FACULTY FOCUS
In Pursuit of Justice Retiring Professor Richard Frase closes the book on a storied career in criminal law
DURING HIS 50-YEAR LEGAL CAREER, RICHARD FRASE
earned a place as one of the country’s foremost experts on sentencing guidelines and criminal justice. Frase brings a social science lens to his work, blending legal theory and practice to make pioneering findings about criminal procedure, sentencing guidelines, racial disparities, punishment and proportionality, and more.
“ I want [students] to think like a lawyer— but also learn to think like a law professor, because you’ll always be teaching yourself new law or new areas of law. It’s an intellectual challenge and a pleasure.” —Professor Richard Frase
Frase, the Benjamin N. Berger Professor of Criminal Law, is a nationally leading voice on sentencing, says Garry W. Jenkins, dean and William S. Pattee Professor of Law. “Professor Frase has served as co-director of the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice,
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as well as co-director of the Institute’s Sentencing Guidelines Resource Center. His pathbreaking scholarship, excellence in teaching, and commitment to service have had real-world impact in improving the justice system.” Since joining Minnesota Law in 1977, Frase has made significant contributions to the understanding of sentencing guidelines and systems. Notably, he led the development of the novel sentencing center, a centralized hub of federal and state sentencing guidelines, statutes, and other information detailing how sentencing commissions and guidelines work. Through the center, researchers and policymakers can compare policies and practices across jurisdictions and determine how jurisdictions have mitigated concerns such as racial disparities. Kelly Mitchell, executive director of the Robina Institute, notes that Frase’s work has been enormously influential and helped change sentencing policy in several states. “He doesn’t just sit in his office and think about things—Richard gets out there and helps agencies that are struggling with these issues. In that way, he puts his work into practice,” Mitchell says. “When he retires, we’re losing an immense resource on sentencing guidelines work and what policies can and should be across the nation.”
‘First-Rank’ Scholarship Julian Roberts, a University of
Oxford professor of criminal justice who co-wrote two books with Frase, calls him “a meticulous legal scholar whose scholarship is first-rank. If Frase says something about sentencing guidelines in the U.S., you can go to the bank with it.” Frase also is generous with his time with students, young scholars, and peers, mentoring them and sharing his well-rounded knowledge in both theory and practice, Roberts adds. A prolific researcher and writer, Frase has penned 10 books, including the recent Paying for the Past, whose subject is prior record sentence enhancements. He’s written more than 100 articles, including a
