Russell D. Covey
Professor of Law Center for Access to Justice- Education
J.D., Yale Law School
M.A., Princeton University
A.B., Amherst College
- Specializations
Criminal Law & Procedure
- Biography
Professor Covey teaches criminal law and procedure and is the author of numerous articles and book chapters in the field. In particular, his work focuses on the intersection of wrongful convictions, innocence and the guilty plea process, exploring and applying insights from a variety of disciplines, including economics, cognitive psychology, and behavioral economics to shed light on the dynamics of criminal justice. His recent work includes studies on police misconduct as a cause of wrongful convictions, use by police and prosecutors of the threat of perjury sanctions to deter witnesses from recanting false incriminating testimony, and the especially pernicious effects of jailhouse informants in convicting the innocent.
Professor Covey is co-editor The Wrongful Convictions Reader (Carolina Academic Press 2018), a cutting-edge collection of research and scholarship on the evidentiary, procedural, and forensic contributors to the problem of wrongful convictions.
Professor Covey also currently co-chairs the ABA Plea Bargaining Task Force, which is studying state and national plea bargaining practices in recognition of a growing consensus of problems in its operation. The Task Force is made up of state and federal judges, prosecutors, criminal defenders, leaders of national organizations advocating for criminal law reform and legal scholars, and seeks to explore and formulate specific recommendations for changes in the way plea bargaining operates within the larger criminal justice environment.
Covey has filed amicus briefs on behalf of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and represented pro bono clients in criminal appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Prior to joining the College of Law, he clerked for Judge Allyne R. Ross of the U.S. District Court, E.D.N.Y., practiced law specializing in criminal and civil litigation at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and taught law at Whittier Law School in Southern California.
- Publications
Books
The Wrongful Convictions Reader, (Russell D. Covey & Valena E. Beety, eds., Carolina Academic Press 2018).
Book Chapters
Russell D. Covey, Formalizing Plea Bargaining, in The Cost of Plea Bargains: Reflections and Recommendations from the ABA Plea Bargaining Task Force (Lucian E Dervan and Thea B Johnson eds., 2024).
Russell Covey, Behavioral Economics and Plea Bargaining, in The Oxford Handbook of Behavioral Economics and the Law (Eyal Zamir & Doron Techman eds., 2014).
Russell Dean Covey, Deterrence's Complexity, in Criminal Law Conversations (Paul H. Robinson, Stephen P. Garvey, & Kimberly Kessler Ferzan eds., Oxford University Press, 2009).
Russell Dean Covey, The Limits of the Economic Model: Becker's Crime and Punishment, in Criminal Law Conversations (Paul H. Robinson, Stephen P. Garvey, & Kimberly Kessler Ferzan eds., Oxford University Press, 2009).
Articles
Russell D. Covey, Book Review: Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining Is a Bad Deal by Carrissa Byrne Hessick, Crim. Just. Rev. (Jan. 2, 2023), doi: 10.1177/07340168221149157.
Russell D. Covey, Dissent and the Rule of Law, 36 BYU J. Pub. L. 81 (2021).
Russell D. Covey, Suspect Evidence and Coalmine Canaries, 55 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 537 (2018).
Russell D. Covey, Plea Bargaining and Price Theory, 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 920 (2016).
Russell D. Covey, Rules, Standards, Sentencing, and the Nature of Law, 104 Cal. L. Rev. 447 (2016).
Russell D. Covey, Recantations and the Perjury Sword, 79 Alb. L. Rev. 861 (2016).
Russell D. Covey, Abolishing Jailhouse Snitch Testimony, 49 Wake Forest L. Rev. 1375 (2014).
Russell D. Covey, Supreme Failure, 61 Crime, L. & Soc. Change 113 (2014)(reviewing Most Deserving of Death? An Analysis of the Supreme Court's Death Penalty Jurisprudence, by Kenneth Williams (Ashgate 2012))
Russell D. Covey, Plea Bargaining: Law After Lafler and Frye, 51 Duq. L. Rev. 595 (2013).
Russell Covey, Police Misconduct as a Cause of Wrongful Convictions, 90 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1133 (2013).
Russell D. Covey, Death in Prison: The Right Death Penalty Compromise, 28 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 1085 (2012).
Russell D. Covey, Pervasive Surveillance & the Future of the Fourth Amendment, 80 Miss. L.J. 1289 (2011).
Russell D. Covey, Longitudinal Guilt: Repeat Offenders, Plea Bargaining, and the Variable Standard of Proof, 63 Fla. L. Rev. 431 (2011).
Russell D. Covey, Criminal Madness: Cultural Iconography and Insanity, 61 Stan. L. Rev. 1375 (2009).
Russell Covey, Reconsidering the Relationship Between Cognitive Psychology and Plea Bargaining, 91 Marq. L. Rev. 213 (2007).
Russell D. Covey, The Unbearable Lightness of Batson: Mixed-Motives and Discrimination in Jury Selection, 66 Md. L. Rev. 279 (2006).
Russell D. Covey, Interrogation Warrants, 26 Cardozo L. Rev. 1867 (2005).
Russell D. Covey, Exorcising Wechsler's Ghost: The Influence of the Model Penal Code on Death Penalty Sentencing Jurisprudence, 31 Hastings Const. L.Q. 189 (2004).
Popular Press
Russell D. Covey, Despite DA's Arguments, Doubt Remains on Troy Davis' Guilt, Fulton County Daily Rep., Oct. 11, 2011.