Vanderbilt University Law School

Nancy J. King

Lee S. and Charles A. Speir Professor of Law

Voice: (615) 343-9836
Fax: (615) 322-6631
Email: nancy.king@vanderbilt.edu
Office: Room 248
View curriculum vitae (.pdf)

Research Interest(s)

Post-investigation criminal procedure, plea bargaining, trials, sentencing, appeals, habeas corpus, juries

Education

J.D. University of Michigan
B.A. Oberlin College

Biography

Nancy J. King is an expert in the field of criminal procedure. She has authored or co-authored two leading treatises on criminal procedure and the leading criminal procedure casebook, as well as dozens of articles and book chapters. A frequent contributor to conferences on jury research and sentencing, her work focuses on the post-investigative features of the criminal process, including plea bargaining, trials, evidence, sentencing, double jeopardy and post-conviction review. Professor King is special reporter to the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, having previously served for six years as a committee member. She has been a visiting professor at the Michigan Law School and a visiting scholar at Northwestern University Law School. She served as the law school's Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development from 1999 through fall 2001, and was the FedEx Research Professor in 2001-02. She was appointed to the Speir Chair in 2003. In 2005, she received the Chancellor's Award for Research at Vanderbilt for her research on jury sentencing, "Jury Sentencing in Practice—a Three-State Study" (with Rosevelt Noble, published in 57 Vanderbilt Law Review 885, 2004). She recently led a national study of habeas litigation in U.S. District Courts with an award from the National Institute of Justice.

Representative Publications

Books

Modern Criminal Procedure (forthcoming 12th ed. 2008 & Supp.) (with Yale Kamisar, Wayne LaFave, Jerold Israel & Orin Kerr). Text also published annually in two paperback volumes: Basic Criminal Procedure and Advanced Criminal Procedure
Criminal Procedure (Thomson-West, 3d ed. 2007) (seven-volume treatise covering state and federal criminal procedure) (with Wayne LaFave, Jerold Israel & Orin Kerr)
Habeas Litigation in U.S. District Courts: Final Report (monograph supported by Award No. 2006-IJ-CX-0020, National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice) (August 2007) (with Fred Cheesman & Brian Ostrom)
Federal Practice and Procedure, Criminal (seven volumes, 3d ed. 2003) (edited with Charles Wright & Susan Klein)

Articles

"Rethinking the Federal Role in State Criminal Justice," N.Y.U. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2009) (with J. Hoffmann)
"Appeal Waivers and the Future of Sentencing Policy," 55 Duke Law Journal 209 (2005) (with Michael O'Neill)
"Jury Sentencing in Non-Capital Cases: Comparing Severity and Variance with Judicial Sentences in Two States," 2 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 331 (2005) (with Rosevelt Noble)
"The Story of Duncan v. Louisiana," in Criminal Procedure Law Stories (Carol Steiker ed., 2005), reprinted in Issues on Trial: Rights of the Accused (2007)
"Apprendi and Plea Bargaining," 54 Stanford Law Review 295 (2001) (with Susan Klein) (cited in Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004))
"Essential Elements," 54:4 Vanderbilt Law Review 1467 (2001) (with Susan R Klein)
"The American Criminal Jury," 62 Law & Contemporary Problems 41 (1999), reprinted in World Jury Systems (Neil Vidmar, ed. 2000) and in The Jury System: Contemporary Scholarship (V. Hans, ed. 2006) *

Working Papers

"Habeas Corpus and State Sentencing Reform: A Story of Unintended Consequences," __ Duke Law Journal __ (forthcoming 2008) (with Suzanna Sherry)

Presentations

"Habeas Exposed: Preliminary Findings of the First Study of Habeas Litigation after AEDPA," Hoffinger Criminal Justice Lecture, New York University (April 2007)
"Habeas Litigation in U.S. District Courts after AEDPA,” presented at the Conference on Empirical Legal Studies (Nov. 2007)
"Sentencing," presented at Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference (May 2007)

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