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Paul Butler (professor)
Encyclopedia
Paul Delano Butler is an American lawyer
, former prosecutor, and current law professor of George Washington University Law School. He is a leading criminal law
scholar, particularly in the area of race and jury nullification
.
, Illinois
, Butler attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory School. He graduated cum laude from both Yale University
and Harvard Law School
.
in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in white collar criminal defense and civil litigation.
Following his time in private practice, Butler served as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, where his specialty was public corruption. His prosecutions included a U.S. Senator, three FBI agents, and several other law enforcement officials. While at the Department of Justice, Butler also served as a special assistant U.S. attorney, prosecuting drug and gun cases.
, Harvard Law Review
, Stanford Law Review
, and UCLA Law Review
. He has authored chapters in several books, written a column for the Legal Times
, and published numerous op-ed articles, including in the Los Angeles Times
, the Washington Post, and the Dallas Morning News. He lectures regularly for the ABA and the NAACP, and at colleges, law schools, and community organizations throughout the U.S. Professor Butler is also a regular contributor at BlackProf.com. He is currently an Associate Dean and professor at George Washington University Law School, where he teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Race, Racism, and American Law.
He was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Service Award three times by the GW graduating class and has been a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In 2003, he was elected to the American Law Institute
. In 2009, his first book, Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice, was published by The New Press
.
Law of the United States
The law of the United States consists of many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the United States Constitution, the foundation of the federal government of the United States...
, former prosecutor, and current law professor of George Washington University Law School. He is a leading criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
scholar, particularly in the area of race and jury nullification
Jury nullification
Jury nullification occurs in a trial when a jury reaches a verdict contrary to the judge's instructions as to the law.A jury verdict contrary to the letter of the law pertains only to the particular case before it; however, if a pattern of acquittals develops in response to repeated attempts to...
.
Education
Born in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Butler attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory School. He graduated cum laude from both Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
.
Lawyer and Prosecutor
Paul Butler clerked for the Honorable Mary Johnson Lowe of the U.S. District Court in New York. He then joined the law firm of Williams & ConnollyWilliams & Connolly
Williams & Connolly LLP is a prominent litigation firm based in Washington, D.C. The firm was founded by trial lawyer Edward Bennett Williams, who left the partnership of D.C. firm Hogan & Hartson to launch his own litigation boutique....
in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in white collar criminal defense and civil litigation.
Following his time in private practice, Butler served as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, where his specialty was public corruption. His prosecutions included a U.S. Senator, three FBI agents, and several other law enforcement officials. While at the Department of Justice, Butler also served as a special assistant U.S. attorney, prosecuting drug and gun cases.
Professor
His scholarship has been published in the Yale Law JournalYale Law Journal
The Yale Law Journal is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students at Yale Law School...
, Harvard Law Review
Harvard Law Review
The Harvard Law Review is a journal of legal scholarship published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School.-Overview:According to the 2008 Journal Citation Reports, the Review is the most cited law review and has the second-highest impact factor in the category "law" after the...
, Stanford Law Review
Stanford Law Review
The Stanford Law Review is a legal journal produced independently by Stanford Law School students. The journal was established in 1948 with future U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher as its first president...
, and UCLA Law Review
UCLA School of Law
The UCLA School of Law is the law school of the University of California, Los Angeles. It has been approved by the American Bar Association since 1950. It joined the Association of American Law Schools in 1952.- History :...
. He has authored chapters in several books, written a column for the Legal Times
Legal Times
Legal Times is a weekly legal newspaper based in Washington, D.C. It is owned by ALM....
, and published numerous op-ed articles, including in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, the Washington Post, and the Dallas Morning News. He lectures regularly for the ABA and the NAACP, and at colleges, law schools, and community organizations throughout the U.S. Professor Butler is also a regular contributor at BlackProf.com. He is currently an Associate Dean and professor at George Washington University Law School, where he teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Race, Racism, and American Law.
He was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Service Award three times by the GW graduating class and has been a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In 2003, he was elected to the American Law Institute
American Law Institute
The American Law Institute was established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of American common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. The ALI drafts, approves, and publishes Restatements of the Law, Principles of the Law, model codes, and other proposals for law...
. In 2009, his first book, Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice, was published by The New Press
The New Press
The New Press is a not-for-profit, United States-based publishing house that operates in the public interest. It was established in 1990 as an alternative to large commercial publishers, and is supported financially by various foundations, groups and corporations including the Ford Foundation, the...
.
