“Defund the Police,” Wrongful Convictions, & Radical Change Part 2: An Interview with Harvard Law School Professor Ronald Sullivan

“Defund the Police,” Wrongful Convictions, & Radical Change Part 2: An Interview with Harvard Law School Professor Ronald Sullivan

Show notes

Harvard Law School Professor Ronald Sullivan serves as Director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute & Trial Advocacy Workshop. He has reportedly freed more wrongfully convicted people than any other attorney in history, with more than 6,000 releases and counting. Today, he joins Jelena & Branden to talk about this unparalleled moment in U.S. history.

In this interview, Professor Sullivan discusses . . .

  1. Moving Harvard Law School online during COVID-19
  2. Police divestment vs. abolition . . . and what society could do with money reclaimed
  3. Why most people currently in prison shouldn’t be incarcerated at all
  4. Representing the family of Michael Brown and the role of civil settlements in police accountability
  5. President Trump’s EO creating a database of police officers with a history of brutality
  6. Why he took Harvey Weinstein as a client and the personal fallout that ensued
  7. The potential role of reparations in addressing racial wealth gaps in the U.S.
  8. His advice for future lawyers on pursuing a public service career
  9. The age-old question, “Can you make a living as a public interest attorney?”

Links and further resources from from this week’s episode:


About Professor Sullivan: https://bit.ly/30Ssums


Prof. Sullivan’s TED Talk, “How I Free Innocent People from Prison”: https://bit.ly/3fBPVV5


Prof. Sullivan’s TEDx Talk, “Justice Is a Decision”: https://bit.ly/3efafLT


TestMax Justice in Action Program: https://bit.ly/3hHWR56


33 Common LSAT Flaws: https://amzn.to/3efTuzY


Start Your LSATMax Free Trial: - https://go.onelink.me/z1Zu/689fb4b4


Start Your 1L Free Trial Now & Hear Prof. Sullivan's Lecture on Criminal Law: - https://go.onelink.me/iOM8/68e2c335


Start Your BarMax Free Trial Now (Prof. Sullivan is also BarMax's Crimes Professor): - https://go.onelink.me/3011142272/d02ba2de

Hosts

Jelena Woehr

Jelena Woehr

Jelena was born & raised in Golden, CO. There she cut her teeth on logic by getting into, then out of, an impressive amount of trouble. When not organizing student protests or lobbying the school board, Jelena competed in equestrian sports & constitutional debate. Jelena took the June 2017 LSAT, partly out of curiosity and partly because she developed a serious Logic Games addiction. After three months of study, Jelena achieved a score of 178. While she didn't end up falling in love with law school, she did find herself really enjoying the LSAT—so much that she left her previous career in tech startups behind and began teaching. Jelena prides herself on helping her students understand not just the systems and methods they can apply to get a good score, but the underlying logic & its applicability to the challenge of learning to think like a law student. Outside of her work with the LSAT, Jelena is a writer, creative content producer, & a competitive equestrian endurance rider.

Branden Frankel

Branden Frankel

In 2000, Branden graduated with a BA in Philosophy from UC Santa Barbara. For a few years after, he cast about in vain for entry-level philosopher positions, but, when he was visited by the Ghost of Student Loans Past, he knew it was time to make a change. In June 2006, Branden took the LSAT, scoring a 175. Thereafter, he attended UCLA School of Law, graduating in 2010 and practicing patent law for several years. Since 2013, he has taught dozens of live LSAT classes and tutored scores of successful test takers. When he's not considering the finer points of a particularly tricky Logical Reasoning question or kicking it with his daughter, Branden writes Science Fiction. You can find him after work at the local Starbucks, typing furiously, then deleting what he typed, then typing more, and so on for hours.


Guests

Ronald Sullivan

Ronald Sullivan

Professor Sullivan is a professor at Harvard Law School and a leading theorist in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, trial practice and techniques, legal ethics, and race theory. He is the faculty director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute and the Harvard Trial Advocacy Workshop. Professor Sullivan also serves as Faculty Dean of Winthrop House at Harvard College. He is the first African American ever appointed Faculty Dean in Harvard's history. He is a founding member and Senior Fellow of the Jamestown Project. Professor Sullivan is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College and the Harvard Law School, where he served as President of the Harvard Black Law Students Association and as General Editor of the Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal.

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