2023 ICRA Annual Convention
June 20-22, 2023
Hilton Garden Inn
328 S. Clinton Street
Iowa City, IA
(319) 248-6100
1.35 CEUs
Call Worth Business Equipment directly at (773) 777-1474 to set up a machine cleaning.
SPEAKER SCHEDULE
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
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Title of Session
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Time
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CEUs
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Instructor/Presenter
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Registration
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Session 1
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1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
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.15
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Phil Decker - Surviving Cancer and Running the Boston Marathon
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Break
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2:30 to 2:45
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Session 2
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2:45 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.
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.15
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Donna Humpal, Clerk of the Iowa Supreme Court
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Break
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4:15 to 4:30
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Session 3
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4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
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.1
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Cathy Penniston
NCRA representative
Technology
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Wednesday, June 21, 2023
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Title of Session
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Time
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CEUs
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Instructor/Presenter
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Welcome
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8:30
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Session 4
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9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
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.15
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Alison Guernsey
Training Future Defense Lawyers in the Courtroom and Classroom
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Break
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10:30 – 10:45
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Session 5
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10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
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.1
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Laura Fulton, Kelli Mulcahy & Jodie Eckard
Federal Reporting & VHP
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Business Lunch
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11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
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Installation of Officers and Business Meeting
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Break
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1:00 – 1:15
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Session 6
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1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
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.15
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Monica Slaughter
Prosecuting cases
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Break
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2:45 to 3:00
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Session 7
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3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
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.15
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Tyler Johnston
Defending Cases
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Break
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4:30– 4:45
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Session 8
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4:45 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
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.1
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Matthew G. Novak, Pickens Barnes & Abernathy
Making the Record
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OPEN INVITE
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HAPPY HOUR SPONSORED BY LAW FIRMS
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6:00 to 7:00
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Thursday June 22, 2023
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Title of Session
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Time
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CEUs
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Instructor/Presenter
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Session 9
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9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
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.15
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J-FACT: Ben Lord, Tiffany Lord, Todd Cheney, Bruce Sexton, Hanna Dvorak
Newest Technology to Subpoena
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Break
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10:30 – 10:45
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Session 10
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10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
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.15
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Emily Hughes
What Transcripts Reveal About Criminal Trials
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SPEAKER INFORMATION
Session #1 – 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Surviving Cancer and Running the Boston Marathon
Phil Decker
Phil has been a sales leader for over 20 years. He’s led teams from 3 to 600 in various roles throughout his career. He is currently the Director of Sales at Midwest Janitorial Service and serves on the executive team. He is also a competitive athlete, running multiple marathons each year. In 2022, he was forced to put his years of training into place personally when faced with the biggest fight of his life. During a routine colonoscopy, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer.
In this motivational presentation, Phil details how this diagnosis led to one of the best years of his life and outlines the lessons he has learned along the way. Through the foundational principles of Get Smarter, Get Fitter, and Get Better that he uses every day to battle cancer and live his best life, he will teach us the importance of work/life balance as well as strategies to use to manage stress and mental health. Phil will also talk about colon cancer and explain the importance of early screening. Toward that goal, he has founded the Tell5Friends Foundation, a non-profit organization that raises money to support cancer charities and cancer research. Phil has an incredible story of resilience and positivity facing harsh odds that will inspire us all.
In this presentation, Phil will discuss medical and pharmaceutical terminology and give concrete examples of how his philosophy of Get Smarter, Get Fitter, and Get Better has helped him defy the odds that his Stage 4 Cancer diagnosis left him.
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Session #2 – 2:45 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.
Filing Appellate Transcripts
Donna Humpal, Clerk of the Iowa Supreme Court
Donna is a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law. She was a law clerk in the Seventh Judicial District of Iowa and then engaged in the private practice of law in Davenport. Her practice included criminal, postconviction, juvenile, and domestic relations cases as well as appeals. She was also a magistrate for Scott County and then worked as a staff attorney for the supreme court for 10 years before becoming the clerk of the appellate courts in 2009.
Donna has been a member of various EDMS committees since about 2006, as well as a member of the more recent Records Retention Committee and Appellate Rules Committee.
