Brandon L. Garrett

Garrett teaches law at Duke University School of Law, where he joined the faculty in 2018 as the inaugural L. Neil Williams, Jr. Professor of Law. A leading scholar of criminal justice outcomes, evidence, and constitutional rights, Garrett previously was the White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs and Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia. His research on our criminal justice system has ranged from the lessons to be learned from cases where innocent people were exonerated by DNA tests, to research on false confessions, forensics, and eyewitness memory, to the difficult compromises that prosecutors reach when targeting the largest corporations in the world. At Duke, Garrett founded and directs the Wilson Center for Science and Justice.

Garrett's new book, "Autopsy of a Crime Lab: Exposing the Flaws in Forensics," was just published by California University Press. His previous books include “End of its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice,” examining the implications of the decline of the death penalty, and published in Fall 2017 by Harvard University Press.In 2011, Harvard University Press published Garrett's book, "Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong," examining the cases of the first 250 people to be exonerated by DNA testing. That book was the subject of a symposium issue in New England Law Review, and received an A.B.A. Silver Gavel Award, Honorable Mention, and a Constitutional Commentary Award. It is has been translated in Japan and Taiwan, and in China. In 2013, Foundation Press published a casebook, “Federal Habeas Corpus: Executive Detention and Post-Conviction Litigation,” co-authored with Lee Kovarsky. Garrett's book examining corporate prosecutions, titled “Too Big to Jail: How Prosecutors Compromise with Corporations,” was published by Harvard University Press in Fall 2014. It has been translated in Taiwan and a translation is forthcoming Spain. For more information, visit Garrett’s website.

Garrett's work has been cited by courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, lower federal courts, state supreme courts, and courts in other countries, such as the Supreme Courts of Canada and Israel. Garrett also frequently speak about criminal justice matters before legislative and policymaking bodies, groups of practicing lawyers, law enforcement, and to local and national media. Garrett attended Columbia Law School, where he was an articles editor of the Columbia Law Review and a Kent Scholar. After graduating, he clerked for the Hon. Pierre N. Leval of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He then worked as an associate at Neufeld, Scheck & Brustin LLP in New York City.

Garrett lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wonderful family.