Pace Now

Professor Bennett Gershman writes about “The Tragic Case of Crosley Green” for Law & Crime. Green spent 31 years in prison before he was granted release in 2021 by a federal judge. Now, following two years of freedom with his family, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the ruling and ordered him back to prison next week. Professor Gershman recounts this unsettling case, examining the constitutional and ethical duties of the prosecutor who failed to disclose information resulting in the release, and questioning the “heart” of the American justice system.

Legal Theory Blog reports Professor Katrina Fisher Kuh posted an article on “Can the Constitution Save the Planet?”

Here is the abstract: The Constitution as presently worded, interpreted, and applied is obstructing the development of a robust societal response to climate change, in part by failing adequately to protect healthy democratic processes and advance real social justice. We could, of course, amend the Constitution to explicitly support protection of the environment and/or better protect democratic processes and advance social justice.

"To me, it's straightforward criminal law," said Bennett Gershman, a Pace University law professor and former prosecutor. "You've got the act, you've got the consequences and you've got the culpable mental state. I don't know how he could say he didn't intend to do it."

"They are going to try to throw as much smoke and mirrors and red herrings into the case as they can. With Trump, every single microscopic issue is going to be litigated," said Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University.

For students in Sarah Blackwood’s How to Read Moby-Dick class at Pace University, learning about Herman Melville’s work isn’t confined to lectures, essays or classroom discussions. Blackwood’s syllabus includes a tour of Lower Manhattan locations featured in the author’s novels and stories: the Wall Street law offices where Bartleby, the titular scrivener of one of Melville’s best-known stories, worked, as well as the streets that Ishmael walked in the opening chapter of Moby-Dick.