Op-Ed Articles
- If Hip-Hop Culture Reshaped Our Justice System.... Washington Post, 2009 December 1.
- Ten Things You Can Do to Reduce Incarceration. The NationThe NationThe Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, 2009 October 28. - Justice Department change is a welcome one. The ProgressiveThe ProgressiveThe Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective on some issues. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage...
, 2009 September 11. - Were Obama's Race Remarks Too Risky?: 'Race Man' to the Rescue!. New York Times, 2009 July 23.
- The Gates Case and Racial Profiling: More Ways of Looking at a Black Man. New York Times, 2009 July 22.
- My Jury Service to America. The Huffington PostThe Huffington PostThe Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
, 2009 July 1. - Should African-Americans Be Prosecutors?. The Crime Report, 2009 June 29.
- Smarter Punishment Needed, Chicago TribuneChicago TribuneThe Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, 2009 June 11. - Jury Nullification: Power to the People. Prison Legal NewsPrison Legal NewsPrison Legal News is a black-and-white monthly American magazine and on-line periodical published since May 1990. It is a non-profit 501 non-profit organization and it reports on prison legal cases and prison conditions primarily in the United States...
, 2009 June - Obama Picks the Right Man for Drug Czar. The ProgressiveThe ProgressiveThe Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective on some issues. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage...
, 2008 March 18
Scholarly Articles
- When Judges Lie (and When They Should), 91 Minnesota Law Review 1785-1828 (2007)
- Blogging at Blackprof, 84 Washington University Law Review 1101-1104 (2006)
- Rehnquist, Racism, and Race Jurisprudence, 74 The George Washington Law Review 1019-1042 (2006)
- An Ethos of Lying (Colloquium: Zealous Advocacy in a Time of Uncertainty: Understanding Lawyers' Ethics), 8 University of the District of Columbia Law Review 269-274 (2004)
- In Defense of Jury Nullification, 31 Litigation 46-49 (Fall 2004)
- Much Respect: Toward a Hip-Hop Theory of Punishment, 56 Stanford Law Review 983 (2004)
- Should Radicals Be Judges? (Legal Ethics Conference: Judging Judges' Ethics), 32 Hofstra Law Review 1203-1214 (2004)
- The Case for Trials: Considering the Intangibles, 1 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 627-636 (2004)
- By Any Means Necessary: Using Violence and Subversion to Change Unjust Law, 50 UCLA Law Review 721-773 (2003)
- Foreword: Terrorism and Utilitarianism: Lessons from, and for, Criminal Law, 93 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 1-22 (2002)
- Panel V: Promoting Racial Equality (with Todd D. Rakoff, Deborah A. Ramirez, and Christopher F. Edley), 9 Journal of Law and Policy 347-386 (2001)
- A Panel Discussion on a Proposed Code of Ethics for Legal Commentators (Panel Discussion with Raymond C. Brown, Erwin Chemerinsky, Johnnie L. Cochran,Jr., Laurie L. Levenson, John H. McElhaney, Barry C. Scheck, and Mary Tillotson), 50 Mercer Law Review 681-736 (1999)
- Must Congress End the Disenfranchisement of the District of Columbia? A Constitutional Debate (Panel Discussion with Raskin, Jamin B., Stephen Markman, and Adam Kurland), 48 American University Law Review 634-663 (1999)
- Retribution, for Liberals, 46 UCLA Law Review 1873-1893 (1999)
- Starr is to Clinton as Regular Prosecutors are to Blacks, 40 Boston College Law Review 705-716 (1999)
- The Case of the Speluncean Explorers: Revisited (with Alex Kozinski, Cass R. Sunstein, Robin L. West, Alan M. Dershowitz, and Frank H. Easterbrook), 112 Harvard Law Review 1876-1923 (1999).
- Affirmative Action and the Criminal Law, 68 University of Colorado Law Review 841 (1997)
- Race-Based Jury Nullification: Case in Chief (The Role of Race-Based Jury Nullification in American Criminal Justice), 30 John Marshall Law Review 911-922 (1997)
- Race-Based Jury Nullification: Surrebuttal (The Role of Race-Based Jury Nullification in American Criminal Justice), 30 John Marshall Law Review 933-935 (1997)
- The Evil of American Criminal Justice: A Reply (Response to article by D. Leipold in this issue, p. 109), 44 UCLA Law Review 143-157 (1996)
- Racially Based Jury Nullification: Black Power in the Criminal Justice System, 105 Yale Law Journal 677-725 (1995)