee. As a circuit judge, Professor White presided over civil and criminal jury trials in Tennessee's First Judicial District. Thereafter, as a member of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, White heard and decided hundreds of cases involving state and federal constitutional law issues and state criminal law issues. As the youngest member of the Tennessee Supreme Court, Professor White participated in several decisions that have impacted Tennessee law, including decisions involving class actions, rights of tort victims, and capital punishment.

Since leaving the bench, Professor White has authored benchbooks for Tennessee Circuit, General Sessions, and Municipal Court Judges; has taught judicial education programs in 38 states; and has spoken and written frequently on the topic of judicial independence. She has served as a member of the faculty at the National Judicial College for 15 years where she teaches courses for judges on the subjects of evidence, criminal procedure, and judicial ethics.

She recently completed a one-year term as Chair of the Faculty Council at the National Judicial College.  In addition, Professor White has served as one of the faculty on the College's Capital Punishment Improvement Initiative, a project that provides training and education to trial judges on the trial of capital cases.  Professor White is also authoring portions of a Capital Improvement Initiative Manual, which will be used by judges all across the country who try capital cases.

Before taking the bench in 1990, White practiced law in state and federal court, successfully arguing a case, as a solo practitioner, in the United States Supreme Court in 1988. Professor White taught at three other law schools before joining the UT faculty, serving as Director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse while teaching at Washington and Lee College of Law, holding the William J. Maier, Jr. Chair of Law at West Virginia College of Law, teaching at Denver University College of Law, and visiting at the University of North Carolina School of Law. Her work has been published in numerous law reviews and legal publications.  [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Blog Spotlights CrimProf Kenneth Gallant

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights UALR Law School CrimProf Kenneth Gallant

Professor Gallant joined the law school faculty in 1999, coming from the University of Idaho, where he directed the clinic and taught on the faculty. Before entering teaching, he served first as a prosecutor and later as Attorney-in-charge for Special Litigation with the Office of the District Attorney of Philadelphia.

He served as a law clerk to the late Judge Samuel J. Roberts of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and Judge Louis H. Pollak of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Professor Gallant teaches Lawyering Skills, Litigation Clinic, International Law, and Criminal Law. He has published extensively in the area of international law. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: University of Wisconsin School of Law CrimProf Pete Dewind

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights University of Wisconsin School of Law CrimProf Pete Dewind.

Pete DeWind joined the clinical faculty of the Frank J. Remington Center in May, 1991. As director of the Restorative Justice Project, Prof. DeWind supervises students in facilitating face-to-face meetings or other forms of contact between victims and offenders, usually in cases involving severe violence. Prof. DeWind also supervises students in the Center's Family Law Project, which handles divorce and paternity cases for incarcerated parents.

In 1982, Prof. DeWind graduated with a B.S. degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1990, he received his J.D., also from Wisconsin. Before joining the Remington Center, Prof. DeWind worked in Green Bay, Wisconsin as a staff attorney for Legal Services of Northeastern Wisconsin.While in law school, Prof. DeWind earned the Phil Owens Memorial Award and the Gene and Ruth Posner Pro Bono Award, and received a Walworth County Bar Association Scholarship and Shaw Fellowship. In addition, in the 1989 NationalProducts Liability Moot Court competition in Cincinnati, Prof. DeWind's team finished first and received the award for best brief.

Prof. DeWind's service to indigents at the Remington Center and Legal Services represents a longstanding commitment: during law school, he interned at the Wisconsin Coalition for Advocacy, at the Center for Public Representation, and at a legal services program on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico. [Mark Godsey]

Crimprof Spotlight: Andrew King-Reys

This week, the CrimProf Blog spotlights The University of Montana School of Law CrimProf Andrew King-Reys. 

CrimProf King-Ries teaches Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law, Domestic Violence, Juvenile Justice, and White Collar Crime. He has taught clinical and constitutional law.

He was a speechwriter for the Secretary of Education, Lauro Cavazos; a clerk for the United States Court of Appeals of the Eighth Circuit; and, for eight years, was a prosecutor, specializing in domestic violence cases, for the King County Prosecutor's Office in Seattle, Washington. Professor King-Ries is married, has a three-year-old son, and a ten-year-old dog.

