Events

March 27, 2024 — The onset of the #BlackLivesMatter Era has opened scrutiny over what exactly should be police's goals and responsibilities in today's society. Can the police be trusted guardians of security and justice simultaneously? What are the pathways toward institutional change, whatever that may look like? And how are police departments themselves strategically navigating these efforts? This discussion engaged those questions with the authors of three new books: Tony Cheng: The Policing Machine: Enforcement, Endorsements, & the Illusion of Public Input; Michael Sierra- Arévalo, The Danger Imperative: Violence, Death and the Soul of Policing; Michelle Phelps, The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America. This discussion was moderated by Andrea Leverentz, Professor of Sociology at NC State University. This panel was sponsored by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law and the Department of Sociology at Duke University.

March 4, 2024 — The recent high-profile murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others have brought renewed attention to the dangers of police misconduct and the resulting harm to Black and Brown people and communities, in particular. How do we ensure public safety for all, including those harmed by or at risk of harm by police misconduct? And how can we effectively hold police accountable for that misconduct? This panel on these issues was moderated by Professor Ben Grunwald of Duke Law School and featured Dawn Blagrove, Executive Director of Emancipate NC; Tony Cheng, Author of The Policing Machine: Enforcement, Endorsements, and the Illusion of Public Input; and Joanna Schwartz, Author of Shielded, How the Police Became Untouchable. Sponsored by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law, Emancipate NC, the Duke Criminal Defense Clinic, and the Duke chapter of the National Lawyers Guild

February 29, 2024  — Jocelyn Simonson is a Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School and author of Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People are Dismantling Mass Incarceration. Simonson's scholarship explores bottom-up interventions in the criminal legal system, such as bail funds, copwatching, courtwatching, and participatory defense, asking how these real-life interventions should inform our conceptions of the design of criminal justice institutions, the discourse of constitutional rights, and the meaning of democratic justice. This Q&A and discussion was moderated by Professor Brandon Garrett.

February 5, 2024 — Kristin Henning is the Blume Professor of Law and Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown Law. She previously worked for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where she was Lead Attorney for the Juvenile Unit. Henning discussed her book The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth with Professor Crystal Grant, Director of the Children’s Law Clinic. Sponsored by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice and the Children’s Law Clinic. This event was the part of the Wilson Center’s Novel Justice Series, which invites authors of recent scholarship on the criminal legal system to discuss their work.

September 29, 2023 — Laura Menninger is an experienced trial lawyer who has handled nationally prominent cases, with a focus on criminal defense and civil rights. In this Q&A moderated by Professor Brandon Garrett, Menninger discusses her work, with a focus on key evidentiary disputes that shaped high-profile litigation, pre-trial and at trial. Sponsored by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law.

April 26, 2023 — In recognition of National Second Chance Month, panelists Tyrone Baker, Scallarneize Holloman, and Randall Jenkins, shared their stories of life after incarceration and how they navigated the process of re-entry. The panel was moderated by Brian Scott, Executive Director of Our Journey, a non-profit that helps formerly incarcerated people bridge the gap from prison to freedom. Sponsored by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law and the Durham County District Attorney's Office.

April 12, 2023 — Maggie Lederer, J.D. Candidate at Duke University School of Law discussed her recent paper "Not So Civil Commitment: A Proposal for Statutory Reform Grounded in Procedural Justice." Marvin Swartz, Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Director, Duke AHEC Program and Faculty Member, Wilson Center for Science and Justice as well as Mark Botts, Associate Professor of Public Law and Government at the UNC School of Government offered comments followed by an audience Q&A. Sponsored by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice and Duke Psychiatry and Behavioral Health.

April 3, 2023 — Jeffrey Bellin is the Cabell Research Professor and Mills E. Godwin, Jr., Professor of Law at William and Mary Law School. His latest book, Mass Incarceration Nation: How the United States Became Addicted to Prisons and Jails and How it Can Recover, offers a novel, in-the-trenches perspective to explain the factors - historical, political, and institutional - that led to the current system of mass imprisonment in the United States. The book examines the causes and impacts of mass incarceration on both the political and criminal justice systems. Novel Justice is a book event series sponsored by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice. We invite authors to discuss recently published criminal justice books and to engage in Q&A with faculty and students.