Samuel R. Gross

Samuel R. Gross is an American lawyer and the Thomas and Mabel Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. Gross is best known for his work in false convictions and exonerations, notably the Larry Griffin death penalty case.

Gross is the editor of the National Registry of Exonerations project.^[1]

Samuel Gross lead a team of experts in the law and in statistics that estimated the likely number unjust convictions of prisoners on death row. The study determined that at least 4% of people on death row were and are innocent. The research was peer reviewed and the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published it, Gross has no doubt some innocent people have been executed.^[2]

Background

Before coming to Michigan Law, Gross served as an attorney for the United Farm Workers Union in California and the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Committee in Nebraska and South Dakota. He came to Michigan Law from the faculty at Stanford Law School and was previously a visiting professor at Yale Law School. He graduated from Columbia College in 1968 and earned a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973. Gross argued Lockhart v. McCree before the United States Supreme Court.

References

External links

• Official profile from the University of Michigan Law School
• The Griffin Report
• Exonerations in the United States, 1989 through 2003.
• Eckholm, Eric (February 24, 1995). Studies Find Death Penalty Tied to Race Of the Victims. New York Times
• Liptak, Adam (April 19, 2004). Study Suspects Thousands of False Convictions. New York Times