Melanie D. Wilson
Subjects: Art of Advocacy, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence
Phone: 785-864-0359
E-mail:mdwilson@ku.edu
Office: 505 Green Hall
Profile
Melanie Wilson's scholarship views the world of criminal procedure from the perspective of a former prosecutor and seeks to reconcile the desire of participants in the criminal justice system (particularly prosecutors, judges and police officers) to act ethically and professionally with the sometimes competing imperative that guilty defendants be swiftly and successfully prosecuted, convicted and sentenced proportionally. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, where she served on the Law Review. Before turning to law teaching, Wilson served as an assistant United States attorney in the Northern District of Georgia and, prior to that, in the Middle District of Georgia. She also served as law clerk to Richard Freeman, United States District Court Judge, Northern District of Georgia. She joined the KU Law faculty in 2007.
In 2011, Wilson sat on an expert panel at William & Mary Law School discussing U.S. v. Jones, a Supreme Court case focusing on whether the government may attach a GPS to a car without a warrant and whether receiving information from the device is a search. As part of the U.S. Courts Landmarks series, Wilson spoke about the important Fourth Amendment case Mapp v. Ohio (1961).
Representative Publications
"Criminal Procedure" (7th ed.), with Joseph G. Cook and Paul Marcus (LexisNexis 2009); "Improbable Cause: A Case for Judging Police by a More Majestic Standard," 15 Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law 259 (2010); "'You Crossed the Fog Line!' Kansas, Pretext, and the Fourth Amendment," 58 Kansas Law Review 1179 (2010); "An Exclusionary Rule for Police Lies," 47 American Criminal Law Review 1 (2010); "The Return of Reasonableness: Saving the Fourth Amendment from the Supreme Court," 59 Case Western Reserve Law Review 1 (2008); "Prosecutors 'Doing Justice' Through Osmosis: Reminders to Encourage a Culture of Cooperation," 45 American Criminal Law Review 67 (2008); "The Price of Pretrial Release: Can We Afford to Keep Our Fourth Amendment Rights?," 92 Iowa Law Review 159 (2006).
Curriculum vitae with complete publications list
SSRN page
Research Interests
Federal criminal procedure, Fourth Amendment, prosecutorial ethics.
Education
J.D., A.B.J., University of Georgia, 1990, 1987.
Admitted
Georgia 1990;
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals;
Northern, Middle and Southern federal district courts in Georgia
Career History
Clerk, Judge Richard C. Freeman (deceased), United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia, 1992-1993; Associate, Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan, 1993-1995; Adjunct Professor, Emory Law School, 1993-1999; Assistant Attorney General, State of Georgia, 1995-1999; Assistant United States Attorney, Middle District of Georgia, 1999-2001, Northern District of Georgia, 2001-2005; Associate Professor, John Marshall Law School, 2005-2007; Associate Professor, Kansas, July 2007 to present.
Member
Order of the Coif.