Events & News
Spring 2025
Week of Abolition: What Does State Custody Look Like? | March 6
National Lawyers Guild and the Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Reform cohosted a student panel on interning for Public Defender Offices. The students shared their experiences inside the U.S. jails and prisons.
A Prosecutor's Perspective on Balancing Reform and Public Safety | February 18
Mr. Steven Mulroy (District Attorney for Shelby County, TN) and Vice Dean Chavis hosted a discussion on the progressive prosecutor movement, the importance of prosecutorial independence, and his office's role in prosecuting the officers accused in the beating death of Tyre Nichols.
Read more about the discussion here.
Spring 2024
The Rage of Innocence | March 27
Professor Kris Hennings (Blume Professor of Law and Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic & Initiative at Georgetown Law) and Vice Dean Kami Chavis hosted a discussion on the disproportionate criminalization of Black youth, particularly in schools. This conversation highlighted how normal adolescent behaviors are often misinterpreted as criminal due to implicit racial bias.
Professor Hennings is the author of The Rage of Innocence. A book signing of the novel followed the lunch lecture.
Policing Since the Murder of George Floyd | March 5
Mr. Arthur Ago (Director, Criminal Justice Project in the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law) and Vice Dean Kami Chavis hosted a discussion on the history of the American police reform movement, as well as renewed initiatives to hold officers responsible for misconduct.
Fall 2023
Rap as Evidence | October 10
Professor Andrea L. Dennis (Associate Dean for Faculty Development & John Byrd Martin Chair of Law, University of Georgia) and Vice Dean Kami Chavis hosted a conversation on the use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials.
Professor Dennis is the co-author of Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America, and her research on the issue has received national attention in both courts and media outlets.
Spring 2023
The Exoneration of Alfred Dewayne Brown | March 27
"The Exoneration of Alfred Dewayne Brown": A Conversation with Attorney Brian Stolarz and exoneree Alfred Dewayne Brown. Hosted by Center Director Kami Chavis. Mr. Stolarz was the habeas attorney for Mr. Brown, the 13th exoneree from Texas's death row and the 154th death row exoneree nationally. Mr. Brown's case is featured in episode 8 of the Innocence Files on Netflix.
View the event recording Learn more about the Netflix series.
Ending Police Brutality: Embracing Systemic Reform After Memphis | February 13
Panel discussion featuring W&M Law Professor Jeffrey Bellin, author of Mass Incarceration Nation, Center Director Professor Kami Chavis, and Professor Seth W. Stoughton of the University of South Carolina School of Law.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Racial and Social Justice, the Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Reform, the Criminal Law Society, and Black Law Students Association.