Thomas Ward Frampton

Thomas Frampton studies criminal law and constitutional criminal procedure with a focus on how legal actors, institutions, and doctrines have responded, or failed to respond, to the dramatic expansion of the carceral state. He is interested in the intersections of criminal law, racial inequality and social hierarchies. His research draws on his background in American studies and his experiences as a public defender in Louisiana to provide a better understanding of contemporary legal practices and policies within the historical context of racial and economic inequality in the United States. His scholarship, which has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, has previously appeared or is forthcoming in the Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Michigan Law Review, California Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, and the Stanford Law Review Online.

Professor Frampton is currently a Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. He was previously a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School, where he taught Legal Research & Writing. Before academia, he worked for several years with the Orleans Public Defenders, where he served as a staff attorney in the Trial and Special Litigation divisions. He clerked for Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York and Judge Diane P. Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Professor Frampton is a graduate of Berkeley Law and Yale University.