COVID-19

Online
Essay
Waivers of Compassionate Release in Plea Bargains: The Need for Administrative Action to Prevent Unfair Sentencing
Ellen A. Wiencek
Ellen A. Wiencek is an Articles Editor of The University of Chicago Law Review and a J.D. Candidate in the University of Chicago Law School Class of 2022. She received her B.A. from Washington and Lee University in 2015. Ellen worked in the Federal Public Defenders Office for the Southern District of Illinois in the summer of 2020, where she drafted many motions for compassionate release.

Ellen thanks the Online Editors for their helpful comments on this piece.

Judge Charles Breyer of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California made headlines in May of 2020 with his decision to reject a plea agreement in United States v. Osorto (2020).

Compassionate Release COVID-19 First Step Act
Online
Essay
Against Immunizing Nursing Homes
Betsy J. Grey
Jack E. Brown Chair in Law, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.

I thank Bob Dauber, Zachary Kramer, and Joel Nomkin for their valuable comments on earlier drafts and Sean Krieg for his outstanding research assistance. 

Although Congress has so far declined to enact any immunity protection specifically targeted at COVID-19 claims, that has not stopped the Executive Branch from responding to the pandemic with immunity measures.

COVID-19
Online
Essay
Zoom Trials as the New Normal: A Cautionary Tale
Angela Chang
Angela Chang is a staff member of The University of Chicago Law Review and a J.D. Candidate in the University of Chicago Law School Class of 2022. She received her B.A. from Williams College in 2017.

She would like to thank Deb Malamud for her invaluable input and guidance.

As of November 9, 2020, the United States has had over 10 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and at least 240,000 deaths.

COVID-19
Online
Essay
COVID-19 and Criminal Justice
Valena E. Beety
Valena E. Beety is Professor of Law at Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and Deputy Director of Academy for Justice.
Brandon L. Garrett
Brandon L. Garrett is L. Neil Williams Professor of Law and Director of the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke University School of Law.

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the boundaries of our criminal legal system, testing the entrenchment of patterns in incarceration, policing, and surveillance.

COVID-19
Online
Essay
Mass Incarceration, Meet COVID-19
Sharon Dolovich
Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law; Director, UCLA Law COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project.

I thank Sasha Natapoff and Brendan Saloner for helpful comments; John Boston, David Fathi, Aaron Littman, and Alan Mills for their generous willingness to field my many questions; Liz DeWolf for her editorial advice; and Kaitlyn Fryzek for excellent research assistance. I also thank the entire UCLA Law COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project team—staff, leadership team, and volunteers—who have worked tirelessly since the start of the pandemic to collect and analyze data of all kinds bearing on the impact of COVID on people in custody. Your commitment to the enterprise has been inspiring beyond measure. Thanks are due as well to the Vital Projects Fund, Arnold Ventures, and the United States Centers for Disease Control, for their generous support of our work. All views presented in this Essay are solely my own.

From the earliest days of the pandemic, it was clear that the novel coronavirus posed an outsized danger to the more than two million people locked inside America’s prisons and jails.

COVID-19
Online
Essay
Law Enforcement as Disease Vector
Maybell Romero
Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University College of Law.

Thanks to Marissa Jackson Sow, Kim Ricardo, Michael S. Sinha, and commentators at the 2020 Northern Illinois University College of Law Chicagoland Junior Scholars Conference.

The people have judged the cops to be a greater risk to health than covid and frankly that’s on cops.

COVID-19
Online
Essay
Pretrial Dismissal in the Interest of Justice: A Response to COVID-19 and Protest Arrests
Valena E. Beety
Professor of Law, Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law; Deputy Director, Academy for Justice.

Thank you for excellent feedback from Darryl Brown and Anna Roberts, both of whom have written valuable scholarship on dismissals in the interest of justice.  My gratitude as well to ASU law students Zach Stern, Priyal Thakkar, and Alejandra Curiel Molina for their research assistance. Finally, thank you to University of Chicago Law Review editor Matthew Reade for his insightful edits on this piece, and for his tremendous work and partnership in organizing this symposium.

The most dangerous place to be in America is prison or jail.

COVID-19
Online
Essay
Virtual Criminal Courts
Deniz Ariturk
Health, Law and Justice Fellow, Wilson Center for Science and Justice, Duke University School of Law; Duke University, Masters Bioethics and Science Policy.
William E. Crozier
Research Director of the Wilson Center for Science and Justice, Duke University School of Law.
Brandon L. Garrett
L. Neil Williams Professor of Law and Director of the Wilson Center for Science and Justice, Duke University School of Law.

Criminal courtrooms are among many workplaces to shut down and adopt virtual operations in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19
Online
Essay
COVID-19 and the Ruralization of U.S. Criminal Court Systems
Pamela R. Metzger
Pamela Metzger is the Director of the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center at the SMU Dedman School of Law. Professor Metzger’s scholarship combines theory and practice in seeking improvements in criminal justice. Professor Metzger’s work has appeared in publications such as the Yale Law Journal, Vanderbilt Law Review, Southern California Law Review, and Northwestern University Law Review, and has been widely cited by leading authorities and by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gregory J. Guggenmos
Greg Guggenmos provides the Deason Center with statistical consultation and research support. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from SMU with a B.S. and M.S. in Applied Statistics and Data Analytics. During his time at SMU, he conducted independent research on pretrial detention and studied abroad in five countries. Deeply invested in civic engagement, Guggenmos founded the Community Bail Fund of North Texas in 2018. In 2019, he served as the Deason Center’s Law & Statistics Coordinator.

The COVID-19 pandemic is imposing typically rural practice constraints on the United States’ urban and suburban criminal court systems.

COVID-19
Online
Essay
Policing the Pandemic
Barry Friedman
Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Policing Project at New York University School of Law; Reporter, American Law Institute, Principles of the Law: Policing. Author, Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission
Robin Tholin
Harvard Law School, J.D. 2019; former Litigation Fellow at the Policing Project at NYU School of Law.

Although there were those who foretold the risks of a pandemic, it is fair to say most of the world was caught unprepared. All of the sudden there was a scramble—for protective clothing, for tests, for antivirals and a vaccine.

COVID-19

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