Jonathan Abel

Bio

Abel’s scholarly research focuses on informational asymmetries in the criminal justice system and the structural injustices these asymmetries produce. His research on police misconduct records and their availability to criminal defendants has been widely cited in scholarly journals, newspapers, and court cases. Abel has also written about the unexpected role police officers play in plea bargaining, the discriminatory use of peremptory challenges, and the retroactive sealing of public records, among other topics. His articles have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, and Stanford Law Review.

Prior to becoming a law professor, Abel worked as a criminal defense lawyer doing capital habeas corpus litigation and direct appeals. He has served as an attorney at the Habeas Corpus Resource Center, the Northern California Federal Defender’s Office, and the Arizona Federal Defender’s Office. Before law school, he worked as a newspaper reporter at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida.

Education

• Stanford Law School
  J.D. 2012

• Harvard University
  A.B., Magna Cum Laude 2005

Selected Scholarship

• Cop Tracing
  107 Cornell L. Rev. 927 2022

• Cop-“Like”: The First Amendment, Criminal Procedure, and Police Social Media Speech
  74 Stan. L. Rev. 1199 2022

• Batson’s Appellate Appeal and Trial Tribulations
  Jonathan Abel, 118 COLUM. L. REV. 713 2018

• Cops and Pleas: Police Officers’ Influence on Plea Bargaining
  Jonathan Abel, 126 YALE L.J. 1730 2017

• Brady’s Blind Spot: Impeachment Evidence in Police Personnel Files and the Battle Splitting the Prosecution Team
  Jonathan Abel, 67 STAN. L. REV. 743 2015

• Do You Have To Keep the Government’s Secrets?: Retroactively Classified Documents, the First Amendment, and the Power To Make Secrets Out of the Public Record
  Jonathan Abel, 163 U. PA. L. REV. 1037 2015

• Do You Have to Keep the Government’s Secrets? Retroactively Classified Documents, the First Amendment, and the Power to Make Secrets Out of the Public Record
  163 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1037 2015

• Ineffective Assistance of Library: The Failings and the Future of Prison Law Libraries
  101 Geo. L.J. 1171 2013