James M. Binnall

James M. Binnall is an associate professor of law, criminology, and criminal justice at California State University, Long Beach, where he is the executive director of Project Rebound and the faculty advisor for Rising Scholars — organizations that work to ensure the success of formerly incarcerated and system-involved students on campus. A practicing attorney, Dr. Binnall also represents law students in the State Bar of California Moral Character and Fitness Determination process, and is the co-founder of the California System-Involved Bar Association, a bar association comprised entirely of formerly incarcerated and system-involved lawyers and law students. Dr. Binnall’s research focuses on the civic marginalization of those with criminal convictions, access to the legal profession for those with prior carceral involvement, parole and post-release restrictions, and conditions of confinement. His primary research focus examines the exclusion of individuals with a felony conviction from the jury process. One of the nation’s leading scholars on the topic, Dr. Binnall has testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the California Senate and Assembly, and presented his research to the American Bar Association Jury Commission. His new book, Twenty Million Angry Men: The Case for Including Convicted Felons in Our Jury Process, published by the University of California Press in 2021, is the first devoted to the issue of record-based juror exclusion. Dr. Binnall is a formerly incarcerated person who spent just over four years in prison for a DUI homicide that claimed the life of his close friend. While incarcerated, Dr. Binnall took the LSAT and was accepted to law school. Once released, he earned a law degree and a LL.M., was admitted to the State Bar of California, and received his Ph.D in criminology, law and society from the University of California, Irvine.