Events

April 9, 2021 — Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) is a community-based diversion approach with the goals of improving public safety and public order and reducing unnecessary justice system involvement of people who participate in the program. A panel of experts discussed their work and experience with LEAD. They are Lisa Daugaard, Director of the Public Defender Association; Reed Baer, Deputy Chief of Police of the Hickory Police Department in North Carolina; and Charlton Roberson, a peer support specialist from Fayetteville's LEAD program. Allison Robertson, Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke, and Melissia Larson, LEAD Coordinator at North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, moderated.

April 2, 2021 — Duke Law Professor and Wilson Center Director Brandon Garrett's new book, Autopsy of a Crime Lab, Exposing the Flaws in Forensics, is the first to catalog the sources of error and the faulty science behind a range of well-known forensic evidence, from fingerprints and firearms to forensic algorithms. This video documents a roundtable discussion about the book and its findings with Garrett; Erin Murphy, Norman Dorsen Professor of Civil Liberties at New York University School of Law; Edward Cheng, the Hess Chair in Law at Vanderbilt Law School; and Jennifer Mnookin, Dean, Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Professor of Law, and Faculty Co-Director of Program on Understanding Law, Science and Evidence at UCLA Law.

March 29, 2021 — Duke Law professor and Wilson Center Director Brandon Garrett and Sandra Guerra Thompson, professor of law and director of the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center, discuss their work as independent monitors for a landmark bail reform settlement in Texas. This settlement could become a national model for cash bail reform. The discussion is followed by a Q & A.

March 15, 2021 — Formerly incarcerated individuals face many barriers when re-entering their communities. Learn more about those barriers and the programs successfully addressing them, and hear from formerly incarcerated individuals who have experienced trying to re-enter society. The roundtable for this event includes Alice Marie Johnson, a criminal justice reform advocate and former federal prisoner pardoned by former President Donald Trump; Dontae Sharpe, a North Carolina exoneree who now works at Forward Justice; and Elenore Wade, who teaches as a Visiting Associate Professor of Clinical Law & Friedman Fellow at The George Washington University Law School's Prisoner & Reentry Clinic. The panel is followed by a Q&A. Wilson Center Director Brandon Garrett moderates.

March 2, 2021 — Seth W. Stoughton is an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law and an Associate Professor (Affiliate) in the university's Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. His book, Evaluating Police Uses of Force, explores a critical but largely overlooked facet of the difficult and controversial issues of police violence and accountability: how does society evaluate use-of-force incidents? This video records a conversation and following Q&A with Stoughton about his work. Wilson Center Director Brandon Garrett moderates. 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.

February 24, 2021 — Curtis Flowers is a Mississippi man who was tried six times for the same crime and whose case was the subject of Season 2 of the APM Reports podcast "In the Dark". He spent nearly 23 years behind bars and endured six trials and four death sentences for four murders he has always maintained he did not commit. Flowers' case was one of three that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2016 were to be remanded to lower courts to be reviewed for evidence of racial bias in jury selection. Flowers participates in this event with his attorney, Henderson Hill, to discuss his years-long saga and the injustices of a system zeroed in on convicting him.

February 24, 2021 — Police have become the de facto first responders to behavioral health crises despite rarely receiving adequate training to safely and effectively handle the situation. The consequences of this are reflected in the disproportionate number of people with mental illnesses and substance use disorders killed by police every year and held in jails and prisons. A panel of experts - Dr. Tracie Keesee, Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Justice Initiatives at the Center for Policing Equity; Timothy Black, Director of Consulting for White Bird Clinic; and Christy E. Lopez, Professor from Practice at Georgetown Law - discuss alternatives to police responses when it comes to behavioral health crises. Dr. Marvin Swartz, from Duke Health, moderates.

February 19, 2021 — Ben Finholt, Director, Just Sentencing Project with NC Prisoner Legal Services, summarizes the organization's mission and work to the Wilson Center. He spoke with students working with the Wilson Center during Spring 2021.