January 6, 2005

Appointment: Leigh Bienen joins capital punishment study team

Leigh Bienen teaches criminal law, law and literature, and persuasion.

Leigh Buchanan Bienen, senior lecturer at the School of Law, has been appointed to the Illinois Capital Punishment Reform Study Committee.

The appointment was made by Emil Jones, president of the Illinois Senate, who appoints three of the 16 members of the committee.

The committee is charged with the responsibility of studying the impact of various reforms to the capital punishment system that were enacted by the 93rd General Assembly of Illinois.

Bienen and committee members will hold periodic hearings to receive public testimony on the manner in which reforms have impacted the capital punishment system and will issue a report to the General Assembly.

Bienen teaches in the areas of criminal law, law and literature, and persuasion. As a public defender in New Jersey, she represented clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts and before numerous official boards and tribunals. Previous to coming to Northwestern, she taught law at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, the University of California (Berkeley) Boalt Hall School of Law, and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. She is a member of the bar in Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Supreme Court.