New Strategies for Confronting Today’s Challenges
New Book Release
University of Houston Law Professor Publishes New Book on Forensic Science in the Courtroom
Houston 3/31/15: The Criminal Justice Institute of the University of Houston Law Center announced the publication of a new book by Professor Sandra Guerra Thompson entitled, “Cops in Lab Coats: Curbing Wrongful Convictions through Independent Forensic Laboratories.” Situated firmly at the intersection of the courtroom and the laboratory, this book illustrates the legal and personal gravity of forensic science and explores the many problems that have plagued police crime laboratories nationwide. It gives a straightforward account of the strengths and weaknesses of various forensic disciplines, as well as the studies of cognitive bias that affect the practice of forensic investigations. Thompson makes the case that police crime labs should be removed from their law enforcement parent agencies as a means of improving the quality of the forensic evidence introduced in court. She draws on her experience on the Board of Directors of the Houston Forensic Science Center where she took part in removing the troubled Houston Police Department Crime Laboratory from the auspices of the police department. The newly transformed independent forensic laboratory in Houston now has a mission to develop a research culture and provide first-class services and training. Thompson combines her studies of wrongful convictions with an examination of mishandling of scientific evidence and the legal interplay of science and law to chart a new course for forensic science.
The El Paso County District Attorney’s Office has earned statewide praise for its creative use of technology to comply faithfully with the new discovery requirements of the Michael Morton Act.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
12:00 - 1:00, Room 144 BLB
Lunch will be provided.
The Hon. William K. Sessions III opened a recent University of Houston Law Center symposium on federal sentencing guidelines arguing for greater emphasis on human characteristics, discretion, and flexibility for judges within the guideline structure. more...
Five Hours Of CLE Participatory Credit, Including One Hour Of Ethics Credit
THE ROLES OF MORALITY AND EFFICIENCY IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE ASSEMBLY LINE
February 3, 2010
STEPHANOS BIBAS is Professor of Law and Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Following his graduation from Yale Law School, Professor Bibas clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbothom of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States. Before joining the Penn Law Faculty, Professor Bibas practiced law with Covington & Burling, served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and taught at the University of Iowa College of Law. Professor Bibas is the author of dozens of law review articles that examine the powers, incentives, information, and psychology that shape how prosecutors, defense counsel, defendants, and judges behave. He is currently at work on a book – Assembly-Line Criminal Justice – that will be published by Oxford University Press.
OUR (NOT SO) COUNTERMAJORITARIAN SUPREME COURT
March 8, 2010
CORINNA BARRETT LAIN is Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law. After earning her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, Professor Lain served as a law clerk for Judge John C. Porfi lio of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and worked as a prosecutor in the Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Offi ce. At the University of Richmond, Professor Lain has received the Distinguished Educator Award. Professor Lain’s scholarship focuses on capital punishment and criminal procedure and has appeared in the Duke Law Journal, University of Pennsylvania Law Review and other leading law journals. Her recent scholarship questions the conventional wisdom about the countermajoritarian nature of the Supreme Court’s criminal procedure decisions.
HOW THE LAW THINKS: WHY OUTMODED VIEWS OF
MENTAL STATE AFFECT OUR ABILITY TO BE JUST
March 29, 2010
DEBORAH W. DENNO is the Arthur A. McGivney Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law. Professor Denno earned her law degree and Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the Fordham faculty, she served as a law clerk to Judge Anthony Scirica of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and as an associate at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett. Professor Denno’s research has focused on topics relating to criminal law, criminal procedure, social sciences and the law, and the death penalty. The Supreme Court’s recent lethal injection decision, Baez v. Rees, 128 S. Ct. 1520 (2008), cited to four separate articles authored by Professor Denno. Among her current research is a book about the neuroscience correlates of criminal behavior.
