ABA CJS Plea Bargaining Task Force

Who We Are

The American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section is pleased to announce the creation of a task force to more closely examine the role of plea bargaining in our modern system of criminal justice.  Its goal is to develop both broad policy oriented goals for the criminal justice system and, where necessary, specific recommendations for changes in the way plea bargaining operates within the larger criminal justice environment.  These issues will be examined from the perspective of all those involved in the criminal justice system, including prosecutors, defenders, defendants, judges, victims, and others.   

Presentations

The speakers below gave presentations on race and the criminal justice system to the CJS Plea Bargain Task Force on September 25, 2020. 

Members

Lucian Dervan (Co-Chair), Belmont University College of Law                                    

Russell Covey (Co-Chair), Georgia State University  College of Law                 

Thea Johnson (Reporter), University of Maine School of Law

Hon. Kimberly Esmond Adams, Superior Court of Fulton County

Derwyn Bunton, Chief District Defender, Orleans Public Defenders

Prof. Vanessa Edkins, Florida Institute of Technology

A. J. Kramer, Federal Public Defender

Jenny Kim, Deputy General Counsel & VP, Public Policy, Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC

Marc Levin, Vice President, Criminal Justice, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Right on Crime

Clark Neily, Vice President for Criminal Justice, CATO Institute 

Vanessa Potkin, Director, Post-Conviction Litigation, The Innocence Project 

Norman Reimer, Executive Director, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Foundation for Criminal Justice

Rebecca Shaeffer, Senior Lawyer (Americas), Fair Trials (Americas)

Adnan Sultan, Staff Attorney, The Innocence Project

Jonathan Wroblewski, US Department of Justice