Forum: Criminal Justice Reform and Idaho

Criminal justice reform recently attracted significant attention at the federal level with passage and signing of the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person (First Step) Act. The FIRST STEP Act marks the culmination of a ten year bipartisan, bicameral push for reform. Some argue that this represents the most substantive federal justice reform in at least a generation.

Since 2007, more than 30 states have passed reform measures. Learn what steps are being taken in Idaho, which groups are involved, details of legislative debates, and more…

Speaker Biographies

Representative Melissa Wintrow is serving in her third term as a State Representative for Boise's District 19.  She places high value on learning, compassion, fairness, and community. She has worked at 6 different universities in the past 27 years, and most recently at Boise State University for 15 years. She was hired at Boise State in 2000 as the first full-time Women's Center Director where she created advocacy programs for survivors of sexual assault. She has extended that work in the legislature and pass several pieces of legislation to create standards for processing, tracking and preserving sexual assault evidence to better serve survivors and support law enforcement. She continues to teach as an adjunct professor at Boise State in gender studies and leadership development.

Idaho Senator Todd Lakey earned his bachelor’s degree in International Business from Brigham Young University and his Juris Doctorate from Lewis and Clark Northwestern School of Law.  He served as a deputy prosecuting attorney for Canyon County from 1993 to 1999 and a Canyon County Commissioner from 1999 to 2004.  He previously served on the Magistrate’s Commission for the Third Judicial District and the Idaho Capital Crimes Defense Fund board.  Mr. Lakey retired in 2017 after twenty years of service as an officer in the United States Army Reserves Judge Advocate General Corps. He is a partner in the Law Firm of Borton-Lakey Law and Policy.  Mr. Lakey is serving his fourth term in the Idaho Senate and represents District 12.  He previously served as the Majority Caucus Chairman and now serves as the Chairman of the Judiciary and Rules Committee.  
 

Professor Aliza Plener Cover is an Associate Professor at the University of Idaho College of Law. She teaches primarily in the areas of criminal law, constitutional criminal procedure, and the death penalty.  Her scholarship focuses on public participation in the criminal justice system and the role of society’s “evolving standards of decency” in the Supreme Court’s death penalty jurisprudence.  Professor Cover’s most recent scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in the Yale Law Journal Forum, the George Washington Law Review, the Indiana Law Journal, the Washington Law Review, and the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.    
Professor Cover received her law degree from the Yale Law School, where she served as the Public Editor of the Yale Law Journal, a student director of the Immigration Legal Services Clinic, and a co-chair of the Rebellious Lawyering Conference.  After graduating, Professor Cover clerked for the late Judge Stephen Reinhardt on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  She then worked at the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center in New Orleans on behalf of indigent defendants facing the death penalty.  Before moving to Idaho, Cover was a Westerfield Fellow at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

Join us Friday, March 1st at 11:45 at the Grove Hotel for this engaging topic! 

Speakers: Idaho Representative Melissa Wintrow, Idaho Senator Todd Lakey, and Idaho College of Law Professor Aliza Cover

Forum Chair: Katherine Himes

Forum Moderator:Katherine Himes

Registration deadline - Monday, February 25th at 3:00 pm.

City Club thanks our Premier Sponsor, Northwest Nazarene University and the NNU School of Business and our Annual sponsor, Idaho Humanities Council. The 2019 Forum Series is sponsored by the contributions made by AARP of Idaho, Echelon Group, Micron, and St. Luke's Health Systems. We are pleased to welcome university students to attend our events thanks to our University partners Boise State University, Northwest Nazarene University, and University of Idaho. Our media partners include Boise State Public Radio, 670 KBOI, Idaho Statesman, and Peppershock Media.

If you have any questions, call 208-364-4614 and staff can assist you.