Professor Doug Colbert is First Washburn Advocacy Scholar in Residence

Photograph: Doug Colbert.

Professor Doug Colbert from the University of Maryland Law School will be the first Washburn Advocacy Scholar in Residence when he visits Washburn Law March 15-17, 2004. During his visit Professor Colbert will make two public lectures:

More details about both lectures are given below.

Professor Doug Colbert teaches Criminal and Constitutional law, Evidence, and Race and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland School of Law. He directs Maryland’s Access to Justice Clinic. Professor Colbert has written extensively about a variety of criminal and civil rights topics, including the right to counsel, bail reform, the Thirteenth Amendment, race discrimination, jury selection, affirmative action, police misconduct, political trials, professional ethics, and legal scholarship.

Since 1998 Professor Colbert’s scholarly activities have focused on reforming states’ pretrial release and bail systems. He succeeded in convincing the American Bar Association and Maryland State Bar to guarantee counsel to indigent defendants at bail, and led a statewide effort to pass legislation at legislative and judicial hearings. As part of this endeavor, Professor Colbert founded and directed the Lawyers at Bail Project, which represented 4,000 indigent defendants at Baltimore City bail hearings. Currently he serves on the Board of Directors of the Public Justice Center and the Maryland Criminal Defense Attorneys Association, and is a past chair of the Maryland State Bar Association’s Section on Correctional Reform. Professor Colbert has received numerous honors, including receiving the Maryland State Bar Association’s prestigious achievement award for Legal Excellence in the Advancement of Unpopular Causes.

Public Lecture Details

The Badges & Incidents of Slavery: How the Thirteenth Amendment can be used to Understand Today’s Racially Discriminatory Practices will be given Monday, March 15, 2004 at 7:30 p.m. in the Washburn Room at the Memorial Union.

In a constitutional arena dominated by the abstract principle of colorblindness, the Thirteenth Amendment provides a powerful tool for combating racial inequality by requiring an analysis grounded in racial reality.

By linking present racial discrimination to this nation’s history of slavery and apartheid, a Thirteenth Amendment analysis uniquely addresses existing racial and economic injustice as modern relics and badges of slavery. Moreover, the Thirteenth Amendment’s promise of “universal civil and political freedom” applies to citizens from any race or class who have been branded with a badge of inferiority or involuntary servitude. Unfortunately, the Thirteenth Amendment is largely ignored.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution has the potential to provide litigators in the continuing struggle for equal justice with a race based argument not normally permitted under fourteenth amendment jurisprudence. The under-utilized amendment can be used to challenge a wide variety of discriminatory practices in the civil and criminal justice systems from jury selection practices to death penalty sentencing to affirmative action.

Litigators must rise to the challenge and display the courage and creativity necessary to persuade courts to use the Thirteenth Amendment and apply an expansive interpretation that would encompass many civil rights protections.

Professor Colbert, a distinguished Thirteenth Amendment scholar will examine the Amendment's potential for explaining and addressing current forms of race discrimination in our courts and other public institutions in a variety of social and legal contexts.

40 Years After Gideon: Do Criminal Lawyers Really Matter Anymore? will be given Wednesday, March 17, 2004 at noon in the Bradbury Thompson Center.

In the years since the landmark case of Gideon v. Wainright, courts have re-visited the question of the scope of a criminal defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to "have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense." As criminal trials with defense lawyers have become more elaborate, states have learned that it is costly to provide counsel to the poor at the early bail stage and at trial. Government has responded by increasing plea bargaining initiatives for indigent defendants who cannot afford bail and who were not represented by counsel when bail was set. To date, the Supreme Court has not addressed whether the constitutional right to counsel extends to bail hearings where personal liberty is at risk and when a lawyer is required to commence a 'thoroughgoing investigation' of the charges. But recently, the United States Supreme Court has re-examined the importance of counsel’s preparation and effective assistance at trial in death penalty cases. Soon the Court will decide the right to counsel whether the right to counsel extends to citizens alleged to be enemy combatants, who are held without bail by military authorities.

Professor Colbert will address the current state and strength of Gideon's unfulfilled promise in the Rehnquist Court era. He will draw on empirical, judicial, and critical studies of the pre-trial and bail process as he discusses a critical question for our times: "When should a judge appoint counsel for a criminal accused?"

Download and view the brochure created for Professor Colbert's visit (2.3 MB PDF; requires Adobe Acrobat reader.