Dr. Samuel Gross

Biography

Samuel R. Gross is the Thomas and Mabel Long Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. His academic work primarily focuses on criminal procedure, evidence law, wrongful convictions, and issues surrounding racial discrimination in the justice system. He has litigated a series of test cases concerning jury selection in capital trials, addressing significant concerns about racial bias and the use of the death penalty. Gross has authored numerous articles and books, contributing extensively to discussions on expertise areas such as eyewitness identification and pretrial verdict relationships. He is notably a senior editor and co-founder of the National Registry of Exonerations, which launched in 2012 and maintains a detailed online database documenting exonerations in the United States since 1989. Among his impactful publications is a study, co-authored in 2014, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which estimated that over 4 percent of defendants sentenced to death in the United States since 1973 are likely innocent. His teaching roles include being a visiting lecturer at prestigious institutions like Yale Law School and Stanford Law School, where he has lectured on various legal topics including Evidence and Criminal Procedure.

Research Interests