For more information, please contact:
Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251
ADVISORY TO PRODUCERS, COLUMNISTS, AND ASSIGNMENT, LEGAL, BUSINESS, INTERNATIONAL, POLITICAL, PLANNING, CITY DESK, FEATURES AND DAYBOOK EDITORS
CHICAGO–April 9, 2009–Chicago-Kent College of Law and Stuart School of Business have experts available to discuss current issues. To reach experts on IIT's Downtown Campus, please call Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251. Press releases and earlier advisories are available on our Web site: www.kentlaw.edu/news/advisory.
Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich will be arraigned April 14 on federal corruption charges. A federal grand jury last week issued a 19-count indictment charging Blagojevich, his brother, two former aides and two Illinois businessmen with corruption. The former two-term governor was indicted on 16 felony charges of racketeering, wire fraud, extortion and making false statements to federal agents. If convicted of all charges, Blagojevich could receive maximum penalties of more than $4 million and more than 300 years in prison. Chicago-Kent experts are available for interviews about the indictment and to explain the arraignment process and discuss potential defense and prosecution strategies. Professors and criminal defense attorneys Richard S. Kling and Daniel T. Coyne can discuss the constitutional tension between First Amendment freedom of the press guarantees and a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury and a fair trial. Also available are Professor Douglas Wm. Godfrey, a former prosecutor with the Kings County (New York) District Attorney's Office, and David A. Erickson, a former prosecutor in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. Currently a senior lecturer and director of Chicago-Kent's Program in Criminal Litigation, David Erickson has also served as a felony trial court judge, a supervising judge in the criminal courts and an Illinois Appellate Court judge.
Pirates off the coast of Somalia Wednesday seized the Maersk Alabama. The U.S.-flagged, Danish-owned cargo ship has a crew of 21 Americans and is carrying emergency relief supplies bound for Africa. Published accounts from the Associated Press say the crew was able to regain control of the ship and negotiate their release. However, the Maersk Alabama's captain, Richard Phillips, is being held hostage by the pirates. According to the International Maritime Bureau, since April 1 there have been five confirmed pirate attacks with three vessels hijacked and more than 70 crew members taken hostage. Human rights expert and professor Bartram S. Brown is co-director of Chicago-Kent's Program in International and Comparative Law. Professor Brown is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of directors of Amnesty International USA. He participated in the 1998 Rome Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court as legal adviser to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. In 1999 and 2000, Professor Brown was a public member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. Professor Brown is available for interviews about international piracy.
Downtown Campus Events:
April 15: "Free Speech and Human Dignity." Chicago-Kent professor Steven J. Heyman will discuss his book Free Speech and Human Dignity (Yale University Press 2008). Professor Heyman will address the positions of liberals and progressives who have been sharply divided between strongly advocating free speech and advocating the regulation of speech to protect human dignity and equality. His scholarship seeks to reconcile these opposing views by developing a liberal humanist theory of the First Amendment. Professor Heyman then applies this theory to a wide range of controversies--from hate speech and pornography to anti-abortion demonstrations and picketing at military funerals. This program, sponsored by the Chicago-Kent chapter of the American Constitution Society, will begin at 3 p.m. in room 170. For more information, please contact Julia Ellis at jellis@kentlaw.edu.
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