Duke Center for Science and Justice Postdoctoral Research Fellow Travis Seale-Carlisle has authored, along with other academics, a pre-print under review about how police should test a witness’s memory of a criminal perpetrator. Seale-Carlisle has been a postdoc with the Center for 10 months. He said the technology identified in the paper has strong potential […]
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Duke Law Faculty: Cooper Should Use Clemency Power, Release Related Records
Roy Cooper may become the first North Carolina governor in more than 40 years to complete a term without granting clemency to a single person, which includes sentence commutations and pardons of forgiveness or innocence. Three faculty at the Duke Law Center for Criminal Justice and Professional Responsibility wrote a strong editorial this week calling […]
Duke Center for Science and Justice Tracking Police Reform Legislation By State
While people across the nation took to the streets to protest the brutal police killing of George Floyd, lawmakers responded by introducing a series of police reform policies. To date, there have been at least 78 pieces of police reform-related legislation, including bills, resolutions and executive orders, introduced in 15 states and Washington, DC. The […]
Duke Law Faculty Discuss Policing in America, Past and Present
Several Duke Law faculty spoke last week about the current state of policing throughout the United States, with an emphasis on how policies and biases impact communities of color. Dean Kerry Abrams hosted the conversation with Brandon L. Garrett, the L. Neil Williams, Jr. Professor of Law and the Director of the Duke Center for Science […]
BREAKING: U.S. District Court Judge Halts Upcoming Executions
The federal government was set this week to carry out its first execution in nearly 17 years, but a U.S. District Court judge in Washington has intervened. Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to delay the executions of Daniel Lewis Lee, Wesley Ira Purkey, Dustin Lee Honken, and Keith Dwayne Nelson until […]
Racial Equity in Criminal Justice Task Force to Meet for First Time Today
Gov. Roy Cooper has officially appointed the full 25-person Racial Equity in Criminal Justice Task Force, and the group will meet for the first time at 10 a.m. today. The Task Force will develop and help implement policy solutions to address systemic racial bias in criminal justice and submit legislative and municipal recommendations on or before […]
Duke Law Faculty Round-Up: Reaction to SCOTUS LGBTQ Decision
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a historic ruling protecting employees from being fired on the basis of their sexual orientation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The 6-3 opinion was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch and is considered a major victory for the LGBTQ community. Duke Law faculty shared […]
Brandon Garrett among law professors across nation calling on Congress for police accountability
More than 300 law professors from across the country signed a letter last week calling on Congress to end qualified immunity and create vicarious liability for local government units when their officers violate people’s constitutional rights. As stated in the letter, a “qualified immunity” defense makes recovery against a police officer very difficult, even when the […]
Data on NC DPS and COVID
by Ben Finholt, Director of the Just Sentencing Project at NCPLS and an Affiliated Fellow of the CSJ After Gov. Cooper declared a state of emergency based on the global COVID-19 pandemic, advocates immediately began calling for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (DPS) to reduce the number of people in prison. DPS responded […]
Preliminary Injunction in NAACP v. Cooper
Yesterday, Judge Vinston Rozier, Jr. issued a Preliminary Injunction to the State of North Carolina, regarding COVID in prisons. Here is the Order: 20 CVS 500110 Order on PI with COS. The Judge explained: “Thousands of these individuals in Defendants’ custody are elderly, have disabilities, or have underlying health conditions, making them particularly vulnerable to […]