The article discusses LaKeith Smith’s conviction among other over-broad applications of Alabama’s felony-murder statute. The statute permits murder convictions in cases where the defendant did not kill or intend to kill the victim, but participated in a felony, causing the victim’s death. Field explained how the appellate court’s decision in Witherspoon expanded the felony-murder statute beyond its plain language to impose criminal liability in situations like Smith’s, where the victim is the defendant’s co-felon, killed by police.
In the Media
- New Article Testing Plausible Mechanisms for the Contagion of Street Gang Violence by Dr. Matthew Valasik Published in Network Science
- Dr. Dewey, Dr. VandeBerg, CCJ Masters Alum Oroz, and Dr. Lockwood-Roberts Publish Study on Prison Staff Responses to Media Representations of Their Work
- Graduate Student Tori Stuecklen Inspects the State of the Juvenile Justice System In Relation to Social Control for Class Research
Faculty Spotlight
Dr. Adam Lankford recently published a study on the 2016 Dallas and Baton Rouge cop killers, who committed two of the worst targeted attacks on American police officers in recent history — within eleven days of each other.