CrimProf Blog

Call for Presentations and Workshops

Conference Date: August 19-22, 2009
Location: New Orleans, LA

Submissions Due: January 30, 2009 before 7:00 pm, Eastern Time
Theme: Solving Problems with Geography and Technology
View the call for papers

Please note: The Tenth Crime Mapping Research Conference was originally scheduled for March 2008. If you submitted a paper at that time, it will be counted. If you want to update your original submission, make a note that you are updating a previous submission.

NIJ Conference 2009  *  June 15–17, 2009  *  Marriott Crystal Gateway  *  Arlington, Virginia

Stay Connected with NCJRS! Register Now! Free registration with NCJRS keeps you informed about new publications, grant and funding opportunities, and other news and announcements. To register, visit: http://www.ncjrs.gov/subreg.html [Mark Godsey]

Federal Death Penalty Panel

As part of the annual meeting of the American Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association will host a panel on "The Crisis in the Federal Death Penalty," on Monday, August 11, from 10 a.m. to noon.  Besides myself, the panelists will be Hon. Frederick Block, U.S. District Judge, Eastern District of New York; Loretta E. Lynch, former U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of New York and currently a partner at Hogan & Hartson; and federal death penalty practitioner Jean Barrett of Ruhnke & Barrett.

The panel will explore the increase in federal death penalty prosecutions over the past eight years, especially in non-death penalty States.

The panel discussion will take place at the New York City Bar Association at 42 West 44th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues. [Mike Mannheimer]

Seton Hall Hosts Repeal of Death Penalty in New Jersey

Today Seton Hall University School of Law sponsored a day-long conference, LEGISLATION, LITIGATION, REFLECTION AND REPEAL: The Legislative Abolition of the Death Penalty in NJ, which explored the events and advocacy that led to the repeal of the death penalty in New Jersey and proposed ideas for models that could be adapted by other states across the country. The event was hosted by Seton Hall Law Dean Patrick Hobbs and Hon. James Zazzali, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Governor Jon Corzine, who served as the luncheon speaker commented, “There were many reasons to ban the death penalty in New Jersey. It is difficult, if not impossible, to devise a humane technique of execution that is not cruel and unusual, and to develop a foolproof system that precludes the possibility of executing the innocent. New Jersey spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to maintain its capital punishment system since 1982, even though it had not carried out a single execution for more than four decades, demonstrating little collective will or appetite to enforce this law.

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National Innocence Network Conference to Take Place at Santa Clara University

Innocence Network Conference: The national Innocence Network Conference will take place this year at Santa Clara University, home base of the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP). The three-day conference, which brings together hundreds of people who work against wrongful convictions, is planned for March 28-30.

Among those attending the event are attorneys, educators, civic and business leaders, and exonerated individuals who have been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned. John Van de Kamp, former state attorney general, will participate in the conference, along with speakers representing Innocence Projects from Hawaii, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, New York and New Orleans, including the co-founders of the first Innocence Project, professors Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld of Cardozo School of Law.

Those assisting with the conference from SCU include law professors Gerald Uelman, who is director of the California Commission for the Fair Administration of Justice and Kathleen "Cookie" Ridolfi, director of the NCIP. The event is aimed at Network members but is open to anyone interested.

According to Ridolfi, "The Innocence Network Conference is a rich educational forum for policy and litigation issues concerning wrongful conviction. It allows those working within the Network to come together and share strategies to litigate innocence claims and to confer on and advance policy initiatives to address causes of and remedies for wrongful conviction."

Activities throughout the three-day event include meetings, panel discussions, special presentations and sessions designed specifically for exonerees. One objective of the conference, say organizers, is to provide an opportunity for exonerees to find social and emotional support from others who have suffered similar experiences. [Mark Godsey]

Widener Law School Hosts the First CrimTorts Conference

About 75 people gathered on Widener’s Harrisburg campus Monday, Feb. 25 for the first national conference on “Crimtorts,” the expanding middle ground between criminal and tort law.