Donna will provide an up-to-date seminar on how and when to file appeal transcripts through the electronic system, as well as legislative updates. This presentation will show the importance of backing up your notes into the court reporter Drop Box and how the delay in receiving transcripts in a timely matter has an effect on the Appellate Courts. After this seminar, we will understand completely the necessity to have a backup method to produce transcripts once we retire or are otherwise unavailable for transcript production. The presentation will also discuss data privacy and protection.
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Session #3 – 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Laura Fulton, Kelli Mulcahy, and Jodi Eckard
Veterans History Project
Laura Fulton, CSR, RPR, CRR is an Official Court Reporter in the 2nd Judicial District. She has been a volunteer on the Veterans History Project since 2012.
Kelli Mulcahy, CSR, RMR, CRR, RDR is a Federal Official Court Reporter - U.S. District Court, Southern District of Iowa, 2012-Present. She is currently a volunteer and member of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts Court Reporter Advisory Group, United States Court Reporters Association Executive Committee, Iowa Court Reporters Association Veterans History Project Committee, United States Court Reporters Association Reporter Testing Committee, and the United States Court Reporters Association Constitution & Bylaws Committee.
Jodie Eckard has been doing closed captioning and CART for 14 years. After two years of being an employee for a closed captioning company, she became an independent contractor. She’s done news coverage, political coverage, classroom CART, and on-site captions for concerts. She has been certified as a real-time captioner since 2010. She has two daughters and resides in Ankeny, Iowa. In her spare time you will find her with plants or animals.
In this presentation we will learn the history of the Veterans History Project and the skills needed both to interview veterans and to provide an accurate record. This presentation will demonstrate the value of what NCRA has to offer for resources when in the role of reporting for a veteran, as well as discuss the history of NCRA and ICRA with VHP. There will be specifics on transcript formatting, terminology resources, delivery, timelines. The goal of this presentation is to persuade all court reporters to volunteer at some point in their career for the history to survive.
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Session #4 – 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Alison Guernsey
Clinical Professor of Law
Professor Guernsey teaches in and directs the law school’s Federal Criminal Defense Clinic.
Before joining the faculty, Professor Guernsey was the Supervising Attorney for the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington and Idaho, where she provided direct representation to indigent individuals charged with federal crimes at every stage of the criminal process. Her case types included drug trafficking and manufacture, firearms, fraud, child exploitation, serious violent/sexual crime under the Major Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. 1153) and the Assimilative Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. 13), and the habeas corpus petitions (28 U.S.C. 2254 and 2255), among others.
Prior to her employment with the Federal Defenders, Professor Guernsey clerked for the Honorable Michael J. Melloy. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and the Honorable Karen Nelson Moore, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
This presentation will show an overview of what the defense clinic does at the Law School specifically. We will learn what it is like training future defense lawyers in the courtroom and teaching law students the benefits of a good record and the role that the stenographer plays for their record.
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Session #5 – 10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Cathy Penniston, RPR, CRI
NCRA Representative
Cathy Penniston is a teacher and independent broadcast captioner from Waukee, Iowa. She had spent 30 years working as an official court reporter for the State of Iowa before transitioning into her broadcast captioning career. She has also worked as a freelancer and a CART provider. Cathy currently teaches stenographic reporting at the Des Moines Area Community College in Newton, Iowa.
She holds a Master of Arts degree in Education and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. She obtained her Associate’s degree in court reporting from the American Institute of Business.
At the national level, she has served on numerous NCRA committees and enjoys leading the NCRA A to Z Intro to Steno Machine Shorthand sessions. She has served as a member of the NCRA Board of Directors since 2018.
This session will discuss CART technology, captioning technology, and remote real-time technology. It will also provide technology tips.
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Session #6 – 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Monica Slaughter
First Assistant Linn County Attorney
Monica C. Slaughter is a graduate of Drake University with degrees in Political Science and Law Politics and Society with a Pre-law concentration at Drake Law School where she earned her Juris Doctorate. Monica started her career as a prosecutor in the Washington County Attorney’s Office but has been working as an Assistant Linn County Attorney since 2014 where she prosecutes felony-level crimes with a primary focus on violent crimes.
