Courtroom Criminal Evidence

Edward J. Imwinkelried is the Edward L. Barrett, Jr. Professor of Law Emeritus at UC Davis School of Law. A nationally recognized expert on subjects such as DNA typing, forensic psychiatry, and laser techniques for fingerprint detection, Professor Imwinkelried is the author of more than 200 books and other publications. He is frequently called upon for advice on privileges and the admissibility of evidence of other crimes, and his treatise Scientific Evidence is considered authoritative. Professor Imwinkelried served as an army lawyer in the XXIV Corps and 196th Light Infantry Brigade in Vietnam in 1971–1972. He went on to become a lecturer on evidence, criminal procedure, crimes and trial advocacy in the Criminal Law Division of the Judge Advocate General’s School in Virginia, then a Professor of Law at the University of San Diego and Washington University before coming to UC Davis in 1985. He has also taught as a Visiting Professor at the Ohio State University, the University of Illinois, University of Houston, and University College Dublin.

Fredric I. Lederer is Chancellor Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Legal and Court Technology (CLCT), formerly the Courtroom 21 Project, at William & Mary Law School. Professor Lederer graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, now the NYU School of Engineering, and received his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review and recipient of the Archie O’ Dawson Prize. He received his LL.M. from the University of Virginia and was a Fulbright-Hayes Research Scholar at the Max-Planck-Institut für Ausländisches und Internationales Strafrecht, in Freiburg, Germany (now the Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung von Kriminalität, Sicherheit und Recht). Professor Lederer’s areas of specialization include legal technology, evidence, technology-augmented trial practice, electronic discovery and data seizures, criminal procedure, military law, and legal skills. A former military defense counsel prosecutor and judge, he was a co-author of the Military Rules of Evidence and was appointed by the Secretary of Defense to serve for four years as a public member of the Code Committee, composed of the Judge Advocates General, judges of the Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces, and two public members. He is the author or co-author of eleven books, numerous articles, and two law related education television series. He was the recipient of the 2015 Judge Advocates Foundation Chief Justice John Marshall Life Achievement Award. As Founder and Director of CLCT, Professor Lederer is responsible for the McGlothlin Courtroom, the world’s most technologically advanced trial and appellate courtroom, and the Court Affiliates, an organization of federal, state, and foreign courts. Working with then CLCT Deputy Director Martin Gruen, Professor Lederer has conducted legal and empirical research and provided courtroom and hearing room design consulting throughout the world. In 2016, for example, Professor Lederer addressed remote interpretation, use of tablets for evidence presentation to jurors, and virtual reality court records in CLCT’s 2016 “Laboratory Trial.”

Professor Liesa Richter is the William J. Alley Professor of Law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Professor Richter joined the OU Law faculty in 2001. She teaches Evidence, Civil Procedure I, Civil Procedure II, and a seminar entitled “Evidence Issues in Great Trials in History.” Her research focuses on federal evidentiary policy and rule-making and her articles have appeared in journals such as the Fordham Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, Florida Law Review and American University Law Review. In 2009, Professor Richter was named a Thomas P. Hester Presidential Professor for her excellence in scholarship and teaching. In 2015, Professor Richter was named the William J. Alley Professor of Law. She has served the College as the Associate Dean of Admissions, Scholarships and Recruiting and as the Associate Dean of Faculty Scholarship and Enrichment. Professor Richter has been a Visiting Professor at the George Washington University Law School and the Stetson University College of Law. Professor Richter serves on the Evidence Drafting Committee for the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which drafts and reviews the evidence questions for the Multistate Bar Exam. Prior to joining the OU faculty, Professor Richter worked as a commercial litigation associate for the firm of King & Spalding, LLP and clerked for the Honorable Frank Mays Hull on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and for Judge Jack T. Camp in the Northern District of Georgia. Professor Richter graduated first in her class from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 1995, where she served as the Notes and Comments Editor for the Florida Law Review and was selected for Order of the Coif.

Professor Valena Beety is a law professor, an innocence litigator, and a former federal prosecutor. She served as the Founding Director of the West Virginia Innocence Project, at West Virginia University College of Law, and the Deputy Director of the Academy for Justice, at Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and Founding Board Member of the Indiana Innocence Project. She has successfully exonerated wrongfully convicted clients, obtained presidential grants of clemency for drug offenses, served as an elected board member of the national Innocence Network, and served as an Appointed Commissioner on the West Virginia Governor’s Indigent Defense Commission. Professor Beety has earned awards for her scholarship, teaching, and service. She was awarded the Indiana University Trustees’ Teaching Award (2025), the West Virginia University College of Law Significant Scholarship Award (2016), the West Virginia Law Review Faculty Member of the Year Award (2016), and the West Virginia Public Defender Services John A. “Jack” Rogers Award for Outstanding Leadership in Public Service, awarded to West Virginia Innocence Project (2019). She has worked on multiple grants funded by the National Institute of Justice, the National Science Foundation, and the American Arbitration Association.