University of Utah : S.J. Quinney College of Law

Paul Cassell

Professor of Law

Paul G. Cassell, professor of law, received a B.A. (1981) and a J.D. (1984) from Stanford University, where he graduated Order of the Coif and was President of the Stanford Law Review. He clerked for then-Judge Antonin Scalia when he was on the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, and for the Chief Justice of the United States, Warren Burger, before becoming an Associate Deputy Attorney General with the U.S. Justice Department . Professor Cassell was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia from 1988 to 1991.  He joined the faculty at the College of Law in 1992, where he taught full time until he was sworn in as a U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Utah on July 2, 2002.  In November 2007, he resigned his judicial position to return full time to the College of Law, to teach, write, and litigate on issues relating to crime victims rights and criminal justice reform. 

Professor Cassell teaches criminal procedure, crime victims' rights, criminal law, and related classes.

Supplemental Classroom Materials and Information

Scholarship Highlights

Books

Victims in Criminal Procedure (Carolina Academic Press 2006) (co-author with Douglas Beloof and Steve Twist).

Debating the Death Penalty: The Experts from Both Sides Make Their Case (2004 Oxford Univ. Press) (co-author with Hugo Bedau).

Legal Writing

"In Defense of Victim Impact Statements," __ Ohio State J. Crim. Law ___ (2009).

"What''''s Wrong With Democracy? A Critique of ''The Supreme Court and the Politics of Death,''" 94 Va. L. Rev. In Brief 65 (2008) (co-author with Joshua K. Marquis).

"In Defense fo the Death Penatly," Journal of the Institute for the Advancement of Criminal Justice 14 (Summer 2008).

"Treating Crime Victims Fairly: Integrating Victims into the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure," 2007 Utah L. Rev. 861.

"Crime Shouldn’t Pay: A Proposal to Create an Effective and Constitutional Federal Anti-Profiting Statute," 19 Federal Sentencing Reporter 119 (2006).

"The Crime Victim''''s Right to Attend the Trial: The Reascendant National Consensus," 9 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 481 (2005) (co-author with Douglas Beloof).

"Recognizing Victims in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure: Amendments in Light of the Crime Victims'' Rights Act," 2005 BYU L. Rev. 835 (2005).

"Too Severe? A Defense of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (and a Critique of the Federal Mandatory Minimums), 56 Stan. L. Rev. 1017 (2004).

"The Paths Not Taken: A Critique of the Supreme Court''s Decision in Dickerson," 99 Mich. L. Rev. 898 (2001).

"Will Miranda Survive? Dickerson v. United States: The Right to Remain Silent, The Supreme Court, and Congress," 37 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 1165 (2000) (annual American Criminal Law Review debate; versus Bob Litt).

"The Statute That Time Forgot: 18 U.S.C. § 3501 and the Overhauling of Miranda," 85 Iowa L. Rev. 175 (1999).

"Barbarians at the Gates: A Reply to the Critics of the Victims'' Rights Amendment," 1999 Utah L. Rev. 479 (1999).

"The Guilty and the ''Innocent'': An Examination of Alleged Cases of Wrongful Conviction from False Confessions," 22 Harv. J.L. & Public Pol''y 523 (1999).

"Handcuffing the Cops? A Thirty Year Perspective on Miranda''s Effects on Law Enforcement, " 50 Stanford L. Rev. 1055 (1998) (co-author with Richard Fowles).

"Declining Clearance Rates After Miranda: Coincidence or Consequence?," 50 Stanford L. Rev. 1181 (1998) (co-author with Richard Fowles).

"Protecting the Innocent from False Confessions and Lost Confessions — And From Miranda", 88 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 497 (1998).

"Evidence of Repeated Acts of Child Molestation and Rape: The Need to Reform Utah Law to Insure Admissibility," 1998 Utah L. Rev. 145 (co-author with Evan Strassberg).

"Balanced Approaches to the False Confession Problem: A Brief Comment on Ofshe, Leo and Alschuler," 74 Denv. U.L. Rev. 1123 (1997).

"Miranda''s Negligible Effect on Law Enforcement: Some Skeptical Observations," 20 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol''y 327 (1997).

"The Costs of the Miranda Mandate: A Lesson in the Dangers of Inflexible, ''Prophylactic'' Supreme Court Inventions," 28 Ariz. St. L.J. 299 (1996).

"Police Interrogation in the 1990s: An Empirical Study of the Effects of Miranda," 42 UCLA L. Rev. 839 (1996) (co-author with Bret Hayman).

"All Benefits, No Costs: The Grand Illusion of Miranda''s Defenders," 90 Northwestern U.L. Rev. 1084 (1996).

"Miranda''s Social Costs: An Empirical Reassessment," 90 Northwestern U.L. Rev. 387 (1996).

"Search and Seizure Law in Utah: The Irrelevance of the Antipolygamy Raids," 1995 BYU Law Rev. 1.

"Balancing the Scales of Justice: The Case For and Effects Of Utah''s Victims Rights Amendment," 1994 Utah Law Rev. 1373.

"The Rodney King Trials and the Double Jeopardy Clause: Some Observations on Original Meaning and the ACLU''s Schizophrenic Views of the Dual Sovereign Doctrine," 41 UCLA Law Rev. 693 (1994).

"The Mysterious Creation of Search and Seizure Exclusionary Rules Under State Constitutions: The Utah Example," 1993 Utah Law Rev. 753.

"The Supreme Court's Decisions on the Not-So-Peremptory Challenge," Public Interest Law Rev. 11 (1992).

"Protecting the Innocent: A Response to the Bedau-Radelet Study," 41 Stanford L. Rev. 121 (1988) (co-author with Stephen J. Markman) (reprinted in part in 136 Cong. Rec. S6648 (May 21, 1990) and in A Capital Punishment Anthology (Victor L. Strieb. ed. 1993)).

"Restrictions on Press Coverage of Military Operations: The Right of Access, Grenada, and ''Off the Record'' Wars," 73 Georgetown L.J. 931 (1985).

"Exemption of International Shipping Conferences from the American Antitrust Laws: An Economic Analysis," 20 New England L. Rev. 1 (1984).

Note, "Establishing Violations of International Law: Yellow Rain and the Chemical and Biological Warfare Agreements," 35 Stanford L. Rev. 259 (1983).