Events

November 3, 2021 — Carissa Hessick is the Ransdell Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law, where she also serves as the director of the Prosecutors and Politics Project. Her book, Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining Is a Bad Deal, a provocative and timely exploration of how plea bargaining prevents true criminal justice reform and how we can fix it. Moderated by Brandon Garrett. Sponsored by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice. Novel Justice is a book event series hosted 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.

November 1, 2021 — Journalism is one of the most powerful mediums in storytelling, education and shining a light on systemic injustices. Criminal justice reporting, in particular, can be crucial to bridging a gap between those who have experienced the system and those who have not. Journalists covering this beat educate the masses about complex legal systems and processes, and often bring to the forefront underrepresented issues. Join us for a roundtable discussion with renowned journalists who cover the criminal legal system. Speakers are Emily Bazelon, a staff writer at New York Times Magazine, author and a lecturer in law, senior research scholar in law, and Truman Capote Fellow at Yale Law School; Madeleine Baran, an investigative reporter for APM Reports and the host and lead reporter of the podcast In the Dark; Liliana Segura, an award-winning investigative journalist at The Intercept; and Carlos Ballesteros, a reporter at Injustice Watch. Moderated by Melissa Boughton. Sponsored by the Wilson Center and co-sponsored by the Criminal Law Society.

September 29, 2021 — Henry McCollum and Leon Brown were intellectually disabled teenagers (brothers) when they were coerced into confessing to a murder they didn't commit and sentenced to death. They spent 31 years in prison before DNA testing proved their innocence, and by the time of their release in 2014, Henry had served the longest death row sentence in North Carolina. Join the Wilson Center for Science and Justice for a discussion with Ken Rose, former director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, attorney and death penalty abolitionist, and David Maxwell, a Duke Law alum ('14) and attorney at Hogan Lovells. Rose will talk about his role in helping to exonerate McCollum and Brown, and Maxwell will discuss his role in winning the largest-ever jury verdict in a wrongful conviction case for the brothers. They'll both speak about what can be learned from McCollum's and Brown's exonerations.

September 28, 2021 — David Sklansky is the Stanley Morrison Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and faculty co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center. His book, A Pattern of Violence: How the Law Classifies Crimes and What It Means for Justice, reveals how inconsistent ideas about violence, enshrined in law, are at the root of the problems that plague our entire criminal justice system-from mass incarceration to police brutality.Novel Justice is a book event series hosted 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.

September 1, 2021 — Wilson Center for Science and Justice hosts an expert panel discussion about frontline programs for individuals returning from incarceration and how they can support re-entry with healthcare and peer support. This event focuses on meeting program clients' behavioral health needs. Panelists are Shira Shavit, MD, Executive Director of the Transitions Clinic Network (TCN) out of San Francisco; Joseph Calderon, Senior Community Health Worker with TCN; Evan Ashkin, MD, Director of the North Carolina Formerly Incarcerated Transition (FIT) Program; and Tommy Green, NC FIT Program Lead Community Health Worker (CHW) and the Orange County CHW. These experts have direct involvement with development and practice in frontline programming, both nationally and in NC. Dr. Allison Gilbert, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, moderates.

Jul 23, 2021 — The Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law hosts a roundtable discussion about people with mental illnesses who are criminally accused and found incompetent to proceed in the criminal legal system. Topics include how competency restoration poses a challenge and costly management problem for state mental health and criminal legal systems; alternative pathways to community reentry for this population; the ethical-legal aspects; how mental health authorities and policymakers in different states are (or aren't) dealing with it, and what should be done. Panelists are Dr. Reena Kapoor, from Yale School of Medicine; Dr. Debra Pinals, from University of Michigan Law and Medicine; W. Lawrence Fitch, from University of Maryland Francis King Cary School of Law; and Dr. William Fisher, who works with the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. Dr. Jeffrey Swanson from Duke School of Medicine moderated.

April 30, 2021 — Civil commitment and the mental health care continuum: Historical trends and principles for law and practice. Jeffrey Swanson is Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. Larry Fitch is a lawyer on the faculty of the University of Maryland, where he teaches classes on mental health law in the Law School and lectures in the forensic psychiatry fellowship program in the Medical School.

Apr 15, 2021 — Novel Justice is a book event series hosted 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. Aya Gruber is Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School. Her book, The Feminist War on Crime: the Unexpected Role of Women's Liberation in Mass Incarceration, documents the failure of the state to combat sexual and domestic violence through law and punishment. Join us for a conversation and Q&A with Gruber about her work. Wilson Center Director Brandon Garrett is host.