[Sci-tech-public] STS Circle, March 28th - Talia Fisher - (Please RSVP)

[Harvard STS]

 *STS Circle at Harvard*
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*Talia Fisher*
*Taubenschlag Institute of Criminal Law, Tel Aviv University*
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*Probabilistic Sentencing: Conviction without Conviction *
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Monday, March 28th
12:15-2:00 p.m.
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 100, Room 106

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Lunch is provided if you RSVP.
Please RSVP to sts <sts at hks.harvard.edu>@hks.harvard.edu<sts at hks.harvard.edu>
 by 5pm Thursday, March 24th.

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*Abstract:* The decision-making processes underlying the determination of
guilt and punishment in criminal trials are governed by the “threshold
model.” Under this model, conviction is construed as a binary, on-off
decision leading to an all-or-nothing sentencing regime. Failure to meet the
beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidentiary threshold results in categorical
acquittal and no punishment. Satisfaction of this standard of proof leads to
the polar-opposite result of categorical conviction and to criminal
punishment that is absolute in the sense that its severity is detached from
any residual epistemic doubt as to the defendant’s guilt. The purpose of the
paper, that I will be presenting, is to challenge the threshold model, as it
emerges in the context of both guilt and sentencing. The paper will reassess
the idea of guilt as a purely binary phenomenon that is limited to an on-off
configuration. It will also reconsider the derivative distribution of
punishment, whereby no punishment is imposed in the epistemic space below
the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt threshold, while from the threshold and
upwards, the severity of punishment is detached from any remaining doubt
regarding guilt. The threshold model will be challenged by pitting it
against an alternative regime of “probabilistic decision-making”. Under the
probabilistic model, criminal guilt and punishment will be construed in a
linear manner, supporting a plurality of conviction categories along the
evidentiary spectrum (such as ‘conviction on guilt beyond a reasonable
doubt’, ‘conviction on guilt by clear and convincing evidence’, and
‘conviciton on guilt by preponderance of the evidence’). Severity of
punishment would then be correlated with the corresponding certainty of
guilt.


*Biography*: Talia Fisher joined TAU Law School in 2004, after receiving her
LL.B., LL.M., and LL.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is
currently a senior lecturer (with tenure) and the director of the
Taubenschlag Institute of Criminal Law. Her primary research interests
include private supply of legal institutions and probabilistic applications
in procedural law. She teaches Evidence Law, Evidence Law Theory, ADR and
Negotiation Theory. In 2009 she received the Tzeltner Award for Young
Scholar, and was a member of the Young Scholars Forum of the Israeli Academy
of Sciences and Humanities. She was a visiting professor at the University
of Toronto Faculty of Law, a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School, and a
visiting researcher at Boston University School of Law.

A complete list of STS Circle at Harvard events can be found on our website:
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/
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---------------------------------
Samuel A. Evans, DPhil
Postdoctoral Fellow
& Chair of the STS Circle
Harvard University

Program on Science, Technology, & Society
Kennedy School of Government

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts
+1 (617) 496-0807
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