Criminal Justice

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State post-conviction remedies are becoming a key component of the criminal justice system. They are emerging as the most important forum for enforcing many crucial federal trial rights, and they are increasingly central to the truth- finding function of criminal process. This state of affairs is the result of two major structural developments. The first is the incentives to litigants and the states created by Supreme Court habeas jurisprudence that both requires deference to state proceedings and opens new challenges to their quality. The second is the systemwide impact of Montgomery v. Louisiana, 136 S.Ct. 2455 (2016), which interprets the Supremacy Clause to require state post-conviction courts to entertain a broad range of federal constitutional claims whether or not state law would do so. These developments suggest state post-conviction remedies will assume a much more important role in the criminal justice system than ever before.

 

Business meeting at program conclusion.