Criminal Testimonial Injustices Symposium: Stateville CC

On Sept. 29, 2023, Northwestern students, alumni, and professors gathered at Stateville Correctional Center to discuss Jennifer Lackey’s new book, Criminal Testimonial Injustice.

Six NPEP students, seven legal scholars, and philosophers were given time to respond to the book.

This was a two-day event; the first day took place a hundred yards from Stateville Correctional Center’s “roundhouse,” or the “panopticon” as it’s otherwise known (it is also the image used for the cover of Lackey’s book).

The second day was held on Northwestern’s Evanston campus.

“[In Criminal Testimonial Injustice] Lackey exposes the unseemly underbelly of our so-called criminal justice system, revealing the nefarious tactics, machinations, and ploys that are employed by police investigators, prosecutors, judges, and even some defense attorneys, to coerce defendants to accept guilty pleas, to elicit false witness testimony, and to obtain false confessions, irrespective of the defendant’s actual guilt or innocence.”

— NPEP Graduate William Peeples (pictured), who was one of six NPEP students featured on the panel