Professor King-Ries graduated from Brown University in 1988 with a degree in History. He received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis, where he was Order of the Coif and an editor on the Washington University Law Quarterly. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Susan Beth Farmer

This week the CrimProf Blog Spotlights Penn State Dickinson School of Law CrimProf Susan Beth Farmer.

Professor Farmer, a former state antitrust law enforcement attorney, is actively engaged in researching and writing about the application of antitrust and trade regulation law within the federal system of the United States and within the international community. She is the chair of the Association of American Law School’s (AALS) section of Antitrust Law & Economic Regulation and, in that capacity, has planned and moderated the AALS program “Competition Without Borders: Antitrust Law & the Challenge of Globalization.” In 2005, she also planned and moderated the AALS Scholars’ Showcase program at the American Bar Association (ABA) Antitrust Section annual spring meeting.

In addition to these professional activities, Professor Farmer serves as a member of the advisory board of the American Antitrust Institute; as chair of the AALS Liaison Committee of the ABA Antitrust Section; and as chair of the Professional Education Committee of the ABA Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice Section. Professor Farmer recently lectured on international conspiracies at the 23rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime conference at Cambridge University and gave a presentation on the new United Kingdom sexual offenses law at the Pennsylvania & Delaware Valley Feminist Law Teachers 12th Annual Conference. She is currently co-editing the forthcoming The European Experience with Merger and Deregulation; in Competition Policy and Merger Analysis in Deregulated and Newly Competitive Industries with Peter Carstensen.

Professor Farmer’s teaching and research interests also include criminal law, with emphasis both on white collar crime and on the impact of the criminal justice system on women. Additionally, her teaching responsibilities have included development and supervision of our extensive curricular externship program in which students work in government law offices, judges’ chambers or for non-profit organizations. Professor Farmer has been a visiting professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Susan Brenner

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights University of Dayton School of Law CrimProf Susan Brenner.

Susan Brenner is the NCR Distinguished Professor of Law and Technology at the School of Law. A renowned cybercrime scholar, Professor Brenner speaks internationally and writes extensively on cybercrime. Her website, www.cybercrimes.net, was featured on NBC Nightly News. She is a member of the American Bar Association’s International Cybercrime Project and has served on the National District Attorneys Association’s Committee on Cybercrimes. She is also a member of the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Forensic Science Technology Center Digital Evidence Project.

Cybercrimes, according to Professor Brenner, are using a computer to commit fraud, like theft or stalking, or to commit other illegal activity, like create viruses. Interested in computer technology and the Internet, as well as criminal law, she finds the study of cybercrimes exciting. “There are always new crimes emerging,” she says. Her website offers text-based resources and model legislation for cybercrime law that the students in her cybercrimes class helped develop.

Before joining the School of Law faculty in 1988, Professor Brenner taught at the Indiana University School of Law. She was an associate at Silets and Martin, Ltd., in Chicago, where she defended federal white-collar prosecutions and tax offenses, and at Shellow, Shellow & Glynn in Milawaukee, where she specialized in criminal defense. Professor Brenner has also clerked for two federal district court judges.

[Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Diane Amann

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights UC Davis School of Law CrimProf Diane Amann

Professor Amann's scholarship examines the interaction of national, regional, and international legal regimes in efforts to combat atrocity and cross-border crime. Recent works have focused on legal responses to U.S. policies respecting executive detention at Guantánamo and elsewhere, on the use of foreign and international law in U.S. constitutional decisionmaking, and on trials of deposed leaders in Iraq, Serbia, and West Africa.

Recipient of the law school's 2000 Distinguished Teaching Award, Professor Amann has taught Federal Jurisdiction, Transnational Criminal Law, International Criminal Law, International Human Rights Law, Public International Law, Comparative Constitutional Law, Constitutional Law, Evidence, Criminal Law, and Constitutional Criminal Procedure.

      After receiving her Juris Doctor degree cum laude from the Northwestern University School of Law, she served as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Prentice H. Marshall in Chicago and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, and then practiced federal criminal defense law in San Francisco. Professor Amann has been a professeur invitée at the Faculté de droit, Université de Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne), and a Visiting Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law and the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland-Galway. She was graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and earned a Master of Arts degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles.

      Professor Amann has presented her work in North America, in Europe, and in South Africa. Fora have included: meetings of the American Society of International Law, American Society of Comparative Law, Law and Society Association, International Association of Constitutional Law, and Association of American Law Schools; the Collège de France in Paris; and numerous American law school symposia and faculty workshops.