In January 2022, Monica was appointed as the First Assistant Linn County Attorney. She is a certified instructor for the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy and regularly teaches classes on OWIs, Domestic Abuse, Testifying in Court, and Search and Seizure at the Cedar Rapids Regional Academy and to local law enforcement agencies. She is dedicated to crime prevention and community engagement at the grassroots level. Monica serves on the Board of Directors for Thrive Together (formerly Deaf Iowan’s Against Abuse), Go the Distance for Crime Victims and is a member of the multi-disciplinary teams for St. Luke’s Child Protection Center and GVI Law Enforcement Intervention. Monica is originally from Des Moines, but lives in Cedar Rapids with her husband, Milo, and their son, Milo Jr.
Jordan Schier is an Assistant County Attorney for the Linn County Attorney’s Office. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa Law School. He has been with the Linn County Attorney’s Office since June 2010. Prior to joining the Linn County Attorney’s Office, he was an Associate at Lynch Dallas in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Jordan is currently the Criminal Division Head for the Linn County Attorney’s Office. He is responsible for supervising the Criminal Division and maintaining a full felony case load which consists of violent crimes such as Murder, Sex Abuse, Robbery, etc. Jordan is a Fellow in the Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers. Jordan is an avid runner and has completed 20 marathons. He is an Eagle Scout and enjoys spending his free time with his wife, Tiffany, and their son, Nolan.
In this presentation, she will talk about prosecuting high-profile cases and how she goes about making the record for the appellate court. Both freelance and official court reporters will be informed on courtroom and deposition procedures, legal terminology and legal research. We will learn basic trial advocacy from a prosecutor’s perspective; how a case is routed through the prosecutor’s office once a complaint is filed. Ms. Slaughter will also share the “how I shocked the court reporter” moments. Reporters will learn what parentheticals to use for those awkward moments. She will speak about the Alexander Jackson case, a triple homicide of a mother, father, and sister, which was live-streamed on Court TV.
On June 15, 2021, Alexander Jackson made a less-than frantic phone call to 911 reporting that he and his father had been shot by a masked intruder. Not sure what to expect, police officers arrived on scene and made entrance into the home where they located Jan Jackson, the father, face down in a pool of his own blood, at the bottom of the stairs. Alexander was seated in the hallway with a gunshot wound to his left foot. Officers began their sweep of the house and found the bodies of Sabrina Jackson, the sister, laying under her covers in her own bed, dead from gunshot wounds, and Melissa Jackson, the mother, on the floor in the master bedroom, dead from gunshot wounds. It became quickly apparent to officers on scene that there was a lot more to this story than what was being reported by Alexander Jackson.
We will hear about the efforts taken in the investigation that led to Alexander Jackson being charged with the first triple homicide in Linn County in almost 40 years. We will hear how the State presented a case based almost entirely on circumstantial evidence that resulted in Alexander Jackson being found guilty, by jury, of three counts of Murder in the First Degree.
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Session #7 – 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Tyler Johnston
Retired Assistant Public Defender
Tyler Johnston graduated from the University of Iowa College of Law and started practicing law with his father, Joe Johnston, in 1985 in Iowa City. He moved to Baltimore, Maryland in 1990 and spent four years in the Federal Public Defender’s Office. He then returned to Iowa in 1994 and was a public defender for the past 28 years. Tyler retired on April 6, 2023, and will be missed by the reporting community.
One of his last cases was defending Alexander Jackson who was sentenced to three life sentences for killing his father, mother, and sister inside their home.
Tyler will discuss how transcripts work in a trial setting and how to make the record for appeal. In Tyler’s presentation, we will learn what it is like defending defendants in general and in high-profile cases. Tyler will inform both freelance and official court reporters on courtroom and deposition procedures, legal terminology and legal research. We will come away from this seminar knowing the process a case goes through once it comes into the public defender’s office and we will learn basic trial advocacy from a defendant’s perspective; how a case is routed through the prosecutor’s office once a complaint is filed. Tyler will also speak about the Alexander Jackson case, a triple homicide of a mother, father, and sister, which was live-streamed on Court TV.
