News

Today, the Center for Science and Justice joins the Policing Project at NYU Law, the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law,  the Innovative Policing Program at Georgetown Law School, the Criminal Justice Program, Vanderbilt University, and Center for Criminal Justice at the University of Virginia School of Law in a new report: Changing the Law to […]

Race and injustice are central to the story of innocence and DNA exonerations in the U.S. Racial disparity is glaring in these DNA exonerees’ cases. Many more DNA exonerees were minorities than is typical even among average and already racially skewed populations of rape and murder convicts.  Among DNA exonerations a stunning 80 percent were […]

For weekend reading or re-reading: From Pew: 10 Things We Know About Race and Policing. And Seth Stoughton on 8 Things We Get Wrong About Policing.  With Geoffrey Alpert and Jeffrey Nobel on How to Actually Fix America’s Police. And Sen. Cory Booker on police reform. And – Charles H. Ramsey, Ronald L. Davis, Roberto […]

We grieve for George Floyd’s family and write to express our deep support for all who stand for justice in his case and in so many others.  We have a three-part mission at the Center for Science and Justice: to do work that addresses accuracy, risk, and needs in the justice system.  These heartbreaking current […]

The Minneapolis police department’s use of force policies are receiving national scrutiny after the death of George Floyd. The agency patrol guide is available online here.  Their policy begins in a way that Seth Stoughton and I have criticized, by relying on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Fourth Amendment caselaw, which uses a very broad “reasonableness” […]

We hope you enjoy our May Center newsletter featuring our recent reports, events, publications and writing on this blog: https://mailchi.mp/e4d89e8bf980/dukecsj-newsletter-first-3883053 If you have not already, please subscribe!

Last Tuesday, Ian MacDougall of Propublica reported (also printed in Salon) some remarkable news regarding the risk assessment instrument adopted under the landmark FIRST STEP ACT of 2018.  They report: ProPublica obtained a copy of the document, which does not appear to have been finalized, and its existence surprised and baffled lawyers, prison reform advocates […]

A new short piece in the Harvard Law Review Blog, “Constitutional Criminal Procedure Post-COVID,” provides an overview of litigation occurring nationwide against local jails, state prisons, federal prisons, and immigration detention centers, as individual people, groups, and persons seeking class certification, file civil rights, habeas, and state law litigation seeking release and improved conditions of […]