Kate Finley Discusses Second Look Laws in ‘Prison Evidence’

Kate Finley, director of the Frank J. Remington Center, recently published “Prison Evidence.” The article argues that a wave of second look laws, empowering courts to revisit the sentences of people convicted many decades ago but directing judges to make release decisions based in significant part on evidence produced by correctional systems, “risks undermining the very goals animating these laws.” The article makes two main contributions: First, it draws on the insights of parole and prison law scholarship to explore how the central role of prison evidence in second look laws threatens to undermine their purpose. Second, taking into account the early results of second look resentencing practice, it proposes realistic ways to better account for the realities of prison in judicial second look review. The paper is forthcoming in the 92 Brooklyn Law Review 2.