News

For Immediate Release: May 20, 2022  DURHAM, N.C. – Eyewitness identification has come a long way in the past seven years – the last time the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) summarized the state of research in that area. There have been important new research contributions and increased adoption of reforms in related practices by courts, […]

Late last week, Gov. Roy Cooper announced he would commute the sentences of April Barber, Joshua McKay, and Anthony Willis – three individuals who were sentenced to long terms in prison for crimes they committed when they were teenagers. This is the first time Cooper has exercised his clemency power since he was elected Governor […]

By Ruthie Kesri The North Carolina General Assembly recently released its final budget, the first since 2018, and it allocated funds that will directly affect the health and safety of incarcerated people in North Carolina’s prison population. Against the wishes of some county officials and sheriffs, the bill did not include Medicaid expansion, which would […]

By Brandon Garrett and Cynthia Rudin Today, as data-driven technologies have been implemented across a wide range of human activities, new warnings have been issued from a wide range of sources, academic, public policy, and government, regarding the dangers posed by artificial intelligence to society, democracy, and individual rights. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has […]

Editor’s Note: If you’ve ever needed help but weren’t sure where to turn, then you know how important just one trustworthy guide can be. This blog post is part of an occasional series called “Connection, Trust, and Recovery,” by Michele Easter. Certified Peer Support Specialists (CPSS) have lived experience of the struggles they are helping […]

“We can’t have any evidence-based solutions because we don’t have the evidence. We’re not able to gather and collect evidence. That’s why it’s very important that we have the data so that we can know what’s happening,” – A North Carolina criminal justice advocate on the need for a jail database, Report on the Utility […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11 a.m., Nov. 12, 2021 CONTACT: Melissa Boughton (830) 481-6901 melissa.boughton@law.duke.edu DURHAM, N.C. – Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law have received just under $900,000 from Arnold Ventures, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies to […]

By Annie Han In 1983, Red Springs, North Carolina, 19-year-old Henry McCollum and 15-year-old Leon Brown were wrongfully arrested for the rape and murder of a young Sabrina Buie. With the teens’ intellectual disabilities (McCollum’s IQ being 51 and Brown’s at 49) and the police’s fabricated evidence, McCollum and Brown were extremely vulnerable to coercion, […]