Maneka Sinha

Professor of Law

Office

349

Phone

(410) 706-5232

Photo of Maneka Sinha

Education

  • BS, 2004, University of California, Berkeley
    JD, 2009, New York University School of Law

Maneka Sinha joined the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in 2019 to re-launch the Criminal Defense Clinic. She has extensive experience in criminal litigation and is recognized for her expertise in forensic science. Professor Sinha’s research interests explore the intersection of forensic science evidence and outcomes in criminal cases.

Prior to joining the law school, she spent 10 years at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia where she served as senior advisor to the agency’s director on forensic science issues and represented indigent clients charged with the most serious crimes in the District of Columbia, including complex homicides and sexual assaults. She also served as head of the agency’s nationally recognized Forensic Practice Group, training and supervising lawyers involved in forensic science litigation locally and nationwide, while also personally litigating highly complex and novel forensic science issues.

In 2017, Professor Sinha was a fellow with the International Legal Foundation, supporting its work to establish a public defender agency in Nepal. In 2015, she served as a Brian Roberts Fellow in the West Bank, training and supervising Palestinian public defenders.

Professor Sinha holds a JD from New York University School of Law and a BS in mechanical engineering, with Honors, from the University of California, Berkeley.

Articles

The Automated Fourth Amendment, 73 Emory Law Journal 589 (2024). Abstract

The Dangers of Automated Gunshot Detection, 5 Journal of Law & Innovation 63 (2023).

Signal Detection Theory Fails to Account for Real-World Consequences of Inconclusive Decisions, 21 Law, Probability and Risk 131 (2022) (with Richard E. Gutierrez). Abstract

Radically Reimagining Forensic Evidence, 73 Alabama Law Review 879 (2022). Abstract

Book Review, When Innocence Is not Enough: Hidden Evidence and the Failed Promise of the Brady Rule, by Thomas L. Dybdahl, The New Press (2023), Champion, December 2022, at 61.

Junk Science at Sentencing, 89 George Washington Law Review 52 (2021). Abstract