Advanced Criminal Law :: West Memphis 3 Professor James R. Elkins College of Law
West Virginia University
|Spring|2011|
Assignments Archive
Monday, January 10, 2009
We'll spend the first week getting oriented and organized. The course
will work differently from most of your other courses, and I want to
make sure you know what you're getting into. In this course, what you
learn depends upon what you do with the trial transcripts you will be
reading. My role in the course is simply to guide you through the trial
proceedings.
The
primary "text" for the course are the trial transcripts of
two trials: Jessie Misskelley was tried in the first trial, Jason Baldwin
and Damien Echols in the second trial.
I've also asked you to acquire a copy of Mara Leveritt, Devil's
Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three (New York: Atria
Books, 2002).
One
task you will have throughout the course is printing the trial transcripts. I will provide you at our first class a copy of the
following pretrial hearings:
[audio]
[10 mins.] [we will listen to the audio of the opening statements
in class]
Opening
Statements (web resources collected for students
in the "Art of Advocacy" course, taught by Professor Elkins,
Spring, 2008)(Use these "opening statement" resources to
prepare a critique of the opening statements in the Misskelley trial)
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011: Misskelley Prosecution Case
Monday, February 14, 2011: Finish discussion of the defense case
in the Jessie Misskelley case. We'll focus primarily on Stidham's difficulties
in presenting Dr. Ofshe's testimony and dealing with the Court's skepticism
about the testimony.
Richard
Ofshe (professor of sociology; expert testimony on police
interrogation)
Read: Testimony of State's Rebuttal Witness (February 3, 1994)
[Snitches have, unfortunately, become a staple
in our present day criminal justice system. Their use is both widespread
and controversial. The most authoritative up-to-date source on the
use of informants is Alexandra Natapoff's Snitching: Criminal
Informants and the Erosing of American Justice (New York University
Press, 2009). For background on the jailhouse snitch problem, see:
Jailhouse
Snitch Testimony: A Policy Review
(The Justice Project, Washington, D.C) and Snitch
( PBS Frontline Documentary).]
[I have collected a good collection of web resources
on snitch testimony, including notes for defense lawyers and have
added them as a new course webpage: Snitch]
[Please review these materials for our discussion
of Michael Carson's testimony on March 9.]
Wednesday, March 16 :: Begin Reading Defense Case in the Baldwin/Echols Trial (outlined
in the March 30th assignment)
Monday & Wednesday, March 21 & 23 :: No Class :: Spring Break
Monday, March 28 (following spring break) :: NO CLASS :: Finish Reading the Defense Case in the Echols/Baldwin Trial.
Read the transcript of the State's Rebuttal and Closing Arguments (links at the end of the March 30th assignment)
Wednesday, March 30 :: Class Discussion of Defense Case, State's Rebuttal, and Closing Arguments (we'll do a 11 A.M.-1 PM session; we'll double up so you can have more time following springbreak to read the defense case).
Advanced Criminal Law :: West Memphis 3 
The
primary "text" for the course are the trial transcripts of
two trials: Jessie Misskelley was tried in the first trial, Jason Baldwin
and Damien Echols in the second trial.