There will be an overlap of prosecutor and defense to give a real-life feel of what it is like in a trial as not all reporters have reported criminal trials. Monica and Tyler have been on opposite sides of many cases, and they will present together their differing opinions and how to maintain respect while not requesting the reporter to take sides.
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Session #8 – 4:45 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Matthew G. Novak, Esquire
Pickens, Barnes & Abernathy
Matt Novak has been practicing law in the state of Iowa for over 40 years. He received his juris doctorate degree in 1982 from the St. Louis University. In 1982 he was admitted to the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Iowa; U.S. Southern District; U.S. Court of Appeal, Eighth Circuit; and in 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court. He most recently was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers in Rome, Italy.
In April of this year, he provided a seminar of “Making the Record” for the Inns of Court in North Liberty, Iowa, along with a few court reporters. Matt has the utmost respect for the record and for court reporters and has been an advocate for attorneys to support ICRA and the record.
Matt will present on proper courtroom and deposition procedures and how that has changed in the years. He will speak about basic trial advocacy from a civil attorney’s perspective; the importance of voir dire questioning; and how to treat your court reporter with respect, such as by providing lists of spellings before trials and deposition; the value of court reporters, especially in this time where there is a shortage, and how that is affecting the legal community. Matt will tell stories of his experience in making the record and how having a sister as a court reporter helped him to be a better lawyer. He will share the feedback he received from his presentation at the Inns of Court from the attorneys and judges who attended, which will help court reporters achieve the best possible working relationships with all participants in the court and deposition settings.
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Session #9 – 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Ben Lord, Tiffany Lord, Todd Cheney, Bruce Sexton, Hanna Dvorak
J-FACT Team
The J-FACT team is known as the “Nerd Herd.” They deal with anything with technology and come to the courthouse frequently for warrants. The team will provide the background of the team, background on ICAC generally (Internet Crimes Against Children), case studies, and information on computer evidence and terminology.
Ben Lord, a Johnson County Deputy, is on the team along with his wife, Tiffany Lord, who is with DPS for the University of Iowa; Hanna Dvorak with the Coralville Police Department; and Todd Cheney with the Iowa City Police Department; and Bruce Sexton, North Liberty Police Department.
Computer forensics is a relatively new field in law enforcement, but it is quickly becoming one of the most necessary, according to the investigators in the J-FACT team, Joint Forensic Analysis Cyber Team.
The team was originally formed by the Johnson County Sheriff’s office, Iowa City Police Department, and the University of Iowa Department of Public Safety in July of 2021.
From this presentation we will learn the newest technology that will be testified to in the years to come. There is currently pending state legislation which may affect how court reporters may see more computer and phone technology in courtrooms. Currently the lion’s share of major ICAC cases are prosecuted federally due to sentencing differences, but the legislature is looking to bring some parity. The presentation will be a background of the team, background on ICAC generally (Internet Crimes Against Children), case studies, and information on computer evidence and terminology. We will be learning the cutting-edge of the most advanced collection of evidence from phones, computers, etc.
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Session #10 – 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
Emily Hughes
What Transcripts Reveal About Criminal Trials
Professor Hughes joined the faculty at the University of Iowa College of Law in 2011 and became an Associate Dean in 2015. She teaches a variety of criminal law and procedure cases as well as Professional Responsibility. Before joining Iowa Law, she was a professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, and prior to that, she was the Associate Director of the Center for Justice in Capital Cases at DePaul University College of Law, where she worked in the legal clinic representing indigent clients on capital cases.
Professor Hughes’s other experience includes working as a public defender for the Office of the Iowa State Public Defender in Iowa City, working as a Sacks Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Criminal Justice Institute, and clerking for the Honorable Michael J. Melloy.
In this presentation, Professor Hughes will discuss findings from a study examining 70 criminal trial transcripts and what analysis of those trial transcripts reveals about defendants’ testimony, prior convictions, objections, and the use of forensic evidence. We will learn what we have been doing right, and maybe not so right, in producing court transcripts.