KNOWLEDGE AS POWER: CRIMINAL REGISTRATION
AND COMMUNITY NOTIFICATION LAWS IN AMERICA
April 7, 2010
WAYNE A. LOGAN is the Gary and Sallyn Pajcic Professor of Law and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Florida State University College of Law. Before joining the faculty at Florida State, Professor Logan clerked for Judge Robert R. Merhige of the Eastern District of Virginia, practiced law in North Carolina, and taught at SUNY Albany and William Mitchell College of Law, where he was the William Mitchell Research Professor of Law. Professor Logan has written on a wide variety of issues, including capital punishment, search and seizure, sex offender registration, and the interplay among state, federal and local criminal justice systems. His book, Knowledge As Power: A History of Criminal Registration Laws in America, was recently published by Stanford University Press.
The University of Houston Law Center’s Criminal Justice Institute is among several sponsors which will present Crime After Crime, a documentary that chronicles California inmate Deborah Peagler’s fight against a corrupt criminal justice system.
In 1983, Deborah Peagler was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for her involvement in the murder of her abusive boyfriend. With a new law in 2002, Peagler’s case became eligible to be reopened to take into account evidence of her having been abused. Crime After Crime follows as two lawyers take on her case pro bono, and encounter countless obstacles and corrupt officials in obtaining her release.
The screening will be followed by a panel featuring Deborah Peagler’s daughter, Natasha Wilson, along with Rev. Dr. Robert M. Gilmore Sr. of Houston Ministers Against Crime, Rabbi Steven Morgen of Congregation Beth Yeshurun, Toby Myers, a domestic violence expert, and attorney Joseph S. Owmby. Crime After Crime premieres at the JCC, 5601 S. Braeswood, Sunday, Sept. 25 at 4 PM.
Texas Senator Rodney Ellis will headline an event celebrating the publication of an important new book, American Justice in the Age of Innocence. The book is co-edited by University of Houston Law Center Professor Sandra Guerra Thompson, one of the nation’s leading criminal justice scholars and two of her top students, Hillary K. Valderrama and Jennifer L. Hopgood. It book is written entirely by UH law students. Cornelius Dupree Jr., a wrongly convicted man who has since been exonerated after serving 30 years in prison, will also be in attendance.
The book was written by Thompson’s students as a project that emerged from one of her classes. “It is a rare thing indeed for law students to publish and edit a book while they are in law school,” Thompson said. “This was a seminar project that we decided to do to coincide with my work on the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions.” Thompson represented Texas public law schools on the advisory panel created by the Texas Legislature to give lawmakers guidance on statutory changes that could help discover and prevent wrongful convictions.
The event will be held in the Hendricks Heritage Room at the University of Houston Law Center at noon on Wednesday, Aug. 24. Lunch will be served. The event is open to students and members of the press. For more information, please contact Carrie Criado, executive director of Communications and Marketing at the University of Houston Law Center, at cacriado@central.uh.edu.
For the past 18 years, Anthony Graves has struggled to prove his innocence in the sensational 1992 murder of six people in Somerville, Texas. Fortunately for him, Professor Nicole Cásarez and her journalism students took an interest in his case. Their investigation over the course of several years has uncovered substantial evidence of his innocence, as well as wrongdoing by the state in prosecuting him. Against the odds, Graves’ conviction was overturned in 2006 by a unanimous panel of the Fifth Circuit because of what it termed “egregious” prosecutorial misconduct. Despite the lack of credible evidence against him, the state will soon retry Mr. Graves.
Professor Cásarez is an attorney and a communications professor at the University of St. Thomas, where she also directs an innocence investigations class. She and her students have received national media attention for their work on the Graves case. She is now a member of Graves’ defense team for his retrial, which is scheduled in the spring of 2011. A detailed article about the case is featured in this month’s edition of Texas Monthly.
The talk will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 20th, in room 209 BLB. Lunch will be provided.
