Motivation

The criminal justice system is messy, archaic, biased. It's rife with corruption and is resistant to systematic innovation and reform.

• The interpersonal interactions between actors in the criminal justice system (protecting friends and colleagues)
• Money has an incredible influence in the outcomes of cases
• The prosecutor-defense dichotomy seems arbitrary. Shouldn't all parties be striving for truth?
• Juries' irrational decision-making, which is intentionally not accountable
• How can a successful appeal be thrown to the same judge who made the initial mistake?!

Resources

• Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2020
• The Sentencing Project drafted a Report to the UN about racial disparities in the US Justice System.
• Article abt Benforado's research, which applies cognitive psychology to law.
• Call for virtual trials, given COVID-19, and another
• Road to the virtual courtroom
• Dirty defense lawyer
• Basic info on appeals. Apparently when remanding, reassignment is rare, and an argument 20 years ago that argues this is dumb.
• The simple prescription for reducing wrongful convictions: better journalism about crime and punishment.
• Manual on investigative journalism, in exposing corruption [targeted to Serbia, but seems general].

Relevant organizations

• Equal Justice Initiative
• The Innocence Network

Unfair (Benforado)

Notable cases

• Serial podcast
• Just Mercy
• Pete Schelem instrumental in releasing 5 wrongly convicted individuals.

Notes

• What is this project?
• What are the questions, and who do we ask?
  • Law professor / grad students from Cornell
  • We could ask Yusef if he knows a retired judge etc.
• How does the Supreme court make its decisions?
  • What pieces do you want to make an informed decision outside of their jurisdiction?
  • Is there anything families wouldn't be able to get from their local institutions?