The most logical thing to do after stumbling upon a mutilated body and a murder scene is to call the police--no one would just walk away. Your common sense also reassures you that with such a heinous crime, the police department’s homicide unit will conduct an investigation with the utmost care, find the killer at all costs, and convict them to life in prison. That is, after all, what the law was written to do.

But what if every single reasonable assumption you just made was actually off the mark? (Watch my video below if you’re curious and want to find out.)

This is the topic of my research: how people get away with murder (and other violent crimes). Working with two other students, Catherine Lewis '22 and Jeffrey Seaman '23 (check out his poster, too!), and Penn Law Professor Paul H. Robinson, one of the world’s leading criminal law scholars, our team delved into the American criminal justice system to examine all the obstacles that prevent the prosecution of serious criminals, why these obstacles exist, and how we may gradually reform them.