News

HOUSTON, T.X. – The independent monitors overseeing Harris County’s historic bail reform agreement filed its report this morning describing their first six-months of work and findings with the federal court, noting an increase in releases and a reduced use of cash bail. The implementation of the ODonnell Consent Decree in Harris County, Texas – which encompasses Houston […]

From Duke Law news: On Wednesday, the State of North Carolina filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to initiate a process leading to Long’s freedom. The state asked the court to immediately issue a mandate in Long’s case and said it planned to move immediately in the district court […]

Ronnie Long has spent 44 years in prison for a crime he’s claimed since the beginning he didn’t commit, and he is closer now than ever to freedom after a federal court ruled this week that his constitutional rights were violated when evidence was withheld from his trial that would have helped establish his innocence. […]

Eyewitness evidence, used in tens of thousands of criminal cases each year, crucially depends on eyewitness memory, which is quite fallible. The potential inaccuracy of eyewitness memory has been long demonstrated by examples of misidentifications, including in cases of wrongful conviction. Eyewitness identification procedures, which are themselves experiments, lend themselves to scientific research as do […]

Dr. Marvin Swartz brought some needed attention on a form of police misconduct that’s remained mostly out of the spotlight in a new guest post on NC Policy Watch. The post, titled, “Concerns about police misconduct should spur reform, funding for civil commitment process,” describes the challenge of enforcing civil commitment laws. Involuntary civil commitment is […]

Last week was Post-doctoral Fellow Karima Modjadidi’s last at the Duke Law Center for Science and Justice, and soon she will start working at the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) in Durham. Modjadidi has been a fellow at the Center for two years, and she will transition to similar work at RTI in the courts and […]

The Duke Center for Science and Justice is cohosting an upcoming  Duke Science & Society event as part of its Coronavirus Conversations series. The virtual event is titled “Racial Bias in the Healthcare System and COVID Outcomes” and will start at 4 p.m. Aug. 27. Online registration ahead of time is required. Find more information […]

North Carolina residents, attorneys and criminal justice reform advocates laid bare Thursday the brutal consequences for defendants who can’t afford to pay court fines and fees to the North Carolina Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR). The Committee has been hosting public panels to hear testimony about post-conviction legal financial obligations […]