Assistant Professor of Law
Education
- B.A., University of California at Berkeley
- J.D., Harvard University
Robert ("Rob") Smith is an assistant professor of law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he teaches and writes about criminal law and evidence. Smith previously served as the legal and policy advisor to Harvard Law School's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice (CHHIRJ), where he was responsible for the Institute's litigation efforts. Before joining the CHHIRJ, Smith represented death-sentenced inmates as a staff attorney at the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project. He continues to coordinate Gideon, a private online resource for indigent defense offices funded by the CHHIRJ.
At Carolina, Smith has initiated a funded pilot project (the Carolina Criminal Justice Reform Project), which gives Carolina students the opportunity to engage in integrated advocacy efforts with lawyers and organizers from offices across the country. Next Spring, he will teach a course called the Criminal Law Lawyering Lab, which will provide a space for students and practitioners to work together to brainstorm solutions to difficult legal issues. Smith's scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the New York University Law Review, Boston University Law Review, Washington Law Review (twice), among other journals, and in the online editions of the Michigan Law Review, Northwestern Law Review, and Harvard Law and Policy Review. His co-edited book, Implicit Bias Across the Law, was published in 2012 by Cambridge University Press.
Selected Publications
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IMPLICIT RACIAL BIAS ACROSS THE LAW (Justin D. Levinson and Robert J. Smith eds.) (Cambridge University Press 2012). [SSRN KF384 .I48 2012]
- Recalibrating Constitutional Innocence Protection, 87 WASH. L. REV. 139 (2012). [Westlaw, Lexis/Nexis, SSRN, Hein, BEPress]
- The Geography of the Death Penalty and its Ramifications, 92 B.U. L. REV. 227 (2012). [Lexis/Nexis, SSRN, Hein, BEPress]
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Redemption Song: Graham v. Florida and the Evolving Eighth Amendment Jurisprudence (with G. Ben Cohen), 108 MICHIGAN l. REV. FIRST IMPRESSIONS 86 (2010). [Westlaw, Lexis/Nexis, SSRN, BEPress]
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The Racial Geography of the Federal Death Penalty (with G. Ben Cohen), 85 WASH. L. REV. 425 (2010). [Westlaw, Lexis/Nexis, SSRN, Hein, BEPress]