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Harry M. Caldwell

Professor of Law
Director of Trial Advocacy
Caruso School of Law
Phone310.506.4669
AttachmentCurriculum Vitae

Biography

H. Mitchell Caldwell teaches Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure as well as trial advocacy courses and serves as advisor of the law school's highly successful interschool trial teams. Before joining the Pepperdine faculty, he was a trial prosecutor in Santa Barbara and Riverside counties.

Professor Caldwell routinely represents condemned prisoners in the appeals of their death sentences before both the California Supreme Court and US Supreme Court. He has written extensively in the area of criminal procedure, trial advocacy, and the death penalty and is the co-author of Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury (1998), And the Walls Came Tumbling Down (2004) and The Devil's Advocates (Fall 2006). This popular series of books celebrates significant jury trials and the lawyers who tried the cases. Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury was selected by the Los Angeles Times as a best non-fiction selection. Caldwell also co-authored The Art and Science of Trial Advocacy, and Case Files for Basic Trial Advocacy, Criminal Pretrial Advocacy and Mock Trials, all for use at the law school level.

Professor Caldwell has received several teaching honors including the 2012 Howard A. White Award along with several Luckman teaching awards, and in 2000 received the Richard Jacobson Award as the premier trial advocacy teacher in the nation

Education

  • J.D., Pepperdine University, 1976
  • B.A., California State University, Long Beach, 1972, cum laude

 

