Penn Carey Law professor Sandy Mayson has found that failure-to-appear plays a central role in criminal case processing in Philadelphia.
1 min. read
Failure-to-appear in court, or FTA, has recently been seen as a problem of criminal defendants and bail systems. But a research team of Penn Carey Law School Professor Sandy Mayson, School of Arts & Sciences Professor Aurélie Ouss, Penn Carey Law Quattrone Center Fellow Lindsay Graef, and former Quattrone Fellow Megan Stevenson found that the other parties necessary for a criminal proceeding—witnesses and lawyers—actually fail to appear in court more frequently than defendants.
In research published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and summarized in a recent white paper, the authors write that an essential police officer, civilian witness, or lawyer misses court in 53% of cases, with police officers missing required hearings twice as often as defendants. Victims fail to appear in 70% of domestic violence cases.
“Each time an essential party fails to appear, the hearing must be rescheduled, wasting time and money for all involved. Moreover, when witnesses fail to appear, cases are more likely to be dismissed or withdrawn. Our results show that failure-to-appear is a systemic phenomenon, one that is playing a central role in criminal case processing in Philadelphia,” they write.
To read a longer version of this story, visit Penn Carey Law.
Deepfakes, digital doubles, and the law: Jennifer Rothman on protecting identity in the AI era
The evolution of AI technology may require more robust copyright laws and guardrails that protect people’s control of their own identities, says the Penn Carey Law professor.
Bold ideas and innovation on display at the Fall Research Expo
On Sept. 15, hundreds of posters were presented throughout Houston Hall at the annual Fall Research Expo, representing the research projects of 410 undergraduate students conducted through the Center for Undergraduate Research.
Exposure to air pollution worsens Alzheimer’s disease
New research from Penn Medicine finds living in areas with high concentration of air pollution is associated with increased buildup of amyloid and tau proteins in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, accelerating cognitive decline.
