Jenia Iontcheva Turner
Amy Abboud Ware Centennial Professor in Criminal Law
Full-time faculty
Jenia Iontcheva Turner is the Amy Abboud Ware Centennial Professor in Criminal Law at SMU Dedman School of Law, where she teaches criminal procedure, comparative criminal procedure, international criminal law, and international law. Before joining SMU, Professor Turner served as a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, where she taught legal research and writing and comparative criminal procedure. Professor Turner attended law school at Yale, where she was a Coker Fellow and articles editor for the Yale Law Journal and the Yale Journal of International Law. After her first year of law school, she was a summer clerk at the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the following summer, she worked at the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Houston and the New York and Paris offices of Debevoise & Plimpton.
Professor Turner’s scholarship interests include U.S., comparative, and international criminal law and procedure, and she has written numerous articles and book chapters on these topics. In 2009, Professor Turner completed a textbook, Plea Bargaining Across Borders, exploring plea bargaining in several national and international jurisdictions. She is also the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Criminal Process (with Darryl K. Brown and Bettina Weisser, 2019) and Criminal Procedures: Cases, Statutes, and Executive Materials (with Marc L. Miller, Ronald F. Wright, and Kay L. Levine, 2019, 2023).
Professor Turner is an Associate Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law and an Editorial Board Member of the Criminal Law Forum. She served as the Treasurer and then Co-Chair of the International Criminal Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law in 2016-19.
Area of expertise
- Criminal Procedure
- Comparative Criminal Procedure
- International Criminal Law
- International Law
Education
B. A., Goucher College
Caplan Scholar 1997-98,
Cambridge University
J.D., Yale Law School
Courses
Constitutional Criminal Procedure
Criminal Procedure in the Digital Age
Comparative Law II: Criminal Procedure
International Crimes
International Law
Books
OXFORD HANDBOOK OF CRIMINAL PROCESS (with Darryl K. Brown & Bettina Weisser co-eds. 2019)
CRIMINAL PROCEDURES: CASES, STATUTES, AND EXECUTIVE MATERIALS (with Marc L. Miller, Ronald F. Wright, & Kay L. Levine co-eds. 2023) (with Teacher's Manual)
PLEA BARGAINING ACROSS BORDERS (Aspen 2009) (with Teacher's Manual)
Articles
Neglected Discovery, 73 Duke Law Journal (2024) (with Michael Braun & Ronald F. Wright)
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Sentencing in an Era of Plea Bargains, 102 North Carolina Law Review (2023) (with Jeff Bellin)
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Criminal Procedure in the Digital Age: A U.S. Perspective, 135 Zeitschrift für die gesamte Strafrechtswissenschaft 637 (2023)
Victims as a Check on Prosecutors: A Comparative Assessment, 13 California Law Review Online 72 (2022)
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Virtual Guilty Pleas, 24 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 211 (2022)
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Remote Criminal Justice, 53 Texas Tech Law Review 197 (2021)
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Transparency in Plea Bargaining, 96 Notre Dame Law Review 973 (2021)
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Managing Digital Discovery in Criminal Cases, 109 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 237 (2019)
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Plea Bargaining and International Criminal Justice, 48 University of the Pacific Law Review 219 (2017)
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Two Models of Pre-Plea Discovery in Criminal Cases: An Empirical Comparison, 73 Washington & Lee Law Review 285 (2016) (with Allison Redlich)
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Plea Bargaining and Disclosure in Germany and the United States: Comparative Lessons, 57 William & Mary Law Review 1549 (2016)
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Evidence Laundering in a Post-Herring World, 106 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 627 (2016) (with Kay L. Levine and Ronald F. Wright)
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The Exclusionary Rule as a Symbol of the Rule of Law, 67 SMU Law Review 821 (2014)
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Interstate Conflict and Cooperation in Criminal Cases: An American Perspective, 4 European Criminal Law Review 114 (2014) (peer reviewed)
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The Constitutionality of Negotiated Criminal Judgments in Germany, 15 German Law Journal 81 (2014) (with Thomas Weigend) (peer reviewed)
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Effective Remedies for Ineffective Assistance of Counsel, 48 Wake Forest Law Review 949 (2013)
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Policing International Prosecutors, 45 NYU Journal of International Law & Policy 175 (2013)
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The Expressive Dimension of EU Criminal Law, 60 American Journal of Comparative Law 555 (2012) (peer review), republished as NYU Jean Monnet Working Paper No. 14/12
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Legal Ethics in International Criminal Defense, 10 Chicago Journal of International Law 685 (2010)