THE ROLES OF MORALITY AND EFFICIENCY
IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE ASSEMBLY LINE
February 3, 2010
STEPHANOS BIBAS is Professor of Law and Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Following his graduation from Yale Law School, Professor Bibas clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbothom of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States. Before joining the Penn Law Faculty, Professor Bibas practiced law with Covington & Burling, served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and taught at the University of Iowa College of Law. Professor Bibas is the author of dozens of law review articles that examine the powers, incentives, information, and psychology that shape how prosecutors, defense counsel, defendants, and judges behave. He is currently at work on a book – Assembly-Line Criminal Justice – that will be published by Oxford University Press.
OUR (NOT SO) COUNTERMAJORITARIAN SUPREME COURT
March 8, 2010
CORINNA BARRETT LAIN is Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law. After earning her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, Professor Lain served as a law clerk for Judge John C. Porfi lio of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and worked as a prosecutor in the Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Offi ce. At the University of Richmond, Professor Lain has received the Distinguished Educator Award. Professor Lain’s scholarship focuses on capital punishment and criminal procedure and has appeared in the Duke Law Journal, University of Pennsylvania Law Review and other leading law journals. Her recent scholarship questions the conventional wisdom about the countermajoritarian nature of the Supreme Court’s criminal procedure decisions.
HOW THE LAW THINKS: WHY OUTMODED VIEWS OF
MENTAL STATE AFFECT OUR ABILITY TO BE JUST
March 29, 2010
DEBORAH W. DENNO is the Arthur A. McGivney Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law. Professor Denno earned her law degree and Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the Fordham faculty, she served as a law clerk to Judge Anthony Scirica of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and as an associate at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett. Professor Denno’s research has focused on topics relating to criminal law, criminal procedure, social sciences and the law, and the death penalty. The Supreme Court’s recent lethal injection decision, Baez v. Rees, 128 S. Ct. 1520 (2008), cited to four separate articles authored by Professor Denno. Among her current research is a book about the neuroscience correlates of criminal behavior.
KNOWLEDGE AS POWER: CRIMINAL REGISTRATION
AND COMMUNITY NOTIFICATION LAWS IN AMERICA
April 7, 2010
WAYNE A. LOGAN is the Gary and Sallyn Pajcic Professor of Law and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Florida State University College of Law. Before joining the faculty at Florida State, Professor Logan clerked for Judge Robert R. Merhige of the Eastern District of Virginia, practiced law in North Carolina, and taught at SUNY Albany and William Mitchell College of Law, where he was the William Mitchell Research Professor of Law. Professor Logan has written on a wide variety of issues, including capital punishment, search and seizure, sex offender registration, and the interplay among state, federal and local criminal justice systems. His book, Knowledge As Power: A History of Criminal Registration Laws in America, was recently published by Stanford University Press.
The Criminal Justice Institute Presents:
Licensiada Magistrada Rosa María Fortín Huezo
Presidenta de la Sala de lo Penal de
la Corte Suprema de Justica de El Salvador
"Temas Corrientes en la Administración de Justicia en El Salvador"
Friday, September 17th at 12:00 in 115 BLB
El Salvador Supreme Court Justice Fortín Huezo will provide a brief overview of the legal system in El Salvador, as well as the challenges that the country's legal system faces, including the gang problem and cooperation between the U.S. and El Salvador.
Lunch will be provided.
Professor Albin Eser, of the University of Freiberg/Germany and Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Law, visited the University of Houston Law Center on November 2, 2009 to present a lunch talk, titled “CHALLENGES OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Reflections of a Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague.”
“In assuming that for an American audience it might be of particular interest to hear a little bit about the experiences of judge who, as in my case, comes from a continental-European tradition, I would like to concentrate my talk on frictions resulting from the ICTY-procedure as a hybrid of common law and civil law traditions which are difficult to handle in practice. So, in order to have a lively discussion, I will primarily address aspects in which the adversarial system does not appear as the best preferable procedure of handling complex international crimes.”
Prof. Eser’s talk was held from 12:12:50 on November 2, 2009.