      Her professional service includes the Board of Advisors of the National Institute of Military Justice; the Executive Committee of the American Society of International Law; and co-chairmanship of ASIL West, a pilot project designed to enhance the Society's regional presence. Professor Amann is an expert member of Réseau ID, a network of French and American scholars and judges studying the internationalization of law, and she wrote the U.S. national report as an expert member of a Paris-based comparative study of military and special tribunals. She helped advise the Serbian government on establishing a special war crimes court, and serves as an expert on a project, cosponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Irish Centre for Human Rights, to draft transitional criminal codes for use in postconflict situations.

      Professor Amann has been quoted and had her work cited in national and foreign media, among them the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Times, KCBS Radio, and the Australian Broadcasting Service. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Dwight Aarons

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights University of Tennessee School of Law CrimProf Dwight Aarons.

Professor Dwight Aarons earned his B.A. degree in 1986 and his J.D. degree in 1989, both from UCLA. He was the editor-in-chief of the National Black Law Journal during his third year of law school. Immediately after graduation from law school, he served for two years as a Staff Attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and then from 1991 through 1993, he was a law clerk to the Honorable Lawrence W. Pierce of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Professor Aarons' particular area of scholarly interest has been the death penalty. At the College of Law, Professor Aarons has been honored as the recipient of the 2003 Harold C. Warner Outstanding Teacher Award; the 2003-04 Forrest W. Lacey Award for Outstanding Contribution to the U.T. College of Law Moot Court Program; and the 2001 Carden Award for Outstanding Service to the Institution.

Professor Aarons has engaged in numerous service activities, including legislative efforts on behalf of the University's professors regarding the changing of course grades, the restoration of voting rights for felons, and the regulation of aerial spraying of pesticides. Professor Aarons has consulted on capital cases in California and Tennessee , and has written amicus briefs to Tennessee appellate courts on criminal law issues.

Some of Professor Aarons' service activities beyond the College include his current service, since 2003, as the Tennessee Assessment Team leader of the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project, which is collecting data on how the death penalty operates within the state, as part of a national study. Professor Aarons served on the Implementation Committee of the Tennessee Supreme Court Commission on Racial and Gender Fairness (1998-2001); the Tennessee Bar Association's Young Lawyers' Division Commission on Women and Minorities in the Profession (1993-1996), and on the American Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division, Minorities in the Profession Planning Board (1992-1996). On behalf of The University of Tennessee, Professor Aarons served on the executive board of the AAUP chapter, and from 1996-1999 he served as a faculty senator in the campus Faculty Senate.

Among his activities at the College of Law , Professor Aarons is the faculty advisor to the Black Law Students Association and the coach of the Frederick Douglass Moot Court team. Locally, Professor Aarons serves as a development consultant a local nonprofit organization after school program in East Knoxville . He has also served as an executive board member of a local community group that monitors and documents complaints of police misconduct.  [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Erik Luna

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law CrimProf Erik Luna

CrimProf Luna graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California, and he received his J.D. with honors from Stanford Law School, where he was an editor of the Stanford Law Review.

Upon graduation, Professor Luna was a prosecutor in the San Diego District Attorney's Office and a fellow and lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He has served as the senior Fulbright Scholar to New Zealand, where he taught at Victoria University Law School and conducted research on restorative justice. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Havana Law School and has taught U.S. constitutional law and criminal justice to judges and attorneys in Cuba.

Professor Luna is the co-director of the Utah Criminal Justice Center, a partnership among the colleges of law, social and behavioral science, and social work, to foster interdisciplinary research and study in criminal justice. Among other professional activities, he serves on the board of directors for the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center and the Salt Lake Legal Defenders Association, and he is a member of the Utah Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on the Rules of Criminal Procedure and the Utah Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Criminal Jury Instructions.

Professor Luna teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, constitutional law, advanced criminal procedure, comparative criminal justice, and juvenile justice. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Blog Spotlight: Blaine LeCesne

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights Loyola University School of Law CrimProf Blaine LeCesne.

Professor LeCesne was employed by the New York law firms of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae (1980-1983), and Weil, Gotshal & Manges (1983-1987).

He served as Deputy City Attorney for the City Attorney of New Orleans from 1987-1989 and was a partner with the law firm of Brook, Morial, Cassibry, Fraiche & Pizza from 1989-1991.

