Faculty

Ronald Wright

Executive Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Professor of Law

Phone: 336.758.5727
Email: wrightrf@wfu.edu

Presentations 

  • "Social Norms among Prosecutors," presentation for faculty colloquium at Washington University School of Law; February 2008, in St. Louis, Missouri.
  • "Dead Wrong," presentation at the symposium "Beyond Innocence," University of Utah, Quinney School of Law; November 2007, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
  • "Criminal Justice Metrics for the People," The Hoffinger Colloquium Lecture at the New York University School of Law; September 2007, in New York City.
  • "Charge Movement and Theories of Prosecutors," presentation at the symposium on "Plea Bargaining and Dispute Resolution," Marquette University School of Law; April 2007, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
  • "Prosecutor Responses to Racial Disparities in Policing," presentation to a faculty colloquium at the University of Georgia School of Law; February 2007, in Athens, Georgia.
  • "Systematic Content Analysis of Judicial Opinions," presentation to a faculty colloquium at the Florida State University School of Law; October 2006, in Tallahassee, Florida.
  • "The Black Box of Prosecutorial Discretion," presentation at the Empirical Legal Studies Conference; October 2006, at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas.
  • "Delivering the Ideas," presentation to the AALS New Law Teachers' Conference; June 2006, in Washington, D.C. (presented same address in June 2003 and June 2005).
  • "The Black Box," presentation at the Faculty Colloquium of the University of Alabama School of Law; 13 March, 2006, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; presentation for the Faculty Colloquium of the Florida State University School of Law, 11 April, 2006, in Tallahassee, Florida.
  • "The Power of Bureaucracy after Blakely and Booker," presentation at the Symposium on Sentencing After Booker, sponsored by the University of Houston School of Law; 18 November, 2005, in Houston, Texas.
  • "The Rhetoric of the Incremental and the Incendiary after Booker and Blakely," presentation at the Symposium on Sentencing Rhetoric after Booker, sponsored by the Roger Williams University School of Law; 22 October, 2005, in Bristol, Rhode Island.
  • "Review of the Constitutional Background for the Sykes Investigation," presentation to the Sykes Administrative Review Committee of the City of Winston-Salem; 20 October, 2005.
  • "Reasons as Law for the 'Lawless' Prosecutor," presentation to the law faculty at the University of Iowa; 13 October, 2005, in Iowa City, Iowa.
  • "Trial Distortion and the End of Innocence in Federal Criminal Justice," presentation for the Fall Authors' Luncheon of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review; 7 October, 2005, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
  • "Blakely and the Role of Certainty in Crime Politics," presentation at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools; 20 July, 2005, in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
  • "Sentencing Commissions as Provocateurs of Prosecutorial Self-Regulation," presentation and panel discussion at Columbia Law School; 14 January, 2005, in New York City.
  • "Smoother Plea Negotiations After Blakely," presentation and panel discussion at the National Roundtable on Sentencing at Stanford Law School; 9 October, 2004; Palo Alto, California.
  • "Go Slow: A Recommendation for Responding to Blakely v. Washington in the Federal System," written testimony submitted to the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Senate; 12 July, 2004 (with Berman, Miller, and Demleitner).
  • "Crime Politics and Crime Budgets: A National and Historical Perspective on North Carolina's Current Dilemma," presentation to the North Carolina Symposium on Sentencing and Public Safety; 13 April, 2004; Durham, North Carolina.
  • "Plausible Sentencing Reforms, Here and Now, From the State Vantage Point," testimony to the Justice Kennedy Commission of the American Bar Association; 13 November, 2003; Washington, D.C.
  • "Delivering the Ideas," presentation to the AALS New Law Teachers' Conference, June 2003; Washington, D.C.
  • "Researching Prosecution from the Inside Out," presentation to the American Prosecutors Research Institute, May 2003; Washington, D.C.
  • "Resource Parity for Defense Counsel," presentation to the Criminal Procedure Discussion Forum, at Washington and Lee University School of Law, May 2003; Lexington, Virginia.
  • "The Screening Bargaining Tradeoff," presentation to Stanford Law School, February 2003; Palo Alto, California.  Also presented at Tulane Law School, April 2003; New Orleans, Louisiana.
  • "The Supreme Court's Fire and Ice in Criminal Justice," Washington and Lee University School of Law, March 2002; Lexington, Virginia.
  • "The Sentencing Judge as Immigration Judge," Emory University School of Law, Thrower Symposium, February 2002; Atlanta, Georgia (with Margaret Taylor).  Also presented to the Carolina Seminar on Law and Public Policy, October 2002; Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
  • "Is the Drug War De-Escalating? Where to Look and Where Not to Look for Evidence," Association of American Law Schools, Section on Criminal Justice, January 2002; New Orleans, Louisiana.
  • "The House Side of Federal Sentencing in 1984," presentation to the Sentencing Workshop for Federal Defenders and CJA Panel Attorneys, sponsored by the Federal Judicial Center; March 12, 2001, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
  • "Trial Rates, Sentencing Departures, Chickens and Eggs," presentation to the Sentencing Workshop for Federal Defenders and CJA Panel Attorneys, sponsored by the Federal Judicial Center; February 28, 2000.
  • "Kenneth Starr as an Ordinary Prosecutor," presentation to the North Carolina Civil Liberties Union, Greensboro chapter; October 12, 1998.
  • "A New Legislative History of the 1984 Sentencing Reform Act," presentation to the Federal Public Defenders of the Ninth Circuit; September 13, 1998; Las Vegas, Nevada.
  • "Georgia's Sentencing Options for 1997-98 and Beyond," Georgia Senate Sentencing Commission; June 18, 1997; Atlanta, Georgia.
  • "In Favor of the Proposed Victim's Rights Amendment to the North Carolina Constitution," debate sponsored by the Committee on Constitutional Integrity; Wake Forest University; October 24, 1996.
  • Expert Panelist, "On Line Hearing" of the U.S. Sentencing Commission; October 1996.
  • "Population Management and Three Phases in the Life of a Sentencing Commission," National Association of State Correctional Administrators; San Diego, California; November 19, 1995.
  • Panel Participant, Fourth and Sixth Circuit Departures from the Federal Sentencing Guidelines; Federal Judicial Center, Sentencing Institute for the Fourth and Sixth Circuits; September 10, 1993; Durham, North Carolina.
  • Testimony before the North Carolina House Judiciary III Committee, regarding sentencing guidelines legislation; March 11, 1993.
  • Panel Participant, Judicial Departures from the Federal Sentencing Guidelines; Federal Judicial Center, Sentencing Institute for the Third, Seventh, and D.C. Circuits; October 30, 1992; Tallahassee, Florida.
  • "Challenges to Guideline Sentences Based on Administrative Law Concepts," ABA Second National Institute on Federal Sentencing Guidelines; San Francisco, CA; September 25, 1992.
  • Vital Records, Health Statistics, and the Review of Maternal and Infant Mortality; Annual Meeting, Association for Vital Records and Health Statistics; June 26, 1990; Traverse City, Michigan.