Samuel Raymond Gross (born 1946) is an American
lawyer and the Thomas and Mabel Long Professor of Law at the
University of Michigan Law School
The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law (MCL ...
. Gross is best known for his work in
false conviction
A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Inno ...
s and
exoneration
Exoneration occurs when the conviction for a crime is reversed, either through demonstration of innocence, a flaw in the conviction, or otherwise. Attempts to exonerate convicts are particularly controversial in death penalty cases, especially w ...
s, notably the
Larry Griffin death penalty case.
Gross is the editor of the
National Registry of Exonerations The National Registry of Exonerations is a project of the University of Michigan Law School, Michigan State University College of Law and the University of California Irvine Newkirk Center for Science and Society. The Registry was co-founded in 2012 ...
project.
Samuel Gross has been leading a team of lawyers in
statistics and in law which determined the likely number of
unjust convictions of prisoners on
death row. The study determined that at least 4% of people on death row were and are innocent. The research was
peer review
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer revie ...
ed with the ''
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Sci ...
'' which later published it. Gross has stated that he firmly believes some innocent people have been executed.
Background
Before coming to Michigan Law, Gross served as an attorney for the United Farm Workers Union in California and the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Committee in Nebraska and South Dakota. He came to Michigan Law from the faculty at
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...
and was previously a visiting professor at
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
. He graduated from
Columbia College in 1968 and earned a
J.D. from the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in 1973. Gross argued ''Lockhart v. McCree'' before the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
.
Career
Gross led a team that investigated exonerations in the United States from 1989 to 2003. They determined that during that 15-year period, 340 exonerations were given, of which 144 were cleared by DNA evidence. 80% of the exonerated individuals had been imprisoned for at least 5 years.
See also
*
List of wrongful convictions in the United States
This list of wrongful convictions in the United States includes people who have been legally exonerated, including people whose convictions have been overturned or vacated, and who have not been retried because the charges were dismissed by the s ...
*
Wrongful executions in the United States
References
External links
The Griffin ReportExonerations in the United States, 1989 through 2003.
*Eckholm, Eric (February 24, 1995). Studies Find Death Penalty Tied to Race Of the Victims. ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''
*Liptak, Adam (April 19, 2004).
Study Suspects Thousands of False Convictions
" ''The New York Times''
1946 births
Living people
American legal scholars
University of Michigan Law School faculty
Columbia College (New York) alumni
UC Berkeley School of Law alumni
Place of birth missing (living people)
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