Carol Steiker

And discussions have continued into the new year about the policy and procedures of police, prosecutors and the community at large.

At a time when policing, prosecutorial discretion, the death penalty, and criminal justice as a whole are under tremendous scrutiny in the United States, a new initiative at Harvard Law School seeks to analyze problems within the U.S. criminal justice system and look for solutions.

When Harvard Law Professor Daniel Meltzer ’75 was named director of the American Law Institute in January, he joined a long line of members of the HLS community who have helped shape the direction of the law from inside the ALI.

On Wednesday, Nov. 14, a panel of distinguished judges and professors gathered with author David Dorsen '59 to discuss and celebrate his recent biography, entitled “Henry Friendly: Greatest Judge of His Era.”

On March 6, the husband and wife team of former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine ’83 and First Lady Anne Holton ‘83 gave a talk at Harvard Law School on how to construct a long-term public service career that is able to change and evolve and is meaningful, fun and that allows room for family, friendship, and community involvement.

An essay, Why Death Penalty Opponents Are Closer to Their Goal Than They Realize, by HLS Professor Carol Steiker ’86, appeared in the Sept. 27 edition of The New Republic. The essay focuses on the decline of the death penalty in practice, politics and law, and how the present moment brings the genuine possibility of permanent abolition via judicial decision.

An essay,  "Don't Blame Perry for Texas's Execution Addiction. He Doesn't Have Much To Do With It," by HLS Professor Carol Steiker ’86 and her brother, Professor Jordan Steiker '88 of the University of Texas School of Law appeared in the Sept. 2 edition of The New Republic. The essay focuses on the relationship between Republican presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry and Texas's standing as the execution capital of the United States.

Harvard Law School Professor Carol Steiker ’86 has been appointed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to a three-year term on the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS). The 15-member committee oversees the statewide provision of public defense services and other legal representation for indigent persons in criminal and civil court cases and proceedings in Massachusetts.

The history of the death penalty in America has been racially inflected, yet the death penalty reforms and regulations that have taken place over the past 40 years have given very little mention to race. That was the core message delivered by Harvard Law School professor Carol Steiker in a talk sponsored by the Harvard Law School American Constitutional Society.

HLS Professor Carol Steiker wrote an op-ed in The National Law Journal on former HLS Dean Elena Kagan and the legacy of Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall. Steiker, the Howard and Kathy Aibel Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, served as a co-clerk with Kagan for Justice Marshall during the 1987-1988 term of the Supreme Court. Her op-ed, "Kagan and the legacy of Marshall," appeared in the July 26, 2010, edition of the Journal.

Often, there’s a bond between the donor of a new chair and the scholar who occupies it.

Professor Carol Steiker ’86 formally took the Howard J. and Katherine W. Aibel Professorship of Law in a Langdell Hall ceremony yesterday, and celebrated the occasion with a lecture exploring the role of mercy in the criminal justice system.

Harvard Law School Professor Carol Steiker ’86, several students, and two HLS alumni celebrated a supreme victory on April 25 when the high court ruled that death sentences in three cases from Texas should be overturned. Steiker and several of her research assistants contributed to the defense of three individuals on death row, along with Jordan Steiker ’88 and Robert Owen ’89, co-directors of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law’s Capital Punishment Clinic.

Professor Carol Steiker ’86 helped persuade the Court to overturn a trio of Texas death sentences in April, convincing the justices that jurors weren’t given the opportunity to take mitigating evidence into account.

“Criminal Procedure Stories” (Foundation Press, 2006), edited by Professor Carol Steiker ’86, presents the stories behind the major Supreme Court rulings that have shaped criminal procedure.

“Stay in role!” exhorts Professor Carol Steiker ’86, as some 90 students in her upper-level course Capital Punishment in America split into groups for an exercise in which they’ll argue whether a death sentence should be reversed due to ineffective assistance of counsel. “Don’t say, ‘If I were the lawyer, I would … ’”

HLS faculty and students look to other countries to better people's lives and increase their own understanding of the world of law.

Guided by their professors, students find HLS a training ground for academic careers.

“Bid, Justin, bid!” the crowd chanted. In the end, Justin Lerer ’02 did just that, bidding $1,800 on dinner and a poker game for four,…