A host of distinguished academics and legal experts explored the novel concept, including Professors Thomas H. Koenig and Michael L. Rustad, the men who coined the Crimtorts term. Crimtorts represents the blurring line between tort law and the criminal law principles of punishment and deterrence.

“There has been a defacto crimtort regime enacted in the states,” said Rustad, the Thomas F. Lambert Jr. Professor of Law and Co-Director of Intellectual Property Concentration at Suffolk University School of Law in Boston. [Mark Godsey]

CrimProf Bruce Winick Speaks at "Mental Disorder and the Criminal Law: Responsibility, Punishment, and Competence" Conference

University of Miami Law School CrimProf Bruce Winick will be a guest-speaker at a Conference held at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln titled "Mental Disorder and the Criminal Law: Responsibility, Punishment, and Competence." Professor Winick’s talk is entitled “Determining When Serious Mental Illness Should Disqualify a Defendant from Capital Punishment.”

In Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits capital punishment for those with mental retardation in view of their reduced culpability. This presentation examines substantive and procedural questions regarding the application of Atkins to offenders who manifest mental illness that reduces their culpability to a similar degree.

[Mark Godsey]

John Jay College of Criminal Justice Hosts "Off the Witness Stand"

John Jay College of Criminal Justice will host the conference "Off The Witness Stand: Using Psychology in the Practice of Justice" to mark the 100th anniversary of Hugo Munsterberg's "On The Witness Stand" on March 1-3, 2007. 

Exactly one hundred years ago, Hugo Munsterberg, William James’s hand-picked successor as the director of Harvard’s Psychology Laboratory, rattled the gates of the criminal justice system, and announced that the social sciences wanted in.

Munsterberg offered to pay for his admission with an astonishing series of essays later collected in the book On The Witness Stand. Munsterberg saw the questions that bedeviled the legal system—“Can witness memory be trusted?”, “Can liars be exposed?”, “Can confessions be untruthful?”, “Can crime be prevented?”—and he claimed that his new science had the answers. He was met with derision in some quarters, with patronizing skepticism in others: “When the psychologists are ready for the courts,” Dean John Henry Wigmore wrote, “the courts will be ready for the psychologists.” The gates stayed locked.

Today, a growing litany of DNA exonerations makes us painfully aware that too often we get the wrong man, and let the real perpetrator go without charge. The DNA exoneration cases also tell us that the sources of many of our mistakes lie just where Munsterberg said they might: in faulty eyewitness testimony; in a failure to understand the nature of witness memory; in interrogation and investigation techniques that aggravate the chances for error.

More and more, we realize that if police investigators, litigators, and judges engage the scientists who are Munsterberg’s heirs—and if the scientists learn to value the lessons of justice practice—we may be able to develop the ability to produce better evidence and the ability to evaluate that evidence in the justice system.

“Off the Witness Stand” will bring scientists and justice system practitioners and policy-makers together to see where we stand now in answering Munsterberg’s call to inform practice with science (and science with practice), how we got here and where we are going. The conference will include presentations by psychologists, by practitioners from many points of the criminal justice compass, and by leaders in justice system reform on topics including : perception, witness memory and testimony, deception detection, confessions, forensic assessment, competency and treatment in forensic settings, expert testimony, jury decision making, courtroom procedures, crime prevention, and the influence of psychological research on the legal system.

Plenary and other invited speakers include former United States Attorney General Janet Reno, Thomas Grisso, Saul Kassin, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Loftus, John Monahan, Steve Penrod, Barry Scheck, and Gary Wells. More Info. . . [Mark Godsey]

The University of Colorado School of Law Hosts "Cautions and Confessions: Miranda vs. Arizona After 40 Years"

The University of Colorado School of Law is hosting the Conference, "Cautions and Confessions: Miranda vs. Arizona After 40 Years," on October 20-21.

This conference will commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Miranda decision with presentations of cutting-edge research and commentary by social scientists, historians, legal scholars, and judges on confessions, pre-trial investigative tactics, and the impact of Miranda on criminal procedure.

