Sarah Buel

Sarah Buel, Director of the Diane Halle Center for Family Justice at the College of Law, recently published an article entitled, “Putting Forfeiture to Work,” in the UC Davis Law Review.

Buel argues that there is a substantial lack of enforcement of witness tampering laws that are meant to protect witnesses from intimidation, bribery, threats and other types of coercion. To combat this, Buel argues for more robust use of forfeiture doctrine. Essentially, the forfeiture doctrine applies when a defendant coerces or threatens a witness to prevent their testimony, and thereby forfeits the right to object to the admission of the witness’ hearsay statements during the trial.

To read the entire article, click here.

Buel, who NBC has called one of the five most inspiring women in America, has worked for more than 30 years with battered women and children. She graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she founded the Harvard Battered Women’s Advocacy Project, the Harvard Women in Prison Project, and the Harvard Children and Family Rights Project. She was a prosecutor for six years in Boston and Quincy, Mass., and for 14 years was a clinical professor at the University of Texas School of Law, where she founded and co-directed their Domestic Violence Clinic, co-founded the University of Texas Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, and served as special counsel for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association.