Criminal Justice Institute - Faculty

John Jay Douglass served for over 30 years in the Army as a member of the Judge Advocate Generals Corps and completed his service as Commandant of the Judge Advocate Generals School at the University of Virginia. For 20 years, Professor Douglass served as the Dean of the National College of District Attorneys—a group that provides continuing education and training to state and local prosecutors. He has taught Criminal Law for many years. He has published extensively on prosecutorial ethics and other issues relating to the role of the prosecutor. He has also served in the American Bar Association as a member of the Council of the Criminal Justice Section. His international work has included advising prosecutors in Russia and the Ukraine under the AID program.

David Dow directs the Texas Innocence Network. Under his supervision, students have investigated hundreds of claims of innocence and obtained the release of one innocent person thus far. He also teaches a course on the death penalty. He has handled more than fifty appeals, including more than 25 death penalty appeals. Professor Dow has written extensively on the death penalty, equal protection, and federal jurisdiction, among other subjects. He is a frequent contributor to the Houston Chronicle editorial page as well as other newspapers nationally.

Meredith J. Duncan joined the faculty in 1998. Two of the courses she teaches are Criminal Law and Professional Responsibility. Professor Duncan has developed a specialty in the intersection of the two areas of law, focusing on the law relating to the liability of criminal defense attorneys. As a law student, she published a comment on battered women who kill their abusers.

Leslie Griffin came to the University of Houston Law Center in 2002 as the first Larry and Joanne Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics. She served as Assistant Counsel in the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates professional misconduct by federal prosecutors. Professor Griffin has taught prosecutorial ethics as a visiting professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. Her ethics publications include "The Lawyer's Dirty Hands" and "The Prudent Prosecutor," both in the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics.

Joan Krause joined the Law Center faculty in 2001, after teaching at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She teaches in both the health law and criminal law areas, including classes on Criminal Law and Health Care Fraud & Abuse. Her research interests include health law, criminal law, and women and the law. Professor Krause has written extensively about health care fraud, particularly in the context of the federal Civil False Claims Act. Her articles also include a study of executive clemency for battered women who have been convicted of killing their abusers.

Ellen Marrus came to the Law Center in 1995 after practicing as a public defender in California.She presently teaches criminal courses in Criminal Procedure as well as Juvenile Law, and her scholarship is focused in the areas of criminal procedure and juvenile law. Professor Marrus teaches in the Criminal Clinic on a regular basis and directs the Southwest Regional Juvenile Defender Center.

Gerry Moohr teaches courses in Criminal Law and White Collar Crime, among her other courses. Professor Moohr is one of the leading national authorities of the federal mail fraud statute and other manifestations of criminal fraud. Her most recent work analyzes criminal laws that deal with misappropriation of business information, trade secrets, and copyright infringement.

Laura Oren joined the faculty in 1986. In addition to her constitutional law and family law courses, she teaches a course on Section 1983 in which includes discussion of civil rights lawsuit against police officers and police departments. Her publications include an article about the wrongfully "adopted" children of political dissents who had been killed and were reported as "disappeared" in Argentina. It was published it the Harvard Human Rights Journal in 2001.

Jordan Paust joined the faculty in 1975. He teaches International Criminal Law, among his other courses in international law. Professor Paust has distinguished himself as a leader in local, national and international organizations dealing with International Law, Human Rights, and International Criminal Law. He has chaired the Committee on International Law and the Use of Force of the ABA. He has also served on the President's Committee and Executive Council of the American Society of International Law and is currently Co-Chair of the ASIL's International Criminal Law Interest Group. He is a nationally renowned author in international criminal law, having published innumerable articles and a leading treatise with Prof. Bassiouni and others entitled International Criminal Law (2d ed. 2000).

Irene Merker Rosenberg, Royce R. Till Professor of Law, has been teaching at the Law Center for over 25 years. She teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, juvenile justice, and constitutional law. Professor Rosenberg has written extensively in the areas of juvenile justice, criminal procedure and comparative law, examining the differences between American and Jewish criminal law. Before she began teaching, Professor Rosenberg worked for the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society of New York as a trial and supervising attorney. Thereafter she was in the private practice of criminal law in New York.

Robert Schuwerk has taught Criminal Law for many years. His area of specialization within criminal law is sentencing. He is also a noted scholar in the area of professional responsibility.

Sandy Guerra Thompson has been a member of the faculty since 1990. Before joining the faculty, she worked as a prosecutor in the New York County D.A.’s Office in Manhattan, doing both trial and appellate work. She has taught courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, sentencing, federal criminal law, evidence, prisoners’ rights, and criminal law issues in U.S.-Mexico relations. She has written extensively on civil asset forfeiture and sentencing, as well as on other issues in criminal procedure and criminal law. She is a former chair of the AALS Section on Criminal Justice and a member of the Board of Advisors of the ALI’s drafting project entitled, “Model Penal Code: Sentencing”. She was awarded the 2003 Teaching Excellence Award by the University of Houston.