Is American Justice Blind, Or Blind To A "Prosecutocracy"?

Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group Teleforum

Federal convict Conrad Lord Black argued at National Review Online last fall in "Blind Justice" that America's system of broad prosecutorial discretion routinely undermines defendants’ constitutional rights -- largely through a criminal justice system that's designed in acquiescence to this discretion by those who fear being seen as "soft on crime.”  The system's defenders respond that criminal defendants enjoy numerous and generous constitutional protections (some at the expense of a textual constitutional reading), and that prosecutorial discretion -- though perhaps subject to discrete, if infamous, abuse -- is overwhelmingly used properly against the legitimately guilty.  With the rise of debates over the role of the federal government in criminal law, these divergent views will be debated thoughtfully by our expert panelists.

Featuring:

• Conrad Lord Black, Financier, Historian, and Commentator
• Prof. William G. Otis, Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
• Prof. Ellen S. Podgor, Gary R. Trombley Family White-Collar Crime Research Professor and Professor of Law, Stetson University College of Law

Federal convict Conrad Lord Black argued at National Review Online last fall in "Blind Justice" that America's system of broad prosecutorial discretion routinely undermines defendants’ constitutional rights -- largely through a criminal justice system that's designed in acquiescence to this discretion by those who fear being seen as "soft on crime.”  The system's defenders respond that criminal defendants enjoy numerous and generous constitutional protections (some at the expense of a textual constitutional reading), and that prosecutorial discretion -- though perhaps subject to discrete, if infamous, abuse -- is overwhelmingly used properly against the legitimately guilty.  With the rise of debates over the role of the federal government in criminal law, these divergent views will be debated thoughtfully by our expert panelists.

Featuring:

• Conrad Lord Black, Financier, Historian, and Commentator
• Prof. William G. Otis, Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
• Prof. Ellen S. Podgor, Gary R. Trombley Family White-Collar Crime Research Professor and Professor of Law, Stetson University College of Law

Call begins at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

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