Erin E. Murphy

Courses

• 1L Reading Group: Reforming Sexual Assault Laws

  This Reading Group will examine the crime of sexual assault in historical, contemporary, and prospective terms. Our readings will cover the traditional definition of rape at common law, review the state of current law, and touch upon current efforts for reform. Topics may include: the force and resistance requirement, the marital rape exemption, the definition of consent, LGBTQi and male victimization, assault against vulnerable populations (e.g. intoxicated, cognitively or physically impaired, or incarcerated persons), and child sexual assault. Given time restraints, this Reading Group will not directly address sex work, trafficking, or forms of sexual misconduct such as voyeurism or sexual harassment, nor will it look at campus standards or civil rules. Materials will focus on criminal legal standards, and situate those within the socio-cultural and gender norms of the time. Given the subject, this group will directly address contentious and sensitive topics and all students who enroll should expect to discuss these issues with respect for opposing viewpoints.

• Criminal Law

  This an introductory course on the jurisprudence of substantive criminal law. It deals with the necessary conditions of blameworthiness as a precondition for criminal liability, including such topics as strict liability, negligence, causation, accomplice liability and attempts. It examines justifications and excuses, including necessity, self-defense, duress, intoxication and insanity. Because criminal law is codified, the course provides a solid introduction into reading and interpreting statutes.

• Evidence

  Trials are often described as a competition between the opposing parties' narratives. This course examines the rules that govern how those narratives are told. Our focus will be the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Confrontation Clause, and common law, and we will consider the text, history, policies, and application of evidentiary rules. Topics will include relevance, hearsay, character evidence, and impeachment, among others.

  Hybrid Teaching Notes

  In this course, faculty will teach from the classroom to a mix of in-person and remote students at every class meeting. The total in-person student enrollment for this course, which will likely exceed socially distanced seating available in the classroom, requires rotational cohorts of in-person students, giving each student the opportunity to be physically present at every other or every third class meeting.

• Professional Responsibility in Criminal Practice Seminar

  This course examines the ethical and moral issues that confront prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys. It assumes familiarity with the basic operation of the criminal justice system. We will examine applicable rules, guidelines, and standards in the context of the real operation of criminal practice today. Grading for the course will be a combination of class participation and completion of assigned exercises, several reflection papers, and a short final paper.

• Professional Responsibility in Criminal Practice Seminar: Writing Credit