Join the Marquette University Law School for the 2022 Barrock Lecture about democracy in the criminal justice system on Tuesday, Nov. 15, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Eckstein Hall’s Lubar Center.
Carissa Byrne Hessick, professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, will lead the lecture.
The event is complimentary; however, registration is required online.
The democratic controls on the American criminal justice system are almost as dysfunctional as they are essential. To begin with the latter point: as designed, the system is highly democratic. Whether by empaneling juries and grand juries, electing local prosecutors and sheriffs or constantly revising criminal statutes, the United States gives its citizens significant input into not just general criminal justice policy but even outcomes in specific cases. In practice, though: Vanishingly few criminal cases go to trial; most prosecutors and sheriffs run for office unopposed; and when they are asked to vote, most Americans are uninformed or misinformed about even the most basic criminal justice issues. We can improve this bleak picture of criminal justice democracy — but only with a significant investment in time and attention within both the legal community and the larger society.
This lecture series remembers George Barrock, L’31, and Margaret Barrock.