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

Klein joined the St. Mary’s faculty in 2006. She regularly teaches Evidence and Criminal Law, and has developed new courses in Mental Health Law, the Law of Self-Defense, and Appellate Courts. Before coming to St. Mary’s, Klein was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Florida State University College of Law.

Klein graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Law, where she was an articles editor for the Vanderbilt Law Review. Her legal experience includes serving as a law clerk for the Honorable Deborah Cook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and working as an associate in the New York law firms Cahill, Gordon and Reindel LLP and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy LLP.

Klein’s research focuses on topics at the intersection of law and psychology. She has written articles on the insanity defense, civil commitment, and competency to be executed, among others.

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).