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Decision on Civil Party Participation in Provisional Detention Appeals. Case No. 002/19-09-2007-ECCC/OCIJ (PTC01), 103 American Journal of International Law 116 (2009) (peer reviewed)
American Journal of International Law | SMU Repository
Defense Perspectives on Law and Politics in International Criminal Trials, 48 Virginia Journal of International Law 529 (2008)
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Transnational Networks and International Criminal Justice, 105 Michigan Law Review 985 (2007)
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Judicial Participation in Plea Negotiations: A Comparative View, 54 American Journal of Comparative Law 199 (2006) (peer reviewed)
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Nationalizing International Criminal Law, 41 Stanford Journal of International Law 1 (2005)
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Implementing Blakely, 17 Federal Sentencing Reporter 106 (2004)
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Jury Sentencing as Democratic Practice, 89 Virginia Law Review 311 (2003)
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Book chapters
Fair Trial or Efficient Administration of Justice? Trends in Modern Criminal Procedure, in ZUKUNFTSPERSPEKTIVEN DES STRAFRECHTS [THE FUTURE OF CRIMINAL LAW] (Elisa Hoven & Michael Kubiciel eds. 2020)
Negotiated Case Dispositions in Germany, England, and the United States, in 1 CORE CONCEPTS IN CRIMINAL LAW AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE (Cambridge University Press 2020) (with Thomas Weigend)
Defense Perspectives on Fairness and Efficiency at the International Criminal Court, in OXFORD HANDBOOK ON INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW (Kevin Jon Heller et al. eds. 2020)
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Pluralism in International Criminal Procedure, in OXFORD HANDBOOK OF CRIMINAL PROCESS (Darryl K. Brown et al. eds. 2019)
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Regulating Interrogations and Excluding Confessions in the United States: Balancing Individual Rights and the Search for Truth, in DO EXCLUSIONARY RULES ENSURE A FAIR TRIAL? A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON EVIDENTIARY RULES (Sabine Gless and Thomas Richter eds. 2019)
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The Purposes and Functions of Exclusionary Rules: A Comparative Overview, in DO EXCLUSIONARY RULES ENSURE A FAIR TRIAL? A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON EVIDENTIARY RULES (Sabine Gless and Thomas Richter eds. 2019) (with Thomas Weigend)
Plea Bargaining, in 3 REFORMING CRIMINAL JUSTICE: TRIAL AND PRE-TRIAL PROCESSES (Erik Luna ed. 2017)
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Accountability of International Prosecutors, in LAW AND PRACTICE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (Oxford University Press 2015)
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Limits on the Search for Truth in Criminal Procedure: A Comparative View, in COMPARATIVE CRIMINAL PROCEDURE (Jacqueline Ross & Stephen Thaman eds. 2014)
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Plea Bargaining, in INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL PROCEDURE (Fausto Pocar & Linda Carter eds. 2013)
Negotiated Justice, in INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL PROCEDURE: PRINCIPLES AND RULES (Göran Sluiter et al. eds. 2013) (with Thomas Weigend)
Prosecutors and Bargaining in Weak Cases: A Comparative View, in THE PROSECUTOR IN TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE (Erik Luna & Marianne Wade eds. 2012)
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Justice, Rule of Law, and Economic Reconstruction in Post-Conflict States, in Liber Amicorum for Hon. Roberto MacLean (Joseph Norton & C. Paul Rogers eds. 2008)
Transnational Networks and International Public Order, in PROGRESS IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (Russell Miller & Rebecca Bratspies eds. 2008)
Other publications
Reply to Miriam Baer and Michael Doucette’s Reviews of Two Models of Pre-Plea Discovery in Criminal Cases, 73 Washington and Lee Law Review Online 471 (2016) (with Allison Redlich)
SMU Repository
The Exclusionary Rule as a Symbol of the Rule of Law, 6 Search & Seizure Law Report 49 (2016) (adapted version of 67 SMU Law Review 821 (2014))
Foreword, The 2014 SMU Criminal Justice Colloquium, 67 SMU Law Review 489 (2014) (with Meghan Ryan)
SMU Repository
Article 65: Proceedings on an Admission of Guilt, in KLAMBERG COMMENTARY ON THE ROME STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
Rule 139: Decision on Admission of Guilt, in KLAMBERG COMMENTARY ON THE RULES OF PROCEDURE AND EVIDENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
121 Political Science Quarterly 526 (2006) (reviewing ROBERT CRYER, PROSECUTING INTERNATIONAL CRIMES (2005)) (Book review)
Sovereignty on Our Terms, 110 Yale Law Journal 885 (2001) (case note)
SMU Repository
26 Yale Journal of International Law 529 (2001) (reviewing William Schabas, GENOCIDE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW (2000)) (Book review)
26 Yale Journal of International Law 265 (2001) (reviewing Paul J. Magnarella, JUSTICE IN AFRICA (2000)) (Book review)
Update of Current Legal Proceedings at the ICTY, 13 Leiden Journal of International Law 597 (2000)
Media
Law360, Interview, Video Hearing Raise Concerns for Criminal Defendants (September 2023)
New York Times, Interview, She Was Convicted of Killing Her Mother: Prosecutors Withheld the Evidence That Would Have Freed Her (August 2017)
The Atlantic, Interview, Why U.S. Criminal Courts Are So Dependent on Plea Bargaining (May 2017)