He began his career at Loyola in 1991. Professor LeCesne teaches Louisiana Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, Torts, and Trial Advocacy. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Barbara Armacost

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights Virginia Law CrimProf Barbara Armacost. 

In the fall of 1992, Barbara Armacost returned to the Law School from which she graduated to become a member of the faculty. She teaches civil rights litigation, criminal investigation, torts, and First Amendment (religion clauses).

Armacost became a lawyer after a number of years in the nursing profession. During those years, she served as a head nurse in the cardiovascular unit at the University of Virginia Hospital and worked as a volunteer in a mission hospital in La Pointe, Haiti. In 1984 she earned a Masters Degree in Theological Studies from Regent College at the University of British Columbia. Her work earned her the Master of Theological Studies Proficiency Award and the Ethics Award for Academic Excellence.

Armacost subsequently worked as a paralegal before entering the Law School in 1986. While earning her J.D., she was honored here with the Thomas Marshall Miller Prize, Mary Claiborne and Roy H. Ritter Prize, and election to the Order of the Coif. She also served as notes editor of the Virginia Law Review. After graduation, she clerked for the Honorable J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The following two years she served as attorney adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Stacy Caplow

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights Brooklyn Law School CrimProf Stacy Caplow.

Professor Caplow is the Director of the Law School's Clinical Education Program. A leader in the field of clinical legal education, she recently returned from a sabbatical where first she assisted Hong Kong University in developing a clinical program, and then spent a semester as a Fulbright Scholar at University College Cork, Ireland.

She has been the president of the Clinical Legal Education Association. She is also on the board of editors of the Clinical Legal Review. She is the co-author of Multidefendant Criminal Cases: Federal Law and Procedure (1998 & Supps. 1999, 2000).

Her background includes serving as Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division in the Eastern District of New York, and as Director of Training and Chief of the Criminal Court Bureau in the Kings County District Attorney's Office. She also was a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society. Professor Caplow has been a member of the faculty since 1976. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Jay Clark

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights University of Cincinnati CrimProf Jay Clark. 

CrimProf Clark teaches Forensic Science and Criminal Law: Investigation and Discovery at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

CrimProf Clark has been representing the criminally accused in State and Federal courts for over 15 years in Southern Ohio. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Jay graduated from The Seven Hills School in 1981. He attended Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts where he received a B.A. in Business Management and B.S. in Economics, in 1985. In 1989 he graduated from the University of Cincinnati, College of Law. Jay is a 1996 graduate of the National Criminal Defense College and Advanced Cross Examination Program, in Macon, Georgia.

As a skilled, experienced, and aggressive trial lawyer Jay is actively involved in national, state, and local organizations with the common mission of providing zealous and effective representation to those accused of crime. Jay is on the Board of Directors of the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, where he has served as Co-chair of the Strike Force since 1998. He is also currently the Chairman of the CLE Committee. He is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, where he is Vice-Chair of the Forensic Committee. He is a Past President and Board member of the Greater Cincinnati Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Christo Lassiter

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights University of Cincinnati CrimProf Christo Lassiter

In 1996, Professor Lassiter commented on the draft Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine as part of a project undertaken by the Supreme Court of Ohio. Since 1994, he has lectured and written annual updates on Supreme Court litigation for the Federal Public and Community Defenders Program, and has also led discussions at bench-bar conferences on improving the judicial process for the State Bar of Ohio since 1992.

Locally, Professor Lassiter served as a member of the Hamilton County Criminal Justice Task Force which studied and suggested legal reforms; Professor Lassiter served as the Task Force?s Trial Committee chair in 1992. Beginning in 1994, Professor Lassiter served on the Cincinnati Bar Association?s Law Day Committee as the script writer for a two hour televised discussion on constitutional issues of interest to high school students. The program received second place in the ABA 1996 Outstanding Law Day Activities Award competition when Professor Lassiter became chair of the Committee. In 1997, Professor Lassiter led a discussion on professional ethics in the CBA?s Cincinnati Academy of Leadership for Lawyers, and also lectured on ?The Death Penalty in the United States: Historically and Today? at a symposium sponsored by the College of Law. Professor Lassiter was a consultant for ?The Affair,? a joint HBO - BBC production concerning the U.S. military?s use of the death penalty for interracial rape during World War II.

