By Deniz Ariturk Six months after the first nationwide shutdown, US prisons and jails continue to be top COVID hot spots. Case numbers have continued to increase rapidly in prisons even as they plateaued nationwide in early summer, and new weekly cases peaked in August. By September 8, a total of 121,217 incarcerated people had […]
Melissa Boughton
Brandon Garrett to Moderate Sanford’s Stand for Justice Event
Wilson Center Director Brandon Garrett on Monday will moderate a criminal justice event hosted by the Sanford School of Public Policy, titled Stand for Justice. The panelists at the event are Kassandra Frederique of Drug Policy Alliance, Bianca Tylek of Worth Rises, and Alec Karakatsanis of Civil Rights Corps. The talk, about criminal justice reform, […]
Ronnie Long Closer to Freedom After Federal Court Rules his Rights Were Violated
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. […]
New Article from Garrett, Albright First to Explore Intersection of Law, Science of Eyewitness Evidence
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 […]
CSJ’s Dr. Marvin Swartz Discusses Police Misconduct, Reform in New Guest Post
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 […]
Postdoc Karima Modjadidi Headed to RTI after Duke CSJ Fellowship
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 […]
Upcoming Duke Science & Society Event will Address Racial Bias in Healthcare, COVID-19
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 Carolinians to USCCR: More Has to be Done to Mitigate Impact of Court Fines, Fees
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 […]
Upcoming SAMHSA Webinar Offers Advice for Drug Treatment Courts During Pandemic
There are currently 59 recovery courts in 32 counties in North Carolina, and thousands more across the nation designed to help criminal defendants who have alcohol and other substance use disorders. Many of those courts have been successfully using teleservices to increase client access during the COVID-19 pandemic. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration […]
New CSAFE Study Shows Juror Appraisals of Forensic Evidence
A new CSAFE study by Duke Center for Science and Justice Director Brandon Garrett, Research Director William Crozier and Towson University’s Jeff Kukucka was released online in late July and will appear in the October issue of Forensic Science International. The article “Juror appraisals of forensic evidence: Effects of blind proficiency and cross-examination” found that […]