The North Carolina Law Review hosts "Vulnerable Defendants in the Criminal Justice System," a symposium to examine the overrepresentation of certain groups within U.S. courtrooms and prisons and to question why conduct is criminalized when it may be the manifestation of a defendant’s vulnerability. The symposium will be held at the UNC Center for School Leadership Development on Friday, Oct. 10, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Students, faculty, staff and the public are invited to attend.
The symposium will bring together scholars and practitioners who are working at the intersection of the disciplines of criminal law, disability law, critical race theory, juvenile justice, immigration law and prisoners’ rights. Against the backdrop of a culture of mass incarceration, panelists will create room for nuanced dialogue regarding the future of the criminal justice system with an emphasis on the vulnerable populations that are drawn into its wake.
UNC School of Law professors Tamar Birckhead and Katie Rose Guest Pryal are the faculty chairs of the conference. "We expect robust interest in the symposium among law faculty as well as practitioners in the triangle and beyond," says Birckhead, symposium faculty co-chair.
The symposium will consist of three sessions. The first session will address immigration law, especially human trafficking and juveniles. The second session will examine race and gender issues in the criminal justice system. The third session will address the treatment of defendants with mental health concerns and physical disabilities in the same context. A portion of each session will focus on the ethical concerns relevant to each group of vulnerable criminal defendants, particularly in regard to practitioners’ professional responsibilities toward members of those groups. The full schedule and registration information is available at http://www.nclawreview.org/symposium/.
The symposium will be live streamed and recorded for subsequent webcast and available through the journal's website. Two-and-a-half hours of CLE credit will be offered.
-September 24, 2014