News

Ben Finholt, Director of the Just Sentencing Project, joined the Wilson Center this month. He previously worked at North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services. Finholt’s work at the Wilson Center will aim to address extreme sentencing and racial disparities categorically through policy, the courts, and executive clemency, with the goal of developing a model that can be exported nationally. […]

By Carmyn Brown Recently, North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby announced a Task Force to address and study ACEs. ACEs are short for Adverse Childhood Experiences which suggests that childhood trauma and stress can lead to major illness, poor quality of life, and premature death, affecting children between the ages of 0 to […]

By Sean Bennett To try a defendant who is not mentally competent to take part in their defense is a denial of legal due process. While the state is not constitutionally compelled to prove a defendant is competent, they must allow them to attempt to prove they are incompetent to stand trial. Competency to stand […]

By Jenna Prochnau A recent paper in Psychiatric Services co-authored by the Wilson Center’s Dr. Marvin S. Swartz explores the potential for Medicaid coverage to be used to develop and sustain peer support services for incarcerated people with mental illnesses, these are peers with shared criminal justice experience. Swartz and co-authors Dr. Andrew D. Carlo […]

DURHAM, NC – In a unique partnership with the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law, two district attorney’s offices are providing unprecedented access and information about the little-understood world of plea agreements in criminal cases. Durham County (NC) District Attorney Satana Deberry and Berkshire County (MA) District Attorney Andrea Harrington partnered with […]

By Annie Han Thirteen-year-old Art Tobias was convicted of murder in 2013. Witnesses said the gunman was about 20 to 30 years old, and around 200 pounds. The surveillance cameras at the scene showed a large man wearing a white shirt. Tobias was 4′ 11″, 110 pounds, and wearing a black Scooby-Doo t-shirt at the […]

By Annie Han Ketamine is used as an anesthetic in hospitals, as a treatment for depression, and – most dangerously – a forced sedative by the police. Star Tribune journalist Andy Mannix reported that police officers in Minneapolis direct paramedics to inject the drug into people to subdue them, often causing severe side effects such […]

By Ruthie Kesri The death of George Floyd in police custody last summer drew widespread outrage after a bystander’s viral video showed then-Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, a white 19-year veteran of the department, pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds as Floyd gasped for breath. Following an emotionally-charged three-week […]