Upcoming Conference on Neuroscience and the Law by CJI Faculty Affiliate Dr. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine
“Presenting Child Victim Testimony in a Criminal Case” Presented by Denise Oncken, Chief of the Child Abuse Division, Harris County District Attorney’s Office
Mon. Nov. 3, 2008
Downloadable Audio File (mp3)
HBTLJ's Second Annual Symposium will be held at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, October 14, 2008. The topic of discussion will be White Collar Crime: Issues in Tax Fraud.
Featuring:
"Immigration Enforcement in the Southern District of Texas,” talk by Donald J. DeGabrielle, Jr., United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas.
October 14, 2008
Downloadable Audio File (mp3)
Power Point Presentation (pdf)
“What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: Myths About Immigrants in the Criminal Justice System” featuring Michael Herman, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Southern District of Texas, presented by CJI
October 9, 2008
Downloadable Audio File (mp3)
Power Point Presentation (pdf)
Indigent Defense Symposium - Achieving Quality in Indigent Defense–Proposals, Prototypes, and Policymaking
The symposium Achieving Quality in Indigent Defense–Proposals, Prototypes, and Policymaking examines the state of indigent defense in our community and the options available to ensure that adequate and effective counsel is made available to those facing criminal charges but unable to afford a lawyer on their own.
Harris County, including the City of Houston, the fourth most populous city in the United States, is currently considering the creation of a Public Defender Office as an alternative to the current system of judicial appointments, a potentially historic change for the largest metropolitan area in the United States without a public defender office.
It is expected that the symposium, providing a forum for the debate of the issue by the foremost researchers, professors and practitioners in the area of indigent defense can provide the community with the necessary information to ensure quality defense for all of its citizens.
Date: Friday, September 5th, 2008
Location: Krost Hall, University of Houston Law Center (map)
Registration Starts: 8:30 a.m.
Registration Cost: $25 (Scholarships Available)CLE: 4.75 Hours General, 1 Hour Ethics (pending)
Will new discoveries in neuroscience alter the way we make laws, punish criminals, and develop rehabilitation? On Wednesday, April 9, the Criminal Justice Institute at the Law Center hosted a luncheon talk by David M. Eagleman, Ph.D., of the departments of neuroscience and psychiatry at the Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Eagleman outlined Baylor’s collaborative initiative on Law, Brains and Behavior working to promote modern, evidence-based policy.
Conference on Neuroscience and the Law by CJI Faculty Affiliate Dr. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine
A Lecture on Mexican Criminal Justice
The Criminal Justice Institute will host a lecture by Superior Court Justice Elba Rojas of the State of Puebla, Mexico on Tuesday, April 10th from 12:00-1:00 in room 240 BLB. Justice Rojas, an appellate court justice, will be joined by several trial court judges from Puebla who are part of a delegation of Mexican judges visiting Houston on a legal exchange organized by the Mexican Consulate in Houston. Justice Rojas will discuss the Mexican criminal justice system, focusing on some of the differences between the Mexican system and that in the United States. Lunch will be provided.
The
Criminal Justice Institute of the UH Law Center presents
"An Integrated Approach to Science-Law Controversies
in the Courtroom" by Professor Joëlle Moreno,
New England School of Law and former criminal prosecutor
in the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division.
Her talk will explore why it is that legal scholars tend
to approach science-law questions in a fragmented way. She
argues that the legal system is ill-served by maintaining
the traditional disciplinary divides between scientific
and legal experts. Finally, Professor Moreno presents a
discussion of the theoretical and practical advantages of
a more integrated approach to the science-law controversies
of the future. Thursday, November 16th Room 209 BLB, Noon,
Lunch provided
2nd Annual Believer
Awards Benefit Dinner
May 19, 2006
Click here for more information.
'The State of the Community
and Restorative Justice'
February 10, 2006
The forum will consist of two panels of judges from Harris County District Courts, Drug Courts, Houston Municipal, and Harris County Criminal Justice System, as well as criminal justice officials from TDCJ, Correctional Institutions Division, Parole Division, Chaplaincy, Reentry & Rehabilitation, and Harris County Probation (HCCSCD).
