Andrea Lyon

A lot has been written about the Trayvon Martin killing, George Zimmerman, the "stand your ground" laws and the intersection between race and the criminal justice system. Believe me, race is a big part of what happens in the criminal justice system, what color you are is an enormous determinative...

In Texas, something unusual is happening. A special investigation, headed by a judge, has been convened to decide whether former prosecutor Ken Anders, who is now a judge, hid evidence in a trial in which William Morton was wrongly convicted of his wife's murder and sent to prison...

A recent study by former Yale Law School Professor Donohue has shown that the death penalty is given in Connecticut far more based on race and location of the victim than any other factor. "There is no way to distinguish the few that are singled out for death...

In a court in Ft. Lauderdale, a beleaguered, hard working and assiduous Assistant Chief Public Defender Gordon Weekes Jr. filed motions to dismiss six criminal cases because, he argued in a motion filed for one case last week, arrests made by deputies during episodes of the TLC/Discovery Channel

This weekend, the New York Times magazine published an article chronicling prosecutors' resistance to changing their minds. It told the story of Juan Rivera, among others, where DNA exonerated both men, but the prosecution chose to go forward anyway, in Rivera's case -- arguing if you can...

What happens when judges who interpret the laws of the land face criticism from people who feel wronged by those interpretations? Is the effectiveness of judges premised on the notion that they will not face retaliation for judicial acts? Issues of judicial independence like these were what we all explored...

Much has already been written about the reversal of Amanda Knox's murder conviction in Italy on Monday. There certainly is reason to be interested -- the Italian legal system is, after all, so different from our own. An appeal here in the United States from a conviction does...

In two days, unless the parole board acts, Troy Davis will be executed.

This case has garnered a huge amount of attention, and millions of people are worried that an innocent man will be executed. According to the Davis supporters, nearly a million people...

In the process of promoting his book, former Vice President Dick Cheney has said that he supports waterboarding of suspects, just as long as they are not American.

Really? It is exactly this kind of thinking that allows police officers to feel it is okay to torture...

There is a battle for state's rights in an unusual locale -- Rhode Island. It has to do with a man, Jason Pleau, who is charged with murder for gunning down a gas station manager outside a Woonsocket bank in that state. At issue is this; Rhode Island...

By now, everyone has heard of the acquittal of Casey Anthony, the young mother accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. After the prosecution reversed its decision not to seek the death penalty in December 2008 to requesting the death penalty in April 2009, I was asked to join the...

In just a few days, the state of Texas is scheduled to execute a Mexican citizen. His name is Humberto Leal Garcia. Mr. Leal is a Mexican national who was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death without ever being informed that he had the right to seek...

Recently there has been a police push back against citizen recording of "police business". As reported recently by National Public Radio, the ubiquitous presence of cell phones and other personal recording devices has meant that citizens can record arrests or other police actions, but unfortunately the police and...

Since the death of Osama bin Laden, there has been some talk that torture works. Never mind months and months of careful analysis of clues from many sources. Never mind that no one -- not the Bush administration or anyone else -- relied on the statements made by 9/11 mastermind...

Lately there has been a lot of talk about not letting "them" have access to our courts through the writ of habeas corpus. In fact the New York Times published an article by Professor Joseph Hoffman and Nancy King last week suggesting that we need less access to...

On Tuesday, the judiciary committee of the Connecticut legislature endorsed a bill to abolish the death penalty in that state. This bill, which needs to be approved by both houses of the state legislature, replaces the death penalty with life without parole. This is the second time in...

The chief prosecutor in Illinois' McHenry County, Louis Bianchi, was acquitted of corruption charges last week for conspiring to do political work on county time and computers. The overall experience, he said, has planted a seed of doubt into his belief in the system, the Chicago Tribune reported....

Yesterday I was in Springfield, Illinois when Governor Quinn signed into law the abolition of the death penalty in this state and commuted the sentences of the fifteen death row inmates here to life without parole. When the bill first passed, I wrote exhorting the governor to sign...

As a clinical teacher of law, one of the things I try to do is to engender discussions in class that go beyond just the law or the cases our clinic is working on (not that we don't spend quite a bit of time on those subjects), and to look...

As those of us in Illinois anxiously await Governor Quinn's decision on whether or not to sign the bill which passed last month abolishing the death penalty in Illinois -- which I have called on him to do -- another issue in the death penalty looms.

All...