Nationally renowned experts in the field will address a variety of topics including: interrogation law during the War on Terror; the potential for technology, including videotaping, to make interrogation less coercive; whether Miranda is either doctrinally coherent or successful in protecting suspects' rights; and the nature of interrogations and confessions in the 18th and 19th centuries.   

Yale Kamisar will present the Keynote Address. Other scheduled speakers are Albert Alschuler, Margareth Etienne, Mark Godsey, Judge Morris Hoffman, Richard Leo, Wesley Oliver, John Parry, Jacqueline Ross, Bruce Smith, George Thomas III, Melissa Waters.  The commentators will be
Stephanos Bibas, William Pizzi, Michael Radelet, Carolyn Ramsey, and Bruce Smith.

More Information. . . [Mark Godsey]

National Crime Lab Directors Symposium: Managing the Technical Side of Forensics

The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors (ASCLD) is holding its 34th Annual Workshop and Symposium, "Practical Issues Facing Crime Laboratory Managers: Managing the Technical Side of Forensics," Tues, Oct. 3 through Thurs., Oct. 5 at the San Francisco Marriott. 

A common challenge facing all crime lab directors is how to manage the increasing forensic evidence backlogs -- including fingerprints, controlled substances, trace evidence, DNA and toxicology. At last check, the largest 50 laboratories in the U.S. more than doubled their backlogs of unprocessed evidence.  "Most crime labs in our country are located in aging facilities, face growing backlogs, lack equipment, and are not fully staffed...Most forensic funding is going to DNA-only, and we need to change this or everything else suffers," says Earl Wells, President of ASCLD.  The issue of funding forensic science is currently in discussion between U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives negotiators, as part of the federal government's criminal justice budget for next year.

The symposium is being sponsored by Marshall University, a member of the Forensic Resource Network, through its cooperative agreement with the National Institute of Justice. More information. . . [Michele Berry]

What Made Bad, Bad Leroy Brown so "Bad"?

Just think of what'll happen if the hosts of Virginia's Ethics in Tune CLE get ahold of CalWestern's iPod format.  The Ethics in Tune CLE, held September 26, is a "tuneful and nostalgic legal ethics seminar [that] presents complex legal ehtics scenarios as expertly performed parodies of some of the greatest rock-and-roll hits of the 60s, accompanied by acoustic guitar and sung by professional classic rock performers.  The Beatles, The Who, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, and many others find their works transformed into tnew versions that tell stories of lawyers facing ethical difficulties while somehow retaining the flavor and spark of the original hit songs." (emphasis added)

Among the song parodies included and the issues addressed:
• Overture: “Tommy” Medley. Basic duties in the attorney-client relationship.
• The Ballad of Fagin Snow (“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”). Supervisor/subordinate, deceptive tactics, candor toward the tribunal.
• A Day in the Court (“A Day in the Life”). Courtroom tactics, dirty tricks, fraud on the court, false evidence and misrepresentations.
• What 1.6 Is for (“When I’m Sixty-Four”). Ethical considerations when changing firms, conflicts, confidentiality.
• The Dentist (“The Boxer”). Joint representations, hearing too much, conflicts, confidentiality, the incompetent client.
• Scum and Pain (“Fire and Rain”). Former clients, duty to warn, confidentiality, conflicts, competing duties.
• The Day My Ethics Died (“American Pie”). Sarbanes-Oxley, communication, honesty, organization representation, and more.  [Michele Berry]

National Crime Victim Law Institute Hosts Fifth Annual Conference

Lewis & Clark Law School’s National Crime Victim Law Institute sponsors its fifth conference exclusively for civil rights lawyers who defend the rights of crime victims in the criminal process. The conference, titled “The Power of One, the Strength of Many: Advancing Victims’ Rights,” is scheduled for June 16 and 17 in Portland, Oregon.

“Crime victim law is still an emerging area of law,” said Executive Director Doug Beloof. “But with the passage of the Federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act, victim law is becoming more and more part of the fabric of the criminal justice system and attorneys, judges, and advocates need to be aware of it.”

Established in 2000, the National Crime Victim Law Institute is the only national organization working to assert victims’ rights in criminal trial and appellate courts. More. . . [Mark Godsey]

April 25 Symposium to Explore Victims’ Interests vs. Defendants’ Rights in Upcoming Trial of Khmer Rouge Leader

Newark, NJ, April 21, 2006 – International criminal tribunals for human rights violations increasingly grant the desire of victims to participate at some level in the trial process. Balancing the recognized interests of victims with the rights of defendants to a fair trial raises significant practical and legal challenges.

On Tuesday, April 25, at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, specialists in international law, comparative law, evidence and procedure, and international criminal procedure as well as Cambodian experts will examine the extent to which victims will have a role in the upcoming trial of senior Khmer Rouge officials for the death of at least 1.7 million Cambodians. “The Extraordinary Chamber of Cambodia/The Khmer Rouge Tribunal: Balancing Victims’ Needs Against Defendants’ Rights” is co-sponsored by the law school’s Global Legal Studies program, the International Center for Transitional Justice, and the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam). Rutgers-Newark hosts the U.S. office of DC-Cam. In addition to representatives from the co-sponsoring organizations, the program will include the following speakers:

Who: Dr. Widhya Chem, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Cambodia to the United Nations

David Hutchinson, Office of Legal Affairs,United Nations

Dr. Kelly Dawn Askin, Open Society Justice Initiative

Professor Jaya Ramji, Georgetown University Law Center and advisor to the Documentation Center of Cambodia

Professor Roger Clark, Rutgers School of Law-Camden

Professor Beth Stephens, Rutgers School of Law-Camden, a Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) cooperating attorney

Socheata Poeuv, journalist and independent filmmaker

What: “The Extraordinary Chamber of Cambodia/The Khmer Rouge Tribunal: Balancing Victims’ Needs Against Defendants’ Rights”

When: 8:30 am – 5:30 pm, Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Where: Rutgers School of Law-Newark

Contact: Janet Donohue, Manager of Public Relations, t: 973-353-5553, f: 973-353-1717, or [email protected]

Eyewitness ID Conference, April 21

The Loyola Chicago Public Interest Law Reporter will sponsor a conference on New Policies, New Practices: Fresh Perspectives on Eyewitness Identification on April 21.  Among the lawyers speaking will be Patrick Fitzgerald, Thomas Sullivan and Dan Webb.  Among psychologists will be Gary Wells, Ebbe Ebbesen and Roy Malpass. 

The topics will include a discussion of the new Illinois Pilot Program on Sequential Double-Blind Identification Procedures released this last week.  One of the conclusions reached in the program report: "Surprisingly, the Illinois data did not bear out the research experiments that sequential, double-blind lineups produce a lower rate of known false identifications. Instead, the sequential, double-blind procedures resulted in an overall higher rate of known false identifications than did the simultaneous lineups."

For more information, visit the conference website:  http://www.luc.edu/law/activities/publications/pilrsymposium/index.shtml

Conference in the Caribbean: Legal Services to the Poor and Marginalized

The Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference and the American and Caribbean Law Initiatve are proud to present TRADE & LEGAL AID: Tools for Economic Development and Independence.  Our joint conference will be held in beautiful Nassau, Bahamas at the British Colonial Hilton from July 6 to July 8, 2006.  We will be exploring two themes important to the Caribbean: the recurrent tensions between sovereignty and trade and economic development and the challenge of delivering legal services to the poor and marginalized.

REGISTER EARLY!  The conference registration fee covers three days of programming and a full buffet lunch on each day.  The registration fee is $225 if you register before May 19^th, $300 if you register from May 20^th to June 19^th and $375 if you register from June 20^th to on-site registration at the conference. 

