People
Dehlia Umunna
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Can you be charged for murder if there’s no body? Brian Walshe Googled it, police say.
January 20, 2023
In the days after his wife disappeared, Brian Walshe went on several Google searches, authorities say — asking questions about disposing of dead bodies, cleaning…
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‘In pursuit of an atmosphere in which ideas can be followed without fear that you’ll be punished’
December 6, 2022
Professors Jeannie Suk Gersen and Janet Halley lead the Academic Freedom Alliance, an organization that protects the rights of faculty to speak or publish without fear of sanction or punishment.
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Cases in Brief: Powell v. Alabama with Dehlia Umunna
April 5, 2022
In the first of the series, “Cases in Brief,” Harvard Law Professor Dehlia Umunna discusses the infamous “Scottsboro Boys” case, Powell v. Alabama (1932), in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the first time that defendants in capital cases have the right to adequate legal counsel.
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Formerly incarcerated people have become major voices for reforming a broken criminal justice system
April 4, 2022
This week on Under the Radar with Callie Crossley: The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Two million people are in the nation’s prisons and jails. According to The Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy center, that’s a 500% increase over the last 40 years at an annual cost of $80 billion. That reality has helped drive a movement for criminal justice reform which is now front and center in the national conversation. The cause has drawn together a motley group of advocates, from grassroots organizers to celebrities like Kim Kardashian and the conservative Koch brothers, where they are part of a roiling debate about systemic racism, reformative justice, no-knock warrants and sentencing policies. More recently, the formerly incarcerated have become major voices in the reform movement. How can their leadership help shape the effort to fix the broken system? Guests: John Valverde is the president and CEO of the global nonprofit YouthBuild USA. Dehlia Umunna is a clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School and the Faculty Deputy Director of the law school’s Criminal Justice Institute.
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Nora McDonnell ’21 is the inaugural winner of the Kristin P. Muniz Memorial Award.
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Harvard Law professors discuss the Derek Chauvin trial, its implications, and potential paths forward
April 22, 2021
A panel of Harvard Law professors discussed the guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, which proved an occasion for cautious optimism, a bit of anxiety, and questions about what comes next.
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COVID and the law: What have we learned?
March 17, 2021
The effect of COVID-19 on the law has been transformative and wide-ranging, but as a Harvard Law School panel pointed out on the one-year anniversary of campus shutdown, the changes haven’t all been for the worse.
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Harvard Law faculty summer book recommendations
July 30, 2020
Looking for something to add to your summer book list? HLS faculty share what they’re reading.
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A Killing in Broad Daylight
July 23, 2020
In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, legal scholars see a moment of reckoning.
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Professor Dehlia Umunna Calls In
June 1, 2020
Professor Dehlia Umunna calls into iHeartRADIO's Matty in the Morning to discuss race and policing in the United States.
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Lyla Wasz-Piper and Kennedi Williams-Libert receive 2020 CLEA Outstanding Clinical Student Team Award
May 21, 2020
Lyla Wasz-Piper ’20 and Kennedi Williams-Libert ’20 have received the 2020 Outstanding Clinical Student Team Award from the Clinical Legal Education Association, recognized for their unique partnership and exemplary teamwork during their time as student attorneys at the Criminal Justice Institute.
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Last Lecture: “Every traumatic event is an opportunity to reset for greatness,” says Dehlia Umunna
May 20, 2020
On May 12, Harvard Law School Clinical Professor Dehlia Umunna urged students to maintain a sense of gratitude as she kicked off the Last Lecture series for the graduating Class of 2020.
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Harvard Law School Last Lecture Series 2020
May 20, 2020
The 2020 Last Lecture Series is an HLS tradition where selected faculty members impart insight, advice, and final words of wisdom to the graduating class. Speakers this year included Dehlia Umunna, Daphna Renan, Ruth Okediji, and Naz Modirzadeh.
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On the Bookshelf: HLS Authors
December 11, 2019
This fall, the Harvard Law School Library hosted a series of book talks by Harvard Law School authors on topics ranging from forgiveness in law, transparency in health and fidelity in constitutional practice.
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Forgiveness in an age of ‘justified resentments’
November 8, 2019
Dehlia Umunna remembered seeing the fear. “His eyes were dark,” Umunna recalled. “And he was close to tears. And he looked at me and said, ‘Will I be going to jail and will I be going to jail for a very long time?’” “He was shaking,” she said. “I looked over at his mom and his mom was shaking. She was nervous. She was holding the hands of her 13-year-old boy.” Umunna, a clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School and deputy director of the Criminal Justice Institute, subsequently learned that the boy, who suffered from bipolar disorder and ADHD, had been surreptitiously videotaped playing video games in his living room wearing only his underwear. By the time he arrived at school the next day, the video had been posted online, where it had been seen by 300 of his peers, who proceeded to tease him. Frustrated and angry, he was heard to say, “I understand why the Parkland shooter did what he did.” ...“And as I looked over the case, I said to myself, this is exactly what [Prof.] Martha [Minow]’s book talks about,” she recalled. “This is a prime example of where we should nudge the courts and the decision-makers to exercise forgiveness.”...Umunna’s comments came during a panel discussion of “When Should Law Forgive?”, a new book by Martha Minow, 300th Anniversary University Professor and former dean of HLS. The book explores the complicated intersection of the law, justice, and forgiveness, asking whether the law should encourage people to forgive, and when courts, public officials, and specific laws should forgive. In addition to Umunna and Minow, panelists included Carol Steiker ’86, the Henry J. Friendly Professor of Law and co-director of the Criminal Justice Policy Program; Toby Merrill ’11, an HLS lecturer on law and director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending; and Homi K. Bhabha
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Forgiveness in an age of ‘justified resentments’
November 6, 2019
At a recent Harvard Law School Library book event, Martha Minow and panelists discussed her recent release, "When Should Law Forgive?", which explores the complicated intersection of the law, justice, and forgiveness.
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JET-Powered Learning
August 21, 2019
1L January Experiential Term courses focus on skills-building, collaboration and self-reflection