Resources

Beginning in early 2019, the judges and prosecutors in Durham, North Carolina, adopted new bail policies, reflecting a shift in the pretrial detention framework. This essay provides a firsthand look into the pretrial detention data following these substantive policy changes, and the observations serve as a reflection on how the changes in Durham reflect broader pretrial detention reform efforts. By: William Crozier, Brandon L. Garrett and Arvind Krishnamurthy – Wake Forest Law Review (2020)

This article, first published in the Academy for Justice, A Report on Scholarship and Criminal Justice Reform and then updated and published in the Annual Review of Criminology, describes a revolution in criminal procedure and in law and science research, in response to wrongful convictions. By Brandon Garrett (2020)

The killing of George Floyd and other Black men and women in 2020 brought to the fore longstanding concerns about the nature of policing in the United States and how it undermines racial equity. As an institution, policing needs significant reconsideration. This report outlines a list of urgently-needed reforms, compiled by a small group of law school faculty, each of whom runs or is associated with an academic center devoted to policing and the criminal justice system. (2020)

Shari R. Berkowitz, Brandon L. Garrett, Kimberly M. Fenn & Elizabeth F. Loftus in Memory 30:1

The authors review what we actually know and do not know about the “initial confidence” of eyewitnesses in the DNA exoneration cases and new research that reveals numerous conditions wherein eyewitnesses with high initial confidence end up being wrong.

By: William Crozier, Jeff Kukucka and Brandon L. Garrett – Forensic Science International (2020)

Wilson Center Faculty Director Brandon Garrett serves as independent monitor for the landmark federal bail reform settlement in Harris County, TX. This first report by the monitor team describes the first six months of work evaluating the implementation of the misdemeanor bail reforms in Harris County, Texas. (2020)

This study examined the effects of jail diversion participation on treatment utilization, arrest, and incarceration, separately for men and women.

By: Allison G. Robertson, Michele M. Easter, Hsiu-Ju Lin, Dalia Khoury, Joshua Pierce, Jeffrey W. Swanson, and Marvin S. Swartz – Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment (2020)

This study examined the effect of eyewitnesses’ expressed confidence on prospective jurors.

By: Brandon L. Garrett, Alice Liu, Karen Kafadar, Joanne Yaffe, and Chad S. Dodson – Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (2020)

How persuasive is eyewitness confidence? Are highly confident eyewitnesses so persuasive that their testimony overshadows other countervailing evidence? To answer these questions, participants evaluated a highly confident eyewitness’s lineup identification. Participants learned that an eyewitness either quickly identified the suspect (e.g., “I’m sure it’s him. I identified him instantly.”), slowly identified the suspect (e.g., “I’m sure it’s him. I identified him after a while.”) or they learned nothing about the eyewitness’s identification time (e.g., “I’m sure it’s him.”). Highly confident eyewitnesses who make a relatively slow identification are perceived as less accurate and suspects are regarded as less likely to be guilty as compared to when eyewitnesses make a fast identification or even when no information is provided about identification speed. Identification speed appears to be one of the few variables that can cause people to regard with skepticism the testimony of highly confident eyewitnesses.

By: Chad S. Dodson, Brandon L. Garrett, Karen Kafadar, and Joanne Yaffe in Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition

This amicus brief, filed on behalf of scholars of criminal, constitutional law, poverty law and access to justice, describes the importance of conducting a robust due process and equal protection analysis when examining the imposition of sanctions on persons without regard to their ability to pay.