BOOK YOUR HOTEL ROOM EARLY!  The conference has set aside a limited block of guestrooms at the British Colonial Hilton in Nassau, Bahamas.  This hotel will also be the site of all conference programs.  You can check out their website at:  http://hiltoncaribbean.com/nassau/ 

Please note that the block of rooms is only being held until May 22^nd, 2006.

The guestroom rate for the conference is $145 (single occupancy) / $155 (double occupancy) per night plus taxes and fees for a deluxe floor city view guestroom or $185 (single occupancy) / $195 (double occupancy) per night for a deluxe floor ocean view guestroom.  There is an additional fee of $20 per night for a third adult staying in the same room.  Children under the age of 18 can stay free in the same room with their parent (max: 2 children).

All attendees interested in reserving a guestroom at the British Colonial Hilton must download and complete the Hitlon Guest Reservation Request form and must return the form to the conference travel agent.  You cannot get the conference rate via the Internet or calling yourself.

VISIT THE CONFERENCE WEBSITE  For all the relevant forms and for more information on registering for the conference, booking a hotel room, booking flights, arranging transportation to/from the airport, and for more programming details, please visit the conference website at  http://www.nsulaw.nova.edu/caribbean

[Mark Godsey, thanks to Elaine Chiu]

Harvard Conference on Barriers to Convict Reentry

Details here. 

Sentencing Symposium Brings CrimProfs to Pacific McGeorge

A 2005 Supreme Court decision that changed a key part of the federal sentencing system drew a panel of distinguished legal scholars from around the country to Pacific McGeorge on March 10.

Pacific McGeorge Professor Michael Vitiello introduced the lineup for the symposium on U.S. v. Booker. Among the speakers was distinguished constitutional law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky of Duke Law School.

The Booker Court declared that the judges’ federal sentencing guidelines were invalid and that the 6 th Amendment required juries, not judges, to find facts relevant to sentencing. The symposium, sponsored by the McGeorge Law Review, explored criminal sentencing in the post-Booker world.

Participants included: Professor Diane Coursell, University of Wyoming School of Law; Norman Bay, University of New Mexico School of Law; Benji McMurray, law clerk, U.S. 10 th Circuit Court of Appeals; Professor Michael O’Hear, Marquette University Law School; Professor Deborah Young, Cumberland School of Law; Professor Myrna Raeder, Southwestern University School of Law; Professor Peter Henning, Wayne State University Law School; Professor Eric Luna, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law; and Professor Barton Poulson, Utah Valley State College.

For more information about any story or event, contact Mike Curran, Publications/Media Relations, [email protected] or 916-739-7115

UCLA Law Hosts "The Faces of Wrongful Conviction" April 7-9

From UCLA Law: Since 1990, over 200 people have been wrongfull convicted and exonerated in California. Join us as we discuss the issues surrounding wrongful conviction, highlighting the unbelievable and undeniably true stories of men and women from across the state.   

April 7-9, 2006 UCLA Law Hosts: THE FACES OF WRONGFUL CONVICTION

Visit www.stopwrongfulconvictions.org

Registration Starts at $25. Offering 17.5 Hours of MCLE Credit (including Ethics and the Elimination of Bias)

LatCrit Call for Papers

WORKING AND LIVING IN THE GLOBAL PLAYGROUND: FRONTSTAGE AND BACKSTAGE, University of Nevada Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law, October 5-8, 2006. Materials here.

Maryland Law: Part Two of "Rethinking Crime and Punishment in America" Series scheduled for March 8

Part Two of "Rethinking Crime and Punishment in America: Report from the ABA Justice Kennedy Commission" on Wednesday, March 8, 2006 from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. at the University of Maryland School of Law.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy challenged the American Bar Association to study the criminal justice system and to "help start a new public discussion about the prison system." Justice Kennedy concluded that "[o]ur resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences too long."