The Booker Project:
The Future of Federal Sentencing
November 18, 2005
UH Law Center's Criminal Justice Institute and the Houston Law Review presented The Booker Project: The Future of Federal Sentencing. Federal judges, nationally-recognized scholars, and federal practitioners examined the meaning and legacy of the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision that examined the constitutionality of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
Presentation of "The Exonerated"
to Benefit Texas Justice Alliance
September 30, 2004
"The Exonerated" is a hit off-Broadway play
based on the true stories of innocent survivors of death
row. A benefit presentation of “The Exonerated”
will be presented at the Alley Theater, 615 Texas Avenue,
on Thursday, September 30, 2004. The event will benefit
the Texas Justice Alliance, a partnership of the Texas
Defender Service and the Texas Innocence Network, two
non-profit organizations working to improve the quality
of legal representation in Texas and serve indigent prisoners
most in need: the wrongly convicted and those facing the
death penalty. TJA will honor Mandy Welch and Richard
Burr for their efforts in the field.
For additional information, please contact: Eden Harrington,
member of Board of Directors for TDS and TIN, (512) 232-7068, eharrington@mail.law.utexas.edu or Karen Hamilton, Deputy Director of Texas Innocence
Network, (713) 743-7552, khamilt2@central.uh.edu.
Supreme Court Relies on CJI Prof. Paust' s Article in Deciding "Enemy Combatant" Case
The influence of one of University of Houston's CJI professors, Professor Jordan Paust, recently reached the highest level of the American judiciary. In deciding an important case involving the powers of the federal government vis-à-vis " enemy combatants" captured on the battlefields in Afghanistan by American forces, the United States Supreme Court recently adopted the position argued by Professor Paust in one of his articles. Professor Paust was quoted by the Supreme Court in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 524 U.S. __ (2004). The case involved the legal rights of an American citizen who had allegedly taken up arms with the Taliban and was captured by American forces in Afghanistan. Justice O'Connor's plurality opinion cites and quotes from Professor Jordan Paust' s article Judicial Power to Determine the Status and Rights of Persons Detained Without Trial, 44 Harvard International Law Journal 503 (2003).
UHLC Named Lead Institution on ABA Death Penalty Assessment Project for Texas
UH Law Center's CJI Director, Professor Sandra Guerra Thompson, has been named as Chair of the ABA's Death Penalty Assessment Team for the State of Texas . Professors David Dow and John Jay Douglass will serve as members of the team, as well as a diverse group of leaders from around the State. The team will supervise a statewide investigation of the laws, policies, and procedures applicable to death penalty cases and draft a report for presentation at a national conference in Washington in the summer of 2005.
UHLC to Offer NITA Death Penalty Workshop in Fall ‘04
The Blakely Advocacy Institute of the University of Houston Law Center will present a Death Penalty Workshop sponsored by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy on September 9-11, 2004 at the Law Center. Details on the program are to be announced.
CJI Co-Sponsors Successful CLE Program on "Representing Immigrants in Criminal Matters"
CJI and UHLC Continuing Legal Education program, with the assistance of Immigration Clinic Director Joe Vail, sponsored a well-attended program on June 26, 2004 , addressing the representation of immigrants in criminal court. Attorney Terry W. Yates, of Yates Law Offices, and City Councilman Gordon Quan, of Quan, Burdette & Perez, P.C., served on the Advisory Committee for the program. A special presentation was provided by Ambassador Eduardo Ibarrola, Deputy Chief of Mission for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C. The faculty for the program included: Attorney Brian K Bates, Judge Marc C. Carter, Assistant District Attorney Scott A. Durfee, Attorney Nancy Falgout, Attorney Rusty Hardin, Attorney George D. Murphy, Jr., Assistant Federal Public Defender Brent E. Newton, Attorney Richard Prinz, and Judge Larry W. Standley.
