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The digital turn in public criminal defense
Descriptive
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Title
The digital turn in public criminal defense
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Ramirez
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Fanny Anne
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1986-
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Fanny Anne Ramirez
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Jeffre Lane
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Todd
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Todd Wolfson
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Schement
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Jorge
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Jorge Schement
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Advisory Committee
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Gibbs
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Jennifer
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Jennifer Gibbs
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Advisory Committee
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Rutgers University
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School of Graduate Studies
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theses
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2019
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2019-10
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2019
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English
Abstract
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This dissertation studies the digital turn in public criminal defense. It focuses on public defenders, who are court-appointed attorneys, and their indigent clients, who come primarily from minority populations. I argue that the defining feature of the digital turn is that it brings judicial actors into contact with increasingly personal parts of defendants’ lives. As part of handling cases, both the prosecution and the defense interact with photos, conversation records, and location information, and use these pieces of digital evidence to understand the people, events, and circumstances around alleged crimes. I situate my study at the intersection of communication scholarship, socio-legal studies, and critical race theory. I draw on the latter’s legal storytelling framework to help make sense of how public defenders and prosecutors use digital evidence to create competing narratives about poor defendants and their alleged crimes.
To examine the digital turn in public criminal defense, I conducted an ethnographic study of a public defender office and its in-house, digital forensics laboratory. The goal was to understand how digital evidence is shaping criminal case processing, especially defense work, and the relationship between public defenders and their indigent clients. I developed an original framework called the “life cycle.” This framework makes an important contribution to socio-legal studies and scholarship in the area of communication and technology by presenting a process-oriented approach that allows scholars and legal practitioners to understand how different moments in the life of a case unfold in the digital turn. Using the life cycle approach, I trace the life of digital evidence in public criminal defense, from the evidence’s arrival in the public defender office to its eventual application during hearings, plea negotiations, and trials. Throughout the analysis, I highlight the challenges and opportunities public defenders experience in the digital turn.
To examine the digital turn in public criminal defense, I conducted an ethnographic study of a public defender office and its in-house, digital forensics laboratory. The goal was to understand how digital evidence is shaping criminal case processing, especially defense work, and the relationship between public defenders and their indigent clients. I developed an original framework called the “life cycle.” This framework makes an important contribution to socio-legal studies and scholarship in the area of communication and technology by presenting a process-oriented approach that allows scholars and legal practitioners to understand how different moments in the life of a case unfold in the digital turn. Using the life cycle approach, I trace the life of digital evidence in public criminal defense, from the evidence’s arrival in the public defender office to its eventual application during hearings, plea negotiations, and trials. Throughout the analysis, I highlight the challenges and opportunities public defenders experience in the digital turn.
Subject
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Topic
Communication, Information and Library Studies
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Topic
Digital evidence
Subject
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Topic
Electronic evidence
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Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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ETD_10135
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1 online resource (xi, 167 pages)
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Ph.D.
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Includes bibliographical references
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School of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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rucore10001600001
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doi:10.7282/t3-gqye-0781
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ETD doctoral
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The author owns the copyright to this work.
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Ramirez
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Fanny
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2019-07-23 11:47:59
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Fanny Ramirez
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Rutgers University. School of Graduate Studies
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Author Agreement License
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I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
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Availability
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Open
Reason
Permission or license
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