Articles

  • Harry M. Caldwell,  Colleen P. Graffy, & Gautam K.Sood, First Twelve in the Box: Implicit Bias Driving the Peremptory Challenge to the Point of Extinction, 102 OREGON L. REV. 355 (2024) SSRN HeinOnline
  • Harry M. Caldwell, Gautam Sood, & Marcel F. Sincic, Vega v. Tekoh: A Missed Opportunity to Protect Miranda, 53 STETSON L. REV. 1 (2023) SSRN
  • Harry M. Caldwell, Closing the Deal: Principles of Closing Argument Grounded In Empirical Studies and Lessons of the Masters, 45 AM. J. TRIAL ADVOC. 1 (2021) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell & Tiffany Williams Brewer, No Girl Left Behind: Girls Courts as a Restorative Justice Approach to Healing, 52 SETON HALL L. REV.  685 (2022) SSRNHeinOnline
  • Harry M. Caldwell & Allison Mather, "Do to Others What You Would [Not] Have Them Do to You": California Is an Outlier in Sanctioning Emotional Appeals in Deciding between Life and Death, 33 REGENT U. L. REV. 81 (2020) HeinOnline
  • Harry M. Caldwell, The Art and Science of Voir Dire: Empirical Research, Anecdotal Lessons from the Masters, and Illustrations Supporting the Ten Commandments of Voir Dire, 98 OR. L. REV. 577 (2020) SSRN
  • Harry M. Caldwell & Deanne S. Elliot, Hit the Ground Running: The Complete Opening Statement Supported by Empirical Research and Illustrations, 24 SUFFOLK J. TRIAL & APP. ADVOC. 171 (2019) SSRNHeinOnline
  • Harry Mitchell Caldwell & Deanne S. Elliot, Avoiding the Wrecking Ball of a Disastrous Cross Examination: Nine Principles for Effective Cross Examinations with Supporting Empirical Evidence, 70 SOUTH CAROLINA L. REV. 119 (2018) SSRNHeinOnline
  • Harry Mitchell Caldwell, The Direct Examination Blueprint: Nine Empirically Supported Principles for Maximum Attention, Comprehension, and Retention, 41 AM. J. TRIAL ADVOC. 141 (2017) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, Everybody Talks About Prosecutorial Conduct But Nobody Does Anything About It: A 25-Year Survey of Prosecutorial Misconduct and a Viable Solution, 2017 U. ILL. L. REV. 1455 (2017) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, Reeling in Gang Prosecution: Seeking a Balance in Gang Prosecution, 18 U. PA. J. L. & SOC. CHANGE 341 (2015) HeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell and Adrienne M. Hewitt, Shades of Guilt: Combating the Continuing Influence upon Jury Selection of Racial Stereotyping in Post-Batson Trials, 38 AM. J. TRIAL ADVOC. 67 (2014) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, The Prosecutor Prince: Misconduct, Accountability and a Modest Proposal, 63 CATHOLIC U. L. REV. 51 (2013) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, Coercive Plea Bargaining: The Unrecognized Scourge of the Justice System, 61 CATH. U. L. REV. 63 (2011) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell & Janelle L. Davis, Timeless Advocacy Lessons from the Masters, 35 AM. J. TRIAL ADVOC. 19 (2011)HeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, Carol A. Chase & Christine Goodman, Unpredictable Doom and Lethal Injustice: An Argument for Greater Transparency in Death Penalty Decisions, 82 TEMP. L. REV. 997 (2009) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell & Jennifer Allison, Counting Victims and Multiplying Counts: Business Robbery, Faux Victims, and Draconian Punishment, 46 IDAHO L. REV. 647 (2010) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell & Thomas W. Brewer, Death Without Due Consideration?: Overcoming Barriers to Mitigation Evidence by "Warming" Capital Jurors to the Accused, 51 HOWARD L. J. 193 (2008) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell & Christopher L. Frost, Pricking Boils and Other Lessons Never Learned on Law & Order: Mitigating and Overcoming Negative Evidence at Trial, 30 AM. J. TRIAL ADVOC. 27 (2007) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell & Carlo Spiga, Crippling the Defense of the Accused: The Constitutionality of the Criminal Defendant's Right to Testify, 6 WYO. L. REV. 87 (2006) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, Fixing the Constable's Blunder: Can One Trial Judge in One County in One State Nudge a Nation Beyond the Exclusionary Rule?, 2006 B.Y.U. L. REV. 1 (2006) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, You Have the Right to Remain Silent, AMERICAN HERITAGE, Aug/Sept 2006
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell & Daryl Fisher-Ogden, Stalking the Jets and the Sharks: Exploring the Constitutionality of the Gang Death Penalty Enhancer, 12 GEO. MASON L. REV. 601 (2004) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, The Prostitution of Lying in Wait, 57 U. MIAMI L. REV. 311 (2003) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, L. Timothy Perrin & Christopher L. Frost, The Art and Architecture of Closing Argument, 76 TUL. L. REV. 961 (2002) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell & Anthony X. McDermott, Did He or Didn't He? The Effect of Dickerson on the Post-Waiver Invocation Equation, 69 U. CIN. L. REV. 863 (2001) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, L. Timothy Perrin, Richard Gabriel & Sharon R. Gross, Primacy, Recency, Ethos, and Pathos: Integrating Principles of Communication into the Direct Examination, 76 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 423 (2001) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell & Anthony X. McDermott, A Life in the Balance: Is There a Right to Plead Guilty Even If It Is to Avoid the Death Penalty?, 104 DICK. L. REV. 409 (2000) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, L. Timothy Perrin, Carol A. Chase & Ronald W. Fagan, If It's Broken, Fix It: Moving Beyond the Exclusionary Rule: A New and Extensive Empirical Study of the Exclusionary Rule and a Call for Civil Administrative Remedy to Partially Replace the Rule, 83 IOWA L. REV. 669 (1999); 26 SEARCH & SEIZURE L. REP. 141 (1999) HeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, L. Timothy Perrin & Carol A. Chase, An Invitation to Dialogue: Exploring the Pepperdine Proposal to Move Beyond the Exclusionary Rule, 26 PEPP. L. REV. 789 (1999) SSRNHeinOnline
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, L. Timothy Perrin & Carol A. Chase, It Is Broken: Breaking the Inertia of the Exclusionary Rule, 26 PEPP. L. REV. 971 (1999) SSRNHeinOnline

Book Reviews

  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, Feige, Indefensible, TRIAL, Feb. 2007 (book review)
  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, Mello, The Wrong Man, TRIAL, Jul. 2001, at 87 (book review)

Reports

  • H. Mitchell Caldwell, Carol A. Chase & Christine Chambers Goodman, Structure and Administration of the Exercise of Discretion by California District Attorneys in Prosecuting Homicides as Death Cases, submitted to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice.

Topics

  • Criminal Law and Procedure
  • Trial Advocacy

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