Wrongful Convictions and Their Causes: An Annotated Bibliography

This Annotated Bibliography directs attorneys to relevant, select legal periodical articles written from 2010 to 2016 on wrongful convictions and their causes. The authors focus on five major causes that lead to wrongful convictions, as evidenced by the literature. Part I of the Annotated Bibliography focuses on resources that discuss false confessions as a cause of wrongful convictions. Part II discusses resources that address the role of police and prosecutorial practices, including misconduct, in wrongful convictions. Part III provides articles on eyewitness and jailhouse informant issues related to wrongful convictions. Part IV contains articles that deal with how forensic evidence errors may lead to wrongful convictions. Part V provides miscellaneous articles in which other relevant issues related to wrongful convictions and their causes are addressed

Diverse Interactions: Addressing Race and Implicit Bias in Legal Research Instruction

A growing body of research shows that implicit biases based on race and other minority status play a role in student perceptions, behaviors and teacher evaluation outcomes. In this context, the continued use in legal research instruction of race-neutral client names and traditional, noncontroversial hypotheticals misses an important opportunity to train our students in becoming culturally competent lawyers. The first part of the program will discuss the importance of a legal research curriculum that addresses issue of race and implicit bias, despite the possible unease of the instructors. The second part of the program will entail participants learning tools and tips for incorporating issues of race and implicit bias into the legal research curriculum. Emphasis will be placed on the design of hypotheticals that reflect the legal challenges minority clients may face, while still providing substantial instruction on legal research methods

Backward Design: A Handy Tool for Remote Teaching

The Vanderbilt Law Library recently revamped its 1 L legal research curriculum. In order to ensure that the revamp was effective, the librarians utilized backward design, which requires that instructors formulate a set of teaching objectives prior to creating course materials. When the University transitioned to remote teaching as a result of COVID-19, the prior preparation as a group made the transition much easier because the teaching librarians were able to utilize the core concepts that were agreed to by all while still customizing their instruction to fit the needs of their individual sections and teaching styles

From the First Day Forward: Integrating Legal Research into Law School Doctrinal Courses

This presentation focuses on the benefits of partnering with doctrinal professors to integrate legal research into law school doctrinal classes. The presenter will discuss best practices for the integration process. She will also share ideas and tips for developing meaningful collaborations with doctrinal faculty members and explain how she worked with Civil Procedure professors to integrate research into their classes

Race, Poverty, and Bail: An Annotated Bibliography

On June 9, 2017, Illinois's Bail Reform Act of 2017 was signed into law by Governor Bruce Rauner. Among other important provisions, the Act creates a presumption that non-monetary release conditions will be granted for defendants, requires that a defendant be provided an attorney for bail determination hearings, provides a bail credit for certain offenses, and authorizes the Illinois Supreme Court to create a non-discriminatory statewide risk assessment tool that could be used to make bail determinations. Despite the crucial improvements to Illinois's bail system achieved through the Act, some advocates argue that further reforms are still needed to protect the rights of defendants related to bail and pretrial release. In light of the recent bail reforms in Illinois and other states, it is important to consider the growing body of research addressing whether (and, if so, the extent to which) bail outcomes and related pretrial release decisions are connected to the race, ethnicity, and income level of a defendant. Even if the bail and pretrial release policies in a state are intended to be race and income-neutral, racial and income disparities may still result. By examining existing research on this topic, stakeholders in states considering bail reform (including judges, legislators, lawyers, and community members) can truly determine what reforms may be sufficient and what additional reforms may still need to be considered. This annotated bibliography highlights selected articles and studies examining the effects of a defendant's race and income level on bail determinations and the pretrial detention period. It is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all works available. Works selected for inclusion were published between the years 2000 and 2018 in law reviews and journals meeting specific ranking criteria. Although there are additional articles and studies available on this topic, the exclusion of any work from this annotated bibliography does not indicate any qualitative opinion of that work

Wrongful Convictions and Their Causes: An Annotated Bibliography

This annotated bibliography directs attorneys to relevant, select legal periodical articles written from 2010 to date on wrongful convictions and their causes. The authors focus on five major causes that lead to wrongful convictions, as evidenced by the literature. Part I of the article focuses on resources that discuss false confessions as a cause of wrongful convictions. Part II of the article discusses resources that address the role of police and prosecutorial practices, including misconduct, in wrongful convictions. Part III provides articles on eyewitness and jailhouse informant issues related to wrongful convictions. Part IV contains articles that deal with how forensic evidence errors may lead to wrongful convictions. Part V provides miscellaneous articles in which other relevant issues related to wrongful convictions and their causes are addressed