Susan R Klein
- Alice McKean Young Regents Chair in Law
Faculty Profile: Susan R Klein
Main Profile Content
Featured Work
99 North Carolina Law Review 1392
Federal sentencing has become an obstacle course where all parties must jump through hoops for no apparent purpose. In Part II, we offer a solution to address the Guidelines’ second goal by using knowledge and shame to solve racial disparities in sentencing. Since these disparities worsen with increasing judicial sentencing discretion, we aim our reform but not our blame at federal judges. We briefly consider and reject algorithms used primarily in bail hearings as the answer to fair sentencing, before landing upon our proposal to publish racial disparities in sentencing for each judicial district.
Biography
Susan Riva Klein is the Alice McKean Young Regents Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law. Upon graduation from Boalt Hall School of Law second in her class, she clerked for Judge Cynthia H. Hall on the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and spent four years as a federal criminal prosecutor with the U.S. Dept. of Justice through the Attorney General's Honor Program. While in the Criminal Division, she rotated through the Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture section, the Public Integrity Unit, Terrorism & Violent Crimes, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. She is now a nationally prominent scholar in the fields of criminal procedure, federal criminal law, sentencing, and prosecutorial ethics. Her many articles have appeared in top ten law journals and have been cited by the SCOTUS. She is co-author of Abrams, Beale, & Klein, "Federal Criminal Law and Its Enforcement (7th ed., West 2020) and 2023 update, a widely adopted casebook at many law schools. Professor Klein is active in educating state and federal judges, prosecutors, and the defense bar. She is the Chief Reporter for the Committee to Redraft the Fifth Circuit Pattern Jury Instructions, Criminal (West 1997, 2001, 2012, 2015, 2019 and forthcoming 2023), and also currently serves on the State Bar of Texas standing committee on Pattern Jury Charges - Criminal (10 volumes published by the State Bar of Texas between 2009 and 2021). Professor Klein has consulted on numerous high-profile criminal cases.
Courses for Fall 2023
- Criminal Law I
- Internship: Federal Public Defender
- Internship: U.S. Army JAG Corps
- Internship: U.S. Attorney
- SMNR: Federal Criminal Prosecution and Defense, Advanced
Professional Activities
2019
February 8, 2019
Moderator on Panel III: "Prosecutorial Independence," Reclaiming and Restoring Constitutional Norms, sponsored by the Texas Law Review and The American Constitutional Society
2018
August 5, 2018
Participant in "Policing in a Democracy Without Privacy," Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Conference
SEALS Conference 2018 Ft. Lauderdale, FL
2017
October 16, 2017
Debate: Federal Criminal Justice Reform
with Clark Neily, Cato Institute and UT adjunct, sponsored by the Federalist Society
October 6, 2017
Immigration Defense Waivers in Federal Criminal Plea Agreements
Mercer University School of Law
With Donna Lee Elm & Elissa C. Steglich
August 2, 2017
Workshop for New Law School Teachers
Seals 2017 Conference
At SEALS 2017 Conference
July 31, 2017
Southeastern Association of Law Schools 2017 Conference
SEALS Conference 2017
Presenting "Disruptive Innovations in Criminal Defense"
February 21, 2017
Sanctuary Cities panel, moderator
UT Law
Moderated panel discussion with Austin ICE Directors and UT immigration clinic, sponsored by AJCL
2015
September 13, 2015
National Public Defenders Retreat, New Orleans, LA
Can We Reform Plea Bargaining?
Plea Bargaining Conference at the University of Minnesota Law School (with Kate Stith, Yale, and Gabriel Chin, Uni. of AZ).
September 12, 2015
Recap of Current Issues in the U. S. Supreme Court
National Public Defenders Retreat, New Orleans, LA
April 12, 2015
Brady and Discovery: What Works in State and Federal Jurisdictions
National Public Defenders Retreat, New Orleans, LA
Plea Bargaining Conference at the University of Minnesota Law School (with Kate Stith, Yale, and Gabriel Chin, Uni.of AZ).
2012
February 16, 2012
"Improving the Advisory Guideline System"
"Improving the Advisory Guideline System" (with Hon. Gerard Lynch, 2d Cir., Hon. Andre Davis, 4th Cir., Fed. Public Defender Henry Bemporad, Hearing before the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Washington, D.C.
2011
July 28, 2011
“Debunking Claims of Over-Federalization in Criminal Law
Southeastern Association of Law Schools conference paper presented on a panel on Overcriminalization at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools conference held in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
2007
August 31, 2007
Faculty Colloquium
University of Texas at Austin
In September she participated in a faculty colloquium on recent USSC cases, also at UT-Austin.
July 31, 2007
Panel Participant
University of Texas at Austin Law School
Participated in a panel on the first year curriculum in late August at the University of Texas at Austin Law School.
April 6, 2007
Paper Presentation
Citizen Ignorance, Police Deception, and the Constitution Sympsium
Presented a paper, "Lies, Omissions, and Concealment: The Golden Rule in Law Enforcement and the Federal Criminal Code," at a symposium on Citizen Ignorance, Police Deception, and the Constitution at the Texas Tech University School of Law on April 6, 2007. Her paper was published at 39 Texas Tech Law Rev. 1321 - 1354 (Summer 2007).