The 2009-2010 term was was highly consequential. Citizens United gave corporations more First Amendment rights than they ever have before. Sullivan v. Florida prohibited sentencing juveniles to life in prison without parole for non-homicide offenses. And, in McDonald v. Chicago, the Supreme Court, for the first time, invalidated a state law on the basis that it infringed the Second Amendment's right to carry firearms.
Professor Paul Butler joined Newshour correspondent Jeffrey Brown in conversation with Professor Neomi Rao and Tom Goldstein in reviewing the Supreme Court's 2009-2010 term. What does this term's decisions suggest about the Court's future? How influential is Chief Justice John Roberts? How did Justice Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation change the direction of the Court? And how might Elena Kagan change the Court, if confirmed?
The 2009-2010 Supreme Court term just closed, so which results caused a serious change to the law? The American Constitution Society presented an event at which a panel of extraordinary constitutional scholars and litigators discussed the term's most important decisions.
With moderator Tom Goldstein (founder of SCOTUSBlog.com), Professor Paul Bulter was joined by Paul D. Clement (former solicitor general), Doug Kendall (President of the Constitutional Accountability Center); Elisa Massimino (President of Human Rights First), Andrew J. Pincus (Lecuturer at Yale Law School), Virginia A. Seitz (Partner at Sidley Austin LLP), and Monica Youn (Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice).
You can stream watch streaming video of the event below.
June 10, 2010
WNYC Public Radio, New York City, NY
When a white police officer kills an innocent black bystander, does a jury of the defendant's peers including a jury without blacks?
Johannes Mehserle, a white San Francisco police officer assigned to the city's public transportation system (BART), is accused of killing Oscar Grant, an unarmed black passenger. Jury selection has just closed in Mehserle's murder trial, and, of the five of the fifty African-Americans in the jury pool, none were selected to serve.
Professor Paul Butler was a guest on The Takeway to share his views on the legal and social ramifications of this type of jury selection. How does a jury lacking blacks affect the legitimacy of the eventual decision? Without African-Americans on the jury, how might the city's African-American population react to a not guilty verdict? Professor Paul Butler shares his insights.
An MP3 of Professor Butler's appearance is available for download or streaming below.
June 2nd, 2010
Tell Me More, NPR News, Washington D.C.
On June 1st, the Supreme Court declared that, in order to assert one's "Miranda" rights (including one's right to silence), one must affirmatively assert his invocation of that right. In other words, the Court decided that one had to speak up to remain silent.
In Berghuis v. Thompkins (full opinion), a suspect was detained and interrogated by police. The suspect was informed of his right to remain silent, and he remained silent, refusing to speak for hours, but never affirmatively asserting his Miranda rights. The interrogiation continued and, finally, when an officer asked the defendant whether he would pray to be forgiven for committing the crime, the defendant said that he would. This statement was used as evidence against him at trial. The Supreme Court affirmed the use of the statement.
Professor Paul Butler joined Michelle Martin on NPR's Tell Me More to discuss the issue. In the segment, Butler explains the ruling, especially highlting Justice Sotomayor's dissenting opinion, which notes that the decision runs counter to the original purpose of requiring Miranda warnings. Butler also explains why the dissenting vote of Sotomayor, a former prosecutor, might be a good sign for liberals.
April 27, 2010
WNYC Public Radio, New York City, NY
On April 23, 2010, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law Arizona Senate Bill 1070, which requires police officers to stop and question anyone that they have reasonable suspicion to believe is an illegal immigrant to the United States. Critics say they believe that this law will lead to wide spread racial profiling. The law also seems to shift the burden of proof onto the defense instead of the prosecution in a country where pratcially everyone knows the term, "innocent until proven guilty."
Professor Paul Butler gave his analysis of whether the bill is constitutional under current search and seizure doctrine, and whether this Supreme Court might tweak the law in order to uphold the regulation.
An MP3 of Professor Butler's appearance is available for download or streaming below.
Should good people be prosecutors? Professor Paul Butler argues that they should not because America's criminal justice system fails to achieve justice.
On March 29, 2010, Butler debated with the issue with Kurt Schmoke, former mayor of Balitmore and Maryland state attorney, and currently Howard Law School's Dean.
February 19 , 2010
Unviersity of Colorado at Boulder
Colorado Law’s Black Law Student’s Association (BLSA) hosted a one-day conference, “Still Chained? The Overrepresentation of African Americans in the Criminal Justice System,” in which professors, students, judges, law enforcement specialists, and lawyers addressed not only the problem of the disproportionate representation of Blacks in the criminal justice system, but also sought potential solutions to this tragedy of American society.
"African Americans make up 13% of the general U.S. population, yet they constitute 28% of all arrests, 40% of all inmates held in prisons and jails, and 42% of the population on death row,” said Dr. Barry Krisberg, former president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, during his testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime on October 29, 2009. “In contrast, whites make up 67% of the total U.S. population and 70% of all arrests, yet only 40% of all inmates held in state prisons or local jails and 56% of the population on death row.”
Professor Kevin Reitz of the University of Minnesota Law School began the conference by delving into these statistics He explained that while 1 in 100 young American males is incarcerated, 1 in 9 young African American males is incarcerated.
