Title:  How Do Wrongful Convictions Happen?

Synopsis: With the advent of DNA testing, thousands of people have already been exonerated and released after having been wrongfully convicted in criminal courts.  In this talk, she will discuss a few systemic problems in the criminal justice system that have contributed to these wrongful convictions and talk about how stakeholders in the system are working to redress those problems and prevent future wrongful convictions.

Our speaker: Eve Brensike Primus, ’01, is the Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, where she has won multiple teaching awards for her instruction in criminal procedure, evidence, and habeas corpus courses. She co-authors one of the nation’s leading criminal procedure textbooks and writes about structural reform in the criminal legal system, with a particular focus on indigent defense reform. The US Supreme Court and lower appellate courts have cited her scholarship.

Professor Primus is the founder and director of MDefenders and the Public Defender Training Institute-programs designed to educate and support aspiring public defenders. She also directs the Data for Defenders project, which promotes creative and evidence-based criminal defense advocacy through the strategic and effective use of social science research.

Before joining the Michigan Law faculty, Professor Primus worked as a criminal investigator for the Public Defender Service in Washington, DC, and as a trial and appellate public defender in the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. She also has participated in the lawmaking process, giving legislative testimony and helping draft proposed legislation on criminal justice issues.