Finally, in his most exciting and professionally rewarding endeavor, Professor Lassiter happily coached, ?Christo's Angels,? the law women's softball team to the All University Intramural Championship in 2000.  [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: David Chang

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights New York Law School CrimProf David Chang.

At first glance, David Chang’s reserved exterior belies the deep feelings he has for righting society’s wrongs, especially with regard to racial discrimination. But his passion and commitment to addressing these issues quickly become clear not only through his conversation and writings, but also through his actions.

Former cochair of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, Professor Chang worked hard to combat some of the City’s most heinous incidents of brutality and to push for legislative remedies through the passage of anti-hate crimes statutes.

“Hate-motivated violence is perhaps the most fundamental denial of community and human rights,” he says with conviction. He has written extensively on hate crimes legislation and the constitutionality of affirmative action policies, finding himself “almost obsessed with the problems of achieving racial justice in a fundamentally racist society.” He has also worked with the Los Angeles-based Center for Law in the Public Interest. He is now chairman of the Board of Directors of Pratt Area Community Council, an organization that serves a wide range of housing-related needs for low- and moderate-income residents of Brooklyn.

His scholarship has been recognized as outstanding. In 1992, New York Law School presented the Walter M. Jeffords Distinguished Writing Award to Professor Chang for his article, “Discriminatory Impact, Affirmative Action, and Innocent Victims: Judicial Conservatism or Conservative Justices?” (Columbia Law Review, 1991) and in 2001, the Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award for his article, “Selling the Market-Driven Message: Commercial Television, Consumer Sovereignty, and the First Amendment” (Minnesota Law Review, 2000).

While at Yale Law School, where he received a J.D. in 1982, Professor Chang became interested in First Amendment issues and constitutional litigation, due in part to a summer internship with the in-house counsel at The Washington Post. He also realized during his first year at law school that he wanted to teach, finding his Yale professors inspiring. “I found that I enjoyed the academic approach to exploring questions; to coming up with better ways of thinking about problems,” he explains.

Professor Chang, who has been on the New York Law School faculty since 1983, brings this appreciation for intellectual development into his classroom.

“I am very impressed with New York Law School students, and find them serious and committed. Their accomplishments, especially among the Evening Division students, are often amazing,” he says.

Outside of academics, Professor Chang also has many passions, including restoration of his Victorian-style brownstone in Brooklyn, pool, golf, photography, and his dog Kenya. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Charles Bobis

This week the Crimprof Blog spotlights St. John's University School of Law CrimProf Charles Bobis.

Professor Bobis served as law clerk to Justice Benjamin J. Rabin of the New York State Appellate Division, First Judicial Department and as Law Assistant to the Justices of the same court. He later practiced for ten years as a trial attorney with the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society of the City of New York before joining the law faculty.

He is a member of the American Bar Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and serves on the faculty of several trial advocacy programs in New York City.

He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Criminal Law Institute of the School of Law. Professor Bobis is co-author of Real Estate Brokerage-Law and Practice. He teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Legal Method. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Janet Ainsworth

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights Seattle University School of Law CrimProf Janet Ainsworth.

Janet Ainsworth recieved her B.A. magna cum laude Brandeis University in 1974: Phi Beta Kappa. She recieved her M.A. for Yale University 1977. She also recieved her J.D. cum laude Harvard Law School 1980.

Professor Ainsworth was employed by the King County (Seattle) Public Defender’s Office from 1980-88, where she was staff attorney in the felony and appellate divisions and later served as training coordinator.

She currently sits on the board of directors of the Public Defender Association, and has authored amicus curiae briefs in the state and federal courts and to the U.S. Supreme Court. She joined the faculty in 1988. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Blog Spotlight: Leah Wortham

This week the Crim Prof Blog spotlights The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law CrimProf Leah Wortham.

Professor Wortham joined the faculty at Catholic University in 1981.  After graduation from Harvard Law School in 1973, she was a poverty lawyer with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society and served as managing attorney of the main office.  From 1975-1977, she was a legislative assistant to Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman with responsibilities including the Criminal Justice Subcommittee and women’s and insurance issues.  From 1977-79, she was assistant for policy planning to the President of the Legal Services Corporation in which she ran a participation and consultation process involving task forces of lawyers, clients, and board members, and seven regional conferences to produce a strategic plan for the future. 