Professor Paul Butler of George Washington University Law School rounded out the discussion with a multi-media production “The Hip-Hop Theory of Justice.” Butler said, “Think of Martin Luther King. If he were alive today, the law he would be rebelling against is the criminal justice system. But we don’t have Martin Luther King—we have hip-hop artists, and we need to listen to them.” Using a mixture of music videos, speeches by President Obama, and hip-hop lyrics, Butler explored the idea of hip-hop as a message board for overrepresentation, causing the criminal justice system to lose its deterrent ability.
The program concluded with a dynamic panel of legal professionals—The Honorable Judge Wiley Daniel, Denver Police Department’s Division Chief of Research, Training and Technology Dr. Tracie L. Keesee, State Training Director Ann Roan, Denver’s Chief Deputy District Attorney Lamar Sims, and trial attorney Lisa Wayne—discussed their views on the overrepresentation problem. This discussion was a highlight of the program where possible solutions were discussed from multiple vantage points and audience participation was enthusiastic!
Many of the suggestions focused on police accountability. “You have to start taking the research people have to the police departments,” said Keesee.
“There’re not a lot of racial boogeymen out there,” added Butler. “There’re a lot of people with goodwill who are just looking for direction.”
After sharing some of his favorite hip-hop songs, Professor Paul Butler discussed the hip-hop theory of justice; he explained how rappers, unlike any other media figures, have the best perspective to comment on American criminal law. He also discussed overincarceration and jury nullification. Professor Butler also discussed the current state of American criminal law and the progress that some states have made in reducing incarceration rates while decreasing crime.
In this In Your Ear segment on Michel Martin's Tell Me More NPR News Program, Professor Paul Butler finally realized his life-long dream of being a music critic on NPR!
Paul discusses some of the songs that he's listening to now, such as Lil' Wayne's Misunderstood, which features an extended monologue about overincarceration, KRS-One's Sound of da Police, an old-school track in which KRS criticizes police authority and practice, and Erykah Badu's Danger, which describes how family members of incarcerated persons "do time on the outside."
An MP3 of his appearance is available for download or streaming below.
Professor Paul Butler joined Allison Seymour, DC Fox 5's morning news co-host, to discuss the decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to put five accused 9/11 plotters, including Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, on trial in New York City.
Debate over the political decision has been harsh over recent days. Michael Bloomberg, recently re-elected mayor of New York City, defends the decision, but former mayor Rudy Giuliani has attacked the decision, saying it shows "an overconcern with the rights of terrorists," arguing that the trial will provide "a platform to push their ideology."
Professor Butler provided a legal context for the decision, explaining the legal and security ramifications of holding a domestic criminal trial against foreign terrorists. He also explained what may happen if the defendants are acquitted.
Professor Paul Butler joined Allison Seymour, DC Fox 5's morning news co-host, to discuss the pending execution of John Allen Muhammad, also known as the D.C. sniper, who represented himself at trial. He was convicted of six counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 2006. His appeal to the Supreme Court had been denied, and his last option left was a call for clemency to Virginia's Governor, Tim Kaine.
Professor Butler discussed the legal procedure post-conviction and before execution. While most states allow for an extended period for appeals after conviction, Virginia has a unique "rocket docket," which accelerates the appeals process to hasten the execution of individuals sentenced to death.
Muhammad was executed the night after this segment aired.
Butler argued that, because prosecutors enforce unjust policies and depend on unjust police actions, Butler argues that the efforts of good people would be wasted as prosecutors. Barkow disagreed, responding that line prosecutors can and do make discretionary decisions that allow them to work within the law to have influential voices in cases; he argues that “the line prosecutors making all these discretionary decisions are really kind of driving the bus most of the time.”
The Chicago Tribune'sPrinters Row Lit Fest is an outdoor book festival that offers all comers the opportunity to hear authors speak and debate their works.
Professor Paul Butler was featured in discussion with Professor Geoffrey R. Stone, professor of law and The University of Chicago Law School. At this event, Butler discussed how putting more people in prison causes rather than prevents crime, how snitches decrease confidence in the criminal jusice system, how decriminilazation of drugs will decrease both crime rates and drug use, and how jury nullification can help prevent the overincarceration crisis.
Thanks to C-Span 2's BookTV, video of the event is available for download or for streaming below. If streaming, please be patient; the file is large and may take some time to preload.
Chicago Lit Fest with Professor Geoffrey StoneDuration: 50 minutes
July 1, 2009
Center for American Progress, Washington, DC
At this event, presented by The Center for American Progress, Pulitizer Prize winning journalist Clarence Page moderated a discussion by Professor Paul Butler and Prince George's County's State's Attorney Glenn Ivey. The three discussed the cutting ege criminal justice issues analyzed and proposals outlined in Professor Butler's book, Let's Get Free, including the "don't be a snitch" movement new solutions to violent crime and jury nullification. Those who attended were fortunate to see these two former classmates from Harvard Law School engage each other on criminal law and justice issues.
Video of the event is available for download or for streaming below. If streaming, please be patient; the file is large and may take some time to preload.
Center for American Progress Panel DiscussionDuration: 81 minutes
The Archive: Other Appearances by Professor Paul Butler