Prisoner Re-entry is the topic for the second panel discussion in this series. Participants will examine the importance of rehabilitation as a punishment goal, of collateral consequences of convictions, and of preparing prisoners for release, which increases the likelihood of successful community reentry and decreases the chance of re-incarceration. Invited to attend are:

Steven Saltzburg
Chair for the Kennedy Commission and Professor of Law, George Washington School of Law

Tomi Hiers
Executive Assistant to the Deputy Secretary for Operations, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correction Services

Mike Thompson
Director, Criminal Justice Program for the Council on State Governments

Rada Moss
Director for The Maryland Re-Entry Partnership.

Closing remarks will be given by Michael Pinard, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Maryland School of Law.

The forum will be moderated by the Honorable Andre Davis, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, and will take place in the Ceremonial Moot Court Room at the University of Maryland School of Law, 500 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.

This Forum is part of a three panel series entitled "Rethinking Crime and Punishment in America: Report from the ABA Justice Kennedy Commission" that presents the findings of the ABA's Kennedy Commission, a year long, comprehensive examination of the US criminal justice system. It is sponsored by The Open Society Institute Baltimore, University of Maryland School of Law, American Bar Association and the Maryland State Bar Association.

Please RSVP to Justin Schaberg at OSI-Baltimore at 410-234-1092 ext. 213 or at [email protected] by March 6, 2006.

Innocence Network Conference at U of W March 17-19

The 2006 Innocence Network Conference will be held from Friday, March 17th through Sunday March 19th at the University of Washington School of Law  in Seattle, Washington.  You can register for the conference at: http://www.uwcle.org/schedule.htm  Early registration (especially at the $175 level) will assist us in determining whether we can offer a Saturday evening dinner at the University of Washington Club with the registration fee. 

Hotel rooms are reserved (single/$99 and double/$109) at a nearby University Tower Hotel, 4507 Brooklyn Avenue NE, Seattle; telephone 800-899-0251 or 206.634.2000.  Please note that room reservations should be made by February 16, 2006, after which time rooms will be available on a space-available basis only. Be sure to mention the "Innocence Project Network" when making your room reservation. http://www.universitytowerhotel.com/. For those traveling on  limited budgets, the College Inn hotel in the University District is  quite inexpensive: http://www.collegeinnseattle.com/#rates

The tentative schedule includes  meetings (Innocence Network  Board Meeting /Innocence Network Member Meeting) on Friday, March 17th from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.  Our first plenary session will begin at 5:00 p.m., and the conference will go through noon on Sunday, March 19th.

Confirmed sessions include:

---"The Year in Review:"  Moderated by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld

---"The Progress of Eyewitness Identification Procedure Reform"  - Panelists include Dr. Gary Wells (Professor, Iowa State University), Keith Findley (Wisconsin), Chris Mumma (North Carolina), Stanley Fisher (Massachussetts) and Shawn Armbrust (Washington D.C.).

---"Innocence as a Wedge: Can Exonerations Help Challenge Mass Incarceration?"  - Moderated by Colin Starger.

---"The Life and Times of Commissions" - Moderated by Robert Hoelscher.  Panelists include Keith Findley,  (Wisconsin, Avery Task Force) ;     Chris  Mumma  (North Carolina, Actual Innocence Commission ); Andrew Vail  (Illinois, Commission on Capital Punishment) .

---"DNA for Dummies" - Mark Godsey

---"Innocence and the Death Penalty" - Panelists include David Dow (Texas Innocence Network); Daniel Givelber and Nina Morrison (Innocence Project)

---"The History of Wrongful Convictions" - Moderated by Daniel Medwed, Panelists include:  Bruce Smith (University of Illinois).

---"Innocence Policy Network" - Moderated by Stephen  Saloom

---A special screening of:  "The Trials of Darryl Hunt" followed by a Q & A session with Darryl Hunt and his attorney, Mark Rabil.

---"International Innocence Issues" - Moderated by Lynne Weathered (Australia).  Panelists include Robert Schehr (USA) ; Gary Botting (Canada); Carole McCartney (England)

---"Starting an Innocence Project" - Justin Brooks

---"Investigative Techniques" -- Diana Queen

Other sessions promise to be equally interesting.  We are also planning a number of  roundtable sessions, as well as sessions and workshops for exonerees.