John Meixner

John Meixner

Assistant Professor

UGA School of Law

I’m an assistant professor of law at the University of Georgia School of Law. My research focuses on criminal law (especially sentencing), evidence, and the intersection of law and neuroscience. Within those domains, most of my work focuses on how legal decisionmakers (like judges, jurors, or prosecutors) exercise discretion and make complex judgements. Most of my work is empirical, and informed by my background Ph.D. training in cognitive neuroscience.

I teach classes in criminal law, evidence, sentencing, and a seminar called law and the mind (focusing on the intersection of law, psychology, and neuroscience). My teaching is heavily informed by my research, and all of my classes involve exploring what social science can teach us about how legal systems should operate.

Before becoming a professor, I spent about six years as a federal prosecutor in Detroit, where I led over 100 grand jury investigations, briefed and argued dozens of appeals before the Sixth Circuit, and first-chaired multiple jury trials. I also worked closely with my office’s “Restart” program, designed to provide alternatives to incarceration and make criminal justice more equitable. That experience heavily informs my research, which seeks practical ways to reform the criminal justice system, especially in sentencing.

I earned my bachelor’s degree with highest honors and distinction from the University of Michigan in 2006 and my J.D. and Ph.D. (in psychology with emphasis in cognitive neuroscience) from Northwestern University in 2013. I graduated magna cum laude from the School of Law, where I was editor-in-chief of the Northwestern University Law Review and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.