Bluhm Blog
"Discussions on clinical education, justice and legal reform."
Author: Steven Drizin is a clinical professor at Northwestern University School of Law, associate director of the law school's Bluhm Legal Clinic and director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions.
Blawg Related Categories: Appellate Practice • Criminal Justice • Law Practice Management • Law Professors • Law Schools • Trials & Litigation • Northwestern University • Law Professor • Legal Information • Private Defense
Recent Posts from Bluhm Blog
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Rosemary Lehmberg Does the Right Thing
Kudos to Austin, TX DA Rosemary Lehmberg for agreeing to drop the charges against Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen in Austin's most infamous unsolved murder/rape case -- the Yogurt Shop murder case. True, Ms. Lehmberg…
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What's a prosecutor to do?: Rosemary Lehmberg and the Yogurt Shop Murder Case
It’s one of the most infamous false confession cases in the annals of false confessions. It’s also a case of unrequited innocence as the two defendants who falsely confessed over eight years after the murders,…
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Trial by stealth
My colleagues are today starting the third trial in the Juan Rivera case, and I have been monitoring the media coverage with great interest. In a WBEZ story aired this morning, a couple of statements…
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Accountability for prosecutors
I have written previously about the need to hold prosecutors accountable for misconduct in pursuing convictions. Prosecutors play a unique and powerful role in criminal justice: they often direct police investigations, they determine when and…
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When do you stop fighting for your innocence?
As I have started my career as a wrongful conviction/innocence attorney, I have been struck by how many limitations there are on individuals in Illinois who are even given the opportunity to prove their innocence.…
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UPDATE: Charges dropped against Rowley and Lee
http://abqjournal.magnify.net/video/Yi-Killing-Charges-Dropped To her credit, District Attorney Kari Brandenburg today dropped all charges against Travis Rowley and Michael Lee in the murders of the Yis. Although the District Attorney dismissed the charges, she did not yet…
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Another False Confession in New Mexico?
Clockwise from the Top (Clifton Bloomfield, Travis Rowley, and Michael Lee) In December 2007, Travis Rowley and Michael Lee were arrested and charged with a brutal double murder in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The two men…
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False Guilty Pleas and Juvenile Injustice
Bruce Lisker 1988 Bruce Lisker 2009 (Robert Durrell LA TIMES) If it is hard for people to believe that someone would confess to a crime he or she did not commit, it is even harder…
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A mother's love . . . Remembering Bobbie Steidl
What does a mother do when a son is sent to death row for a double homicide he didn't commit? One can only imagine the personal anguish Bobbie Steidl felt for 17 years while her…
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A lonely death . . . then exoneration
Timothy Cole, separated from family, friends, and decent medical treatment for his asthma, lapsed into unconsciousness in his Texas prison cell and died on December 2, 1999. He had served 14 years of a life…