Civil rights activists, law enforcement officials, and legal experts came together at HLS in December for “Race, Police, and the Community,” a three-day conference sponsored by the Criminal Justice Institute. Among the panelists were Professor Charles Ogletree Jr. ’78, director of CJI; Deborah Ramirez ’81, professor, Northeastern University School of Law; the Reverend Al Sharpton of National Action Network; Iris Baez, founder of the Anthony Baez Foundation; and Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney. Topics covered included racial profiling, police brutality, police leadership, teen empowerment, and the perils of racism for officers of color. Attorney Johnnie Cochran delivered the keynote address.
In November CJI hosted “The Day Care Child Sex Abuse Phenomenon: Prosecution, Persecution, and the Culture of Accusation.” Among the panelists was Cheryl Amirault LeFave, who along with her brother and mother was convicted of sexually abusing children in the 1980s at Fells Acres, their Malden, Mass., day care center. LeFave was released in 1995 and is now on parole. Her brother remains in prison and her mother died in 1997. Other conference participants included judges, journalists, attorneys, and legal scholars.