Dorie Klein

Professor of Law | Englehardt Research Fellow

Contact Information

Education

J.D., Vanderbilt University Law School, 2002
M.A. Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 1989
B.A., Swarthmore College, 1988

License to Practice

New York

Specialties and Courses

Criminal law
Evidence
Mental health law
Property
Theories of punishment

Biography

St. Mary’s University School of Law Professor Dorie Klein, J.D., writes and teaches in the areas of evidence, criminal law and mental health law. Her recent scholarship includes several law review articles examining the pitfalls of character evidence, as well as several articles exploring ways to reduce the excessive punitiveness of criminal punishments. In 2022 Carolina Academic Press published the second edition of her casebook, Texas Criminal Law. In addition to teaching core courses in evidence and criminal law, Klein has developed upper-level writing seminars that focus on a variety of specialized subjects, including mental health law, the law of self-defense and the operation of appellate courts.

Prior to joining the St. Mary’s law faculty in 2006, Klein was a visiting assistant professor of law at Florida State University and a judicial clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She received her J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University, where she was an articles editor for the Vanderbilt Law Review. Klein also holds an M.A. degree in clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in biopsychology from Swarthmore College. She worked as a community mental health therapist for several years before attending law school.

Publications

The (Mis)application of Rule 404(b) Heuristics, 72 U. Miami L. Rev. 706 (2018).
Texas Criminal Law: Cases and Materials (Carolina Academic Press, 2017).
Exemplary and Exceptional Confusion Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, 46 Hofstra L. Rev. 641 (2017).
Is Felony Murder the New Depraved Heart Murder? Considering the Appropriate Punishment for Drunken Drivers Who Kill, 67 S.C. L. Rev. 1 (2015).
The Dignity of the Human Person: Catholic Social Teaching and the Practice of Criminal Punishment, 60 Loy. L. Rev. 1 (2014).
The Costs of Delay: Incompetent Criminal Defendants, Involuntary Antipsychotic Medications, and the Question of Who Decides, 16 U. Pa. J.L. & Soc. Change 203 (2013).
When Coercion Lacks Care: Competency to Make Medical Treatment Decisions and Parens Patriae Civil Commitments, 45 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 561 (2012).

Articles in a Periodical

“Rule of Inclusion” Confusion, 58 San Diego L. Rev. 379 (2021)
When Coercion Lacks Care: Competency to Make Medical Treatment Decisions and Parens Patriae Civil Commitments, 45 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 561 (2012).
The Mentally Disordered Criminal Defendant at the Supreme Court: A Decade in Review, 91 Or. L. Rev. 207 (2012).
Rehabilitating Mental Disorder Evidence After Clark v. Arizona, 60 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 645 (2010).
Unreasonable: Involuntary Medications, Incompetent Criminal Defendants, and the Fourth Amendment, 46 San Diego L. Rev. 161 (2009).
Autonomy and Acute Psychosis: When Choices Collide, 15 Va. J. Soc. Pol’y & L. 355 (2008) (review essay of Elyn R. Saks, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness).
Categorical Exclusions from Capital Punishment: How Many Wrongs Make A Right? 72 Brook. L. Rev. 1211 (2007).
Curiouser and Curiouser: Involuntary Medications and Incompetent Criminal Defendants After Sell v. United States, 13 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 871 (2005).
Involuntary Treatment of the Mentally Ill: Autonomy is Asking the Wrong Question, 27 Vt. L. Rev. 649 (2003).
Beyond Brown v. Board of Education: The Need to Remedy the Achievement Gap, 31 J.L. & Educ. 431 (2002).
Note, Trial Rights and Psychotropic Drugs, 55 Vand. L. Rev. 165 (2002).