In 1981, she moved to the U.S. International Development Cooperation Agency, an umbrella agency supervising the Agency for International Development, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the Trade and Development Program.  There she served first as executive assistant to the director and then as deputy associate director for policy and budget.

    After joining the CUA faculty, Professor Wortham served for nine years as a clinical coordinator with responsibility for coordination and curriculum development of clinical programs and development and supervision of the extern program. She was associate dean for external and student affairs from 1990-1995.  From 1987-1995, she chaired the Law School Building Committee and was 6 in charge of law school participation in architect selection and all phases of planning for the construction and move to a $33 million project.

     Much of Professor Wortham’s teaching and professional activities center on the professional responsibility of lawyers.  She has taught the required professional responsibility course since 1983.  She wrote the 50+ page rule-by-rule comparison of the D.C. and Model Rules of Professional Conduct which is given to all new admittees to the D.C. Bar.  She co-chairs the faculty for the ethics portion of the mandatory course for new admittees and regularly teaches in that program to groups as large as 500+.  She served for six years on the Ethics Committee of the D.C. Bar, which issues informal guidance and formal opinions on interpretation of the D.C. Rules, including as vice-chair and chair.  Since 1998, she has been a D.C. Board of Professional Responsibility Hearing Committee member, sitting in disciplinary hearings and serving as a contact member to review the bar counsel’s recommendations for dismissal, informal admonition, and prosecution.  She regularly teaches continuing legal education courses and speaks to bar groups on professional responsibility topics.  With Professor Lerman, she taught one of the first Comparative Legal Ethics courses given by an American law school in CUA’s summer program in Cracow, Poland.  She has reviewed a number of lawyer regulation codes for other countries through the American Bar Association Central and Eastern European Law Initiative.

     Professor Wortham’s other area of academic concentration is clinical education.  With CUA Professors Ogilvy and Lerman, she edited the first textbook for general externship clinical courses, Learning From Practice: A Professional Development Text For Legal Externs, for which she also wrote three chapters and much of the teacher’s manual.  She assisted faculty from Jagiellonian University to secure grants from the Ford Foundation to establish the first legal clinic in Poland.  That clinic, established in 1997-98, has served as a model for others in the country and the region.  Professor Wortham, with CUA Professor Klein, serves as a mentor in hosting clinicians from the region in the United States and making visits to the region to provide technical assistance and participate in conferences designed to encourage the establishment of clinical programs.  Professor Wortham provides advice to Klinika, the first student-edited law journal in Poland, established by faculty and staff of the Jagiellonian clinic.  Currently, she is involved in several projects to encourage the teaching of professional responsibility in clinics and classroom courses in other parts of the world.

     Professor Wortham also teaches criminal law.  She formerly taught insurance and is the author of two articles on rating classification.

     Professor Wortham graduated from Harvard Law School in 1973 and from Macalester College in 1970, summa cum laude and with Phi Beta Kappa membership.  Since 1995, she has been a member of the Macalester College Board of Trustees and serves as Chair of the Honorary Degree Committee.  She was presented the Macalester College Distinguished Citizen Award in 1995 and was named 1991 Woman of the Year (Mary J. Flynn Award) by the Catholic University Women’s Commission.

     Through the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education, she served on eight law school accreditation teams from 1991-1997.  She chairs the ABA Section’s Law School Facilities Committee, which organized "Bricks, Bytes, and Continuous Renovation," a national conference held at Catholic University and other D.C. schools in March 2000. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Markus Dubber

After attending Harvard College and Stanford Law School, Markus D. Dubber served as a judicial clerk for Gerard Bard Tjoflat, then chief judge of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. After a year as a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago, he began teaching at SUNY in 1993. In 2000-2001, he held a Humboldt Research Fellowship at the Institute of Legal Philosophy, University of Munich, and spent the fall of 2001 as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

Dubber is the founding director of the Buffalo Criminal Law Center and the founding editor of the Buffalo Criminal Law Review. He is a member of the American Law Institute and of the Editorial Board of the Law & History Review. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Spotlight: Michelle Simon

This week the CrimProf Blog spotlights Pace Law School CrimProf Michelle Simon.

Michelle Simon joined the faculty in 1985. Prior to coming to Pace, she was a law clerk to Magistrate A. Simon Chrein in the Eastern District of New York, and an associate at the firm of Wilson, Elser, M