Summers-Wyatt Symposium
Speakers' Biographies
Peter Tiersma, Ph.D., J.D., Professor of Law, Loyola Law School
Dr. Tiersma is a nationally renowned expert in writing comprehensible jury instructions, and he has written and taught extensively in the area of language and the law. His many recent publications include:
- Parchment, Paper, Pixels: The Impact of Writing, Printing, and the Internet on the Law (forthcoming).
- Communicating with Juries: How to Draft More Understandable Jury Instructions, National Center for State Courts (2006).
- Some Myths About Legal Language 2 Law, Culture, & Humanities 29 (2006).
- Speaking of Crime: The Language of Criminal Justice (with Lawrence Sloan) (U. of Chicago P, 2005).
Janet Ainsworth, M.A., J.D., John D. Eshelman Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law.
Professor Ainsworth’s scholarship has included the application of linguistics research to legal issues, criminal procedure, feminist critical theory, juvenile law, comparative law, imperial Chinese law, and law and social science. Before joining the Seattle University faculty, Professor Ainsworth practiced criminal defense litigation at the Seattle-King County Public Defender Association for eight years. Her recent publications include:
- Children and Criminal Procedure, in The Chicago Companion to the Child (Richard A. Shweder ed., U. of Chicago P, 2008).
- ‘You Have the Right to Remain Silent . . .’ But Only if You Ask for it Just So: The Role of Linguistic Ideology in American Police Interrogation Law, 15 International J. of Speech, Language and the Law 1 (2008).
- Linguistics as a Knowledge Domain in the Law, 54 Drake L. Rev. 651 (2006).
John W. Clark III, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Troy University.
Dr. Clark has authored a number of works regarding jury systems, including:
- I Want to Apologize, But I Don’t Want Everyone to Know: A Public Apology as Pretrial Publicity Between a Criminal and Civil Case (with Marcus Boccaccini, Cynthia A. Mundt, & John Siji), 32 Law and Psychology Review 31 (2008).
- Five Factor Model Personality Traits, Jury Selection and Case Outcomes in Criminal and Civil Cases (with Marcus T. Boccaccini, William F. Chaplin, & Beth Caillouet), 34:5 Criminal Justice and Behavior 641 (2007).
- Juror Expectations Concerning Technology Implementation in the Courtroom (with Michael P. Griffin), 43 Crim. L. Bull. 3 (Mar.-Apr. 2007).
- The Utility of Jury Consultants in the Twenty-First Century. 42 Crim. L. Bull. 3 (Mar.-Apr. 2006).
- The Social Psychology of Peremptory Challenges: An Examination of Latino Jurors (with Roger Enriquez), 13 Tex. Hisp. J.L. & Pol’y 25 (2007).
- Justice Balanced: Power, Politics and Privilege (with Phillip Bridgmon) (Kendall Hunt 2005).
Judy M. Cornett, Ph.D., J.D., Associate Professor of Law, University of Tennessee College of Law
Dr. Cornett combines her legal knowledge with her love of English literature. Her teaching specialties include Law and Literature, Legal Profession, and Jury Systems. She has served on the Tennessee Supreme Court Gender Fairness Commission and as Co-Chair of the Tennessee Supreme Court Committee to Implement the Recommendations of the Racial and Ethnic Fairness Commission and the Gender Fairness Commission. Her many publications include:
- Professional Responsibility in the Practice of Law (with Carl A. Pierce) (Thompson/West forthcoming).
- Sound and Sense: A Text on Law and Literature (with Jerry J. Phillips) (West 2003).
- Hoodwink’d by Custom: The Exclusion of Women from Juries in Eighteenth-Century Law and Literature 4 Will. and Mary J. of Women & the Law 1 (1997).
Judge B. Michael Dann, LL.B, LL.M
Judge B. Michael Dann, a Maricopa County (Phoenix) Arizona Superior Court judge for 20 years (chief judge for five years) chaired the Arizona Jury Trial Reform Committee and has spoken in over 35 states and other countries in support of the kinds of trial innovations adopted and used in Arizona and other states and courts.. He received the 1997 Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence at the U.S. Supreme Court and the 2007 American Bar Association’s inaugural Jury Impact Award for his national work on jury trial reform. He has served as a member of the American Jury Project (AJP), which prepared the Revised Principles on Trial by Jury, approved and published by the American Bar Association in 2005. Judge Dann has written and published several law review articles about juries, jury trial innovations, jury nullification, criminal justice reform and judicial selection and performance evaluation. His most recent publications include:
- The Constitutional and Ethical Implications of “Must-Find-the-Defendant Guilty” Jury Instructions, Jury Ethics 93-117 (Kleinig & Levine eds., Paradigm Publishing 2006).
- Can Jury Trial Innovations Improve Juror Understanding of DNA? 90 Judicature 152 (2007).
- “Must-Find-the-Defendant-Guilty” Jury Instructions Violate the Sixth Amendment, 91 Judicature 12 (2007).
Bethany K. Dumas, Ph.D., J.D., Professor of English and Linguistics, University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Dr. Dumas has authored a number of works on jury instructions, including:
- U S Pattern Jury Instructions: Problems and Proposals, Forensic Linguistics: The Int’l J. of Language and the L. 7.1, 76-98 (2000).
- Jury Trials: Lay Jurors, Pattern Jury Instructions, and Comprehension Issues. Tenn. L. Rev. 67.3, 701-42 (Spring 2000) [Special Symposium Issue: “Communicating with Juries”].
- Reasonable Doubt about Reasonable Doubt: Assessing Jury Instruction Adequacy in a Capital Case. In Language in the Legal Process, ed. J. Cotterill (2002).
David Ross, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Dr. Ross has published several articles on jurors’ perceptions, including:
- Eyewitness Memory is Still Not Common Sense: Comparing Jurors, Judges and Law Enforcement to Eyewitness Experts (with Rapus-Benton, S. McDonnell, N. Thomas, & M. Bradshaw), Applied Cognitive Psychology 20, 115-129 (2006).
- Fostering Juror Comfort: Effects of an Orientation Videotape (with G.S. Bradshaw, E. Bradshaw, B. Headrick, & N. Thomas), Law and Human Behavior 29, 4, 457-469 (2005).
- The Child in the Eyes of the Jury: Assessing Mock Jurors’ Perceptions of the Child Witness (with D. Dunning, M.P. Toglia, & S.J. Ceci), Law and Human Behavior 14, 5-23 (1990).
