The Oprah Interview as a Truth Commission

LESLEY WEXLER

Illinois Law professor Lesley Wexler explains how Oprah’s interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle might illuminate how a formal truth commission to deal with legacies of racism and colonialism might function in the British empire. Professor Wexler describes the purpose and function of state-operated truth commissions and notes the similarities and differences between those and the interview.

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United States v. O'farrill-Lopez

Docket: 19-1081

Opinion Date: March 12, 2021

Judge: Selya

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The First Circuit dismissed this appeal of the district court's order sentencing Defendant to a seventy-eight-month term of immurement to be followed by five years of supervised release, holding that the court did not err by denying Defendant's request that the incarcerative portion of the sentence be ordered to run concurrently with any period of incarceration that might thereafter be imposed by the Puerto Rico courts in consequence of Defendant's violation of probation. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Defendant pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. The agreement contained a waiver-of-appeal provision stipulating that, if the imprisonment sentence imposed was seventy-eight months, Defendant waived the right to appeal any aspect of the court's judgment and sentence. After Defendant was sentenced he challenged the district court's failure to run his sentence concurrently with any sentence that any Puerto Rico court might impose for the probation violation. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that there was no miscarriage of justice granting Defendant an exception to the enforcement of his appeal waiver.