Beginning on Tuesday, March 16, Professor Norman I. Silber has been the featured expert for The New York Times blog "Bucks: Making the Most of Your Money." Professor Silber is taking questions on the credit card law and other new consumer rules and regulations. Read Part 1 and Part 2 of "Ask an Expert." Ask a question.

Professors I. Bennett Capers and Akilah N. Folami each contributed chapters to African American Culture and Legal Discourse, a collection of legal essays edited by Lovalerie King and Richard Schur, and published by Palgrave MacMillan. The chapter by Professor Capers is titled “Reading Back, Reading Black, and Buck v. Bell.” The chapter by Professor Folami is titled “The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the Overdevelopment of Gangsta Rap.”

Professor I. Bennett Capers has posted on SSRN his article “The Unintentional Rapist,” forthcoming in the Washington University Law Review.

ABSTRACT:

Rape law is replete with troubling cases. Using as a case in point McQuirter v. State, in which a black man was convicted of attempt to commit assault with intent to rape one Mrs. Ted Allen, a white woman, this Article argues that much of this trouble is traceable not to the black letter law of rape, but to what this Article terms the white letter law of rape. Though rarely made explicit, this white letter law of rape is decidedly color-coded, and promulgates the sexualization of race and the racialization of rape. Even more problematic, the reforms advocated by feminist scholars to eliminate sexism in rape law have in fact entrenched racism in rape law. This Article then asks what it means to be an unintentional rapist, i.e., to be wrongly perceived as a rapist, especially when that perception is informed by race. Is it possible to recast the unintentional rapists not as a suspect or defendant, but as a crime victim? Put differently, can we reframe McQuirter v. State into a hypothetical State v. Allen? Should we? The answers to these questions have profound implications for reforming the law of rape. They also have profound implications for the law of not rape.

Professor Robin Charlow was quoted in the following Newsday article.

Record exec pleads not guilty in mall fiasco
By Sophia Chang and Keith Herbert
November 21, 2009

EXCERPT:

A legal expert said more knowledge of Roppo's involvement with the crowd would explain why he was charged if he was not personally involved in an assault. "If you don't do something, you normally can't be charged for not acting. But if you have some kind of legal duty to act, that's when you could be charged," said Robin Charlow, criminal and constitutional law professor at Hofstra University.

Professor Barbara S. Barron was quoted in the following Newsday article.

Experts: Lacey evidence ruling may hamper prosecution
By Kathleen Kerr
November 24, 2009

EXCERPT:

Barbara Barron, a former Manhattan prosecutor who is co-director of the trial techniques program at the Hofstra University School of Law, said the loss of the confession and the detective's testimony does not necessarily spell disaster for the prosecution's case.

Barron said in the absence of the confession, prosecutors can use circumstantial evidence to help jurors connect the dots.

"You have his car, you have the gas," Barron said. "If you connect everything, you have a credible case. A lot of times, circumstantial evidence is far stronger than an eyewitness account."