Episode 47: How Does Interrogation Room Design Impact Legal Outcomes?
How likely would you be able to answer questions under duress seated in a hard chair in a windowless, flourescent-lit box of a room? What about in a larger space with natural lighting and comfortable seating? In this episode of Proof Over Precedent, HLS student Spencer Thieme discusses interrogation rooms and the effect of a physical environment on stress, memory, disclosure, and false confessions. She also considers potential randomized controlled trials for studying interrogation room design.
Episode 46: Upsolve in Depth—When does Legal Advice Become Illegal?
The role of trained nonlawyer volunteers is at the center of a back-and-forth court case between nonprofit Upsolve, Inc. and Letitia James, attorney general of the state of New York. This “Student Voices” episode tackles both the access to justice issues at stake for indigent defendants in debt collection cases, as well as New York’s unauthorized practice of law statute governing the decision(s), including the most recent ruling by the New York District Court in March.
Episode 45: Proof and Property—Is Civil Forfeiture a Just Practice?
In this week’s Proof Over Precedent episode, we look at civil forfeiture—law enforcement’s seizing and relinquishing of property based on probable cause in a criminal connection—and the impact it has on individuals, including innocent third-party owners. With no guaranteed right to counsel for these cases, most individuals never challenge forfeitures; the barriers are simply too high. Limited research means the practice of civil forfeiture is ripe for a study that goes beyond its impact on potential for future crime and expands to due process.