Criminal Justice

“The Supreme Court should not further criminalize homelessness,” writes Laura Riley, the director of the clinical program at Berkeley Law, and the author of “Homeless Advocacy.” “But whether it does or not, this case should put governments at all levels on notice that humane policies can help to reduce homelessness. We don’t have to let this crisis continue.”

Chesa Boudin, the founding executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at Berkeley Law School, Brendan Cox , and Miriam Aroni Krinsky write about the Supreme Court case City of Grants Pass v. Johnson.

The ruling, which led to Warren McCleskey’s execution in 1991, dealt a severe blow to opponents of the death penalty. But it also added legal support to arguments for prosecutorial discretion — that prosecutors, not judges, are the ones to decide what charges to pursue in court and take to the jury, said Elisabeth Semel, a UC Berkeley law professor and co-director of the school’s Death Penalty Clinic.

A commentary about a criminal-justice conference at the University of California, Berkeley organized by Professor John Yoo and Chesa Boudin. 

A new report from Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic finds that just 19 states collect race and ethnicity information from prospective jurors, meaning that a majority of states cannot ensure that their juries are a “representative cross-section of the community ” as mandated by the Constitution.

“I’m committed to a life of public service,” said Chesa Boudin, executive director of Berkeley Law’s Criminal Law & Justice Center. “It’s not an accident that I am working at a public university, but I have no plans to run for office. I’m laser focused on building and growing our center to make sure that it is successful.”

Chesa Boudin, founding executive director of Berkeley Law’s Criminal Law & Justice Center discusses his familial experience with incarceration, the backlash he received while in office, building out alternative infrastructures, and rethinking decarceration.

Berkeley Law’s Criminal Law and Justice Center, or CLJC, held its inaugural event Tuesday, hosting UC Santa Cruz professor Angela Davis in conversation with Chesa Boudin, the center’s executive director.

“We have seen climate-related, and certainly fire-related, impacts on jails and prisons across the globe with an increasing level and severity as climate change has picked up pace,” said Chesa Boudin, executive director of Berkeley Law’s Criminal Law & Justice Center.

“We think of crime and youth violence and youth crime as a systemic societal issue that’s the responsibility of society to correct,” said Rachel Wallace, interim deputy director at the advocacy clinic. “If we’re not giving youth the opportunities to succeed and they’re turning to cycles of violence or cycles of crime, that’s something that is a societal problem that we should all be investing in.”