On March 16th, Professor Anita S. Krishnakumar presented her article, “Statutory History,” virtually to Professor Bill Eskridge’s Statutory Interpretation Theory Seminar at Yale Law School. The article is forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review.
Her talk refocused the criminal reform discussions about racial bias towards criminal justice defendants and explained how the biases about public defenders and prosecutors stymie reform efforts to end racialized plea bargaining. While some of the stereotypes about public defenders and prosecutors may have represented the status quo at an earlier time, these biases are frozen in time. They obscure a growing trend in which many public defenders and prosecutors are now actually criminal justice reform activists, incentivized to reform racialized criminal justice outcomes when plea bargaining race. In her talk, Professor Greenberg highlighted how the work of progressive prosecutors and lessons from emerging plea bargaining scholarship are encouraging public defenders and prosecutors to collaborate, consider a restorative justice approach in appropriate cases, and use a client-centered approach when they plea bargain race.
Elayne E. Greenberg Assistant Dean for Dispute Resolution Programs Professor of Legal Practice Faculty Director, Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution