Laredoan and Criminal Law Author Lectures at TAMIU Tonight
Written by Post Public Information Representative, Aug 27, 2015, Comments Off
Courtesy Steve Harmon,
(Laredo, Texas)-With national media focus on policing in communities, an accomplished Laredo-born academic, researcher and writer will host a book-signing and lecture at Texas A&M International University tonight Thursday, Aug. 27 in Student Center 236 at 6 p.m.
Sandra Guerra Thompson’s research focuses on criminal law topics including eyewitness identification and wrongful conviction, immigration crimes, jury discrimination, police interrogations, federal sentencing, and asset forfeiture
The lecture is sponsored by TAMIU’s College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Social Sciences and is free of charge to the public.
Guerra Thompson is the author of Cops in Lab Coats: Curbing Wrongful Convictions with Independent Forensic Laboratories (Carolina Academic Press, 2015). In her book, she argues that forensic labs across the nation should be run independent of law enforcement agencies in order to best protect the interests of justice from potential conflicts of interest.
She is the Alumnae College Professor in Law and Director of the University of Houston’s Law Center Criminal Justice Institute.
Guerra Thompson is the recipient of the University of Houston’s Distinguished Leadership in Teaching Excellence Award in 2015, as well as its Teaching Excellence Award in 2003 and the Ethel Baker Faculty Award in 2000.
In 2012, she was appointed by Houston Mayor Annise Parker as a member of the Board of Directors of the Houston Forensic Science Center, a group charged with creating and overseeing an independent forensic lab and transferring such duties from the Houston Police Department’s crime lab.
In 2009, she was appointed representative of the Texas public law schools on the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions, a panel created by the Legislature to propose statutory reforms to curb wrongful convictions. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute.
In 2000, she served as Chair of the Criminal Justice Section of the Association of American Law Schools. She was named one of the Top 25 Women of Vision for 2009 by Hispanic Business magazine. She served as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and practiced both trial and appellate criminal law from 1988-1990.
The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alfredo Guerra of Laredo, she is a graduate of J. W. Nixon High School and was honored as a “Mustang Legend” in 2014.
She earned degrees at Yale University and Yale Law School.
To see a brief video featuring Guerra Thompson, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaAuKhhrGJY#t=12
