Conviction Integrity: Errors in Criminal Justice (Bluestine/Hollway)
Faculty
|
|
| John F. Hollway Executive Director & Lecturer in Law jhollway@law.upenn.edu |
|
|
| Marissa Boyers Bluestine Assistant Director mblu@law.upenn.edu |
Additional Information
Skills Training
Team Projects
Expository Writing
Other Professional Skills:
Grading
50% Participation,
50% Paper
Yes
Class meets in person.
Course Continuity
Students are encouraged to stay home if you are ill or experience flu-like symptoms. If you miss a class for any reason, it is still your responsibility to make up the work missed.
I offer the following to students who miss class due to illness:
- I will make PowerPoint slides or other class materials routinely available on the course site to everyone in the class.
- If you are absent due to illness or some other unavoidable circumstance, email me and I can make PowerPoint slides or other class materials available to you.
- If you are absent, contact us and we will arrange for a Zoom link so you can attend class.
Meeting Times/Location
R 4:30PM - 6:30PM
Silverman Hall 270
Category
Seminar
Credits
3.0
Drawing on social science and legal research, this course examines the causes and consequences of wrongful convictions in the United States. This course evaluates the different types of errors in the criminal justice system and discusses a “systems approach” to criminal justice reform that borrows theories from other fragmented, complex, high-impact, zero-tolerance-for-error systems of human interaction, such as healthcare and aviation. In so doing, it mixes criminal law, criminal procedure, and social science to discuss how such an approach might be implemented to improve the criminal justice system for all.
As a final research project, students will develop their own proposal for reforming the criminal justice system to reduce errors leading to wrongful convictions. This course satisfies the Senior Writing Requirement.
This class is a seminar, and participation is a significant portion of the final grade; students will be expected to come to class familiar with the readings and prepared to discuss them. Grading in the course is based equally on participation in class and the research or policy proposal. Case readings will be kept to a minimum, but there will be weekly readings on each topic.
Constitutional Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of constitutional law; Perform legal analysis in the context of constitutional law; Communicate effectively on topics related to constitutional law; Demonstrate an understanding of constitutional law affects other areas of law.
Criminal Law and Procedure Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of criminal law and procedure; Perform legal analysis in the context of criminal law and procedure; Communicate effectively on topics related to criminal law and procedure; Demonstrate an understanding of the role criminal law and procedure play in society and their impact on other areas of law and society.
Textbooks
"Killing Time: An 18-Year Odyssey from Death Row to Freedom" by John Hollway and Ronald M. Gauthier |