Law professor quoted in 'The Atlantic'

Professor Carissa Byrne Hessick’s research on veterans and sentencing leniency has been referenced in an article in the December issue of The Atlantic titled, “Why Veterans Should Get Their Own Courts,” by journalist Kristina Shevory.

Shevory writes about the evolution of dozens of veterans courts that have cropped up around the country during the past four years, with an additional 20 scheduled to open by the end of 2011. Many only accept nonviolent offenders, and most consider only those veterans struggling with mental-health or substance-abuse problems.

Byrne Hessick said that, over the past 250 years, many American veterans have had their sentences reduced by judges who believed that the veterans’ service to country mitigated their crimes.

To read the full article, click here.

Byrne Hessick teaches Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law and Federal Crimes. Her research focuses on aggravation and mitigation in criminal sentencing, the criminalization and punishment associated with child pornography, and other political and doctrinal issues associated with sentencing. She recently published an article in the California Law Review on the constitutionality of common sentencing factors. She has also published articles on whether military service and other good works ought to be treated as mitigating sentencing factors and on the severity of sentences associated with the possession of child pornography.