News
Reflecting on George Floyd’s Murder: Police Use of Force Policies Necessary
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 […]

Tags: ALI, American Law Institute, Brandon Garrett, George Floyd, police brutality, police use of force, policing, Principles of Policing, racial bias, Seth Stoughton
June 8, 2021
Feature: Local DEAR Program Helping Residents Restore Licenses
By Ruthie Kesri The Durham Expunction And Restoration (DEAR) program provides free legal services to in-need Durham residents to file expunction petitions and restore suspended or revoked drivers’ licenses. DEAR’s mission centers on ensuring all people have equal access to legal relief. The program has identified that having a criminal record or a suspended driver’s […]

Tags: court fines and fees, DEAR Program, driver's licenses, Durham, Durham Expunction And Restoration, Lauren Robbins, Legal Aid of North Carolina, North Carolina Justice Center, second chances, suspensions
May 21, 2021
Leading Legal, Public Health Advocate Joins Wilson Center as Executive Director
Yvette Garcia Missri, a leading legal and public health advocate for racial and social justice for over 20 years, joined the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law this week as the Executive Director. Garcia Missri most recently served as the Litigation Counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, where she used litigation strategies to combat […]

Tags: advocacy, Center for Responsible Lending, executive director, litigation, public health, racial justice, social justice, Yvette Garcia Missri
May 14, 2021
Op-ed: NC is Failing the Wrongfully Convicted; HB 877 Could Help
Duke Law Professors James E. Coleman Jr. and Jamie T. Lau brought much-needed attention in an op-ed published Monday to the fact that even after serving 25 years in prison, North Carolina can get away with compensating the wrongfully convicted as little as $45. The op-ed was published by the News & Observer. For nearly […]

Tags: clemency, Duke Law, Gov. Roy Cooper, House Bill 877, Howard Dudley, James E. Coleman Jr., Jamie Lau, News & Observer, wrongful convictions
May 11, 2021
NC Supreme Court to Take on 3 Juvenile Life with Parole Cases in Coming Months
By Ben Finholt Last year, Brandon Garrett, Karima Modjadidi, Kristen Renberg, and I published a paper on juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) in North Carolina in The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology at Northwestern Law. We examined the cases of 94 North Carolina juveniles, aged 13 to 17 at the time of their offenses, […]

Tags: Ben Finholt, JLWOP, juvenile justice, juvenile life with parole, juvenile life without parole, Miller v. Alabama, North Carolina Supreme Court, prison, sentencing, U.S. Supreme Court
May 6, 2021
New Article Explores Police Officer Barriers to Mental Health
Wilson Center Postdoc Dr. Meret Hofer co-wrote an article identifying police officers’ treatment seeking barriers in order to outline a multi-pronged strategy for improving the accessibility of mental health services for police. The paper, “There Was No Plan in Place to Get Us Help”: Strategies for Improving Mental Health Service Utilization Among Law Enforcement – co-written […]

Tags: behavioral health, Law Enforcement, mental health, Meret Hofer, police officers, stigma, stress
May 4, 2021
Aya Gruber Talks Feminist War on Crime at Novel Justice Event
By Annie Han On April 6th, Aya Gruber, professor at the University of Colorado Law School, joined the Wilson Center for the last Novel Justice event of the spring. She delved into her book The Feminist War on Crime: The Unexpected Role of Women’s Liberation in Mass Incarceration, which documents the American feminists’ role in […]

Tags: Aya Gruber, mass incarceration, Novel Justice, The Feminist War on Crime
April 21, 2021
Planning Underway for Crisis/Diversion Facility in Orange County
By Ruthie Kesri Plans for a novel Crisis/Diversion facility are currently underway in Orange County. The facility, which will be dedicated to providing behavioral health crisis services and criminal justice diversion, will be the first of its kind in the county. “We have so many good things in place here,” said Caitlin Fenhagen, the Director […]

Tags: behavioral health, Caitlin Fenhagen, crises, mental health, Orange County Criminal Justice Resource Department