Associate Dean for Faculty Development, Carville Dickinson Benson Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School
B.A. Yale University, cum laude
J.D. Harvard Law School, cum laude
Professor Butler teaches in the areas of criminal law, race relations law, and jurisprudence. His scholarship has been published in many leading scholarly journals, including the Yale Law Journal, the Harvard Law Review (two articles), the Stanford Law Review and the UCLA Law Review (three articles). He has been awarded the Professor of the Year award three times by the GW graduating class. He was a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Acting Co-Director of the GW/Oxford Human Rights Program at Oxford University. He was elected to the American Law Institute in 2003.
For years, people have claimed a racial bias in our country’s death penalty system, based on the statistics of who winds up on death row. But, now, a law in North Carolina aims to do something to address such bias when it comes to capital prosecution.
Jury selection is complete in the murder case against former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle against an unarmed passenger, Oscar Grant, on New Year's Day 2009; but, while the case is moving forward, many activists are concerned about the jury's racial make-up. The shooter is white and the victim is black.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law one of the toughest immigration laws in the United States. The law requires police to question anyone they believe to be an illegal immigrant. Critics say they believe that this law will lead to wide spread racial profiling. The law also seems to shift the burden of proof onto the defense instead of the prosecution in a country where pratcially everyone knows the term, "innocent until proven guilty."
"Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed. Their blood will replenish the tree of liberty. A small price to pay to assure freedom for millions.”
Internet radio host Hal Turner wrote those incendiary words on his blog and landed himself in a large and very public pool of hot water. In a case that will once again test the limits of free speech protection, the Justice Department charged that the radio host had crossed the line into hate speech, and that his words were tantamount to death threats. Mr. Turner was already on trial in Connecticut criminal court for comments made against Catholic lawmakers. ...(continue reading)
On Monday, Henry Louis Gates Jr, one of the nation's pre-eminent African American scholars, was arrested for breaking into his own home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The charges have been dropped against the Harvard professor but the racial questions are still swirling. With the election of the first black man to the White House, many people thought American society was becoming "post racial." Joining The Takeaway to discuss race in America is Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor, law professor at George Washington University and author of Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice
Read David Wall Rice's blog post, Professor Gates Arrested? No Surprise
"The police engage in these who's-the-man masculinity contests. And you know there are things you can do if you don't want to get locked up: you can not look them in the eye, you can be deferential. But sometimes, when you're a black man who's tried to do the right thing your whole life and still end up getting treated like a you-know-what, you do get loud and tumultuous."
—Law professor and author Paul Butler
Comedian Baratunde Thurston on 'How to Be Black'
Today's Takeaway: Focus on Violence Syria
Today's Takeaway: Big Night for Rick Santorum
'Tebow Bill' May Allow Home-Schoolers to Play on High School Teams
In-Depth Look at the Situation in Syria
Today's Takeaway: Multi-Billion Dollar Foreclosure Settlement Imminent
Is Our Constitution Out of Date?
Newly-Discovered Recordings Shed Light on a Young Malcolm X
Multi-Billion Dollar Foreclosure Settlement Imminent
Contraception Coverage Draws Criticism from Catholic Bishops
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