Levin College of Law
Welcome to UF LAW

E. Lea Johnston

Clarence J. TeSelle Professor
Professor of Law

CV

SSRN

Phone:
(352) 273-0794

Expertise

Criminal Law  • Criminal Procedure  • Mental Health  • 

About

Lea Johnston is the Clarence J. TeSelle Professor and Professor of Law at the University of Florida. She is a leading expert in the areas of mental health and criminal law and procedure. A productive scholar, Johnston’s work has appeared in top law reviews and peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journals. Her work has been widely cited by legal scholars and appears in leading treatises in criminal law, constitutional law, and criminal procedure. Her work has also received attention from courts and social scientists, and her theory of sentencing forms part of the theoretical framework for the standard textbook for forensic psychiatry fellowship programs.

In 2020, Johnston was elected into the American Law Institute. She has served as Chair of both the Criminal Justice Section and the Law and Mental Disability Section of the American Association of Law Schools. She has also served on the Legal Scholars Committee of the American Psychology-Law Society.

Professor Johnston earned her A.B. from Princeton University and her J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School. She previously worked as a litigation associate at Arnold & Porter LLP in Washington, D.C., and director of the Maryland Public Interest Research Group in Baltimore, MD. Johnston clerked for Judge Richard Tallman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Education

A.B., Princeton University
J.D. (cum laude), Harvard Law School

Expertise

Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Mental Health Law

Courses

  • Criminal Law
  • Criminal Procedure: Adversary System
  • Mental Health Law

Publications

Articles

  • The Constitutionality of Assisted Outpatient Treatment, 86 OHIO ST. L. J. __ (forthcoming 2025)
  • Assisted Outpatient Treatment: A State-by-State Comparative Review, 73 CLEVELAND ST. L.R. __ (forthcoming 2025) (with Autumn Klein) [SSRN]
  • Imperfect Insanity and Diminished Responsibility, 76 FLA. L. R. __ (2024) [SSRN]
  • Diminished Criminal Responsibility: A Multinational Comparative Review, 91 INT’L J. L. & PSYCHIATRY 101919 (2023) (with Kendall D. Runyan, Fernando José Silva, and Francisco Maldonado Fuentes) [Link]
  • Extreme Emotional Disturbance: Legal Frameworks and Considerations for Forensic Evaluation, 40 BEHAV. SCI. & L. 733 (2022) (with Christina L. Gliser, Jonathon Haney, Dana Formon, Naoko Hashimoto, and Nadia Rossbach) [SSRN]
  • Psychosis, Heat of Passion, and Diminished Responsibility, 63 B.C. L.R. 1227 (2022) (with Vincent T. Leahey) [SSRN]
  • Delusions, Moral Incapacity, and the Case for Moral Wrongfulness, 97 Ind. L.J. 297 (2022) [SSRN]
  • The Status and Legitimacy of M’Naghten’s Insane Delusion Rule, 54 UC Davis L. Rev. 1777 (2021) (co-authored with Vince Leahey) [SSRN]
  • Reconceptualizing Criminal Justice Reform for Offenders with Serious Mental Illness, 71 Fla. L. Rev. 515 (2019) [SSRN]
  • Legal and Clinical Issues Regarding the Pro Se defendant: Guidance for Practitioners and Policy Makers, 25 Psych., Pub. Pol. & L. 196 (2019) (co-authored with Christina L. Patton, Colleen M. Lillard, and Michael J. Viacco) [SSRN]
  • Retributive Theories Justifying Jail Diversion for Offenders with Mental Illness, 35 Behav. Sci. & L. 1 (2017) [SSRN]
  • Mental Health Courts and Sentencing Disparities, 62 Villanova L. R. 685 (2017) (coauthored with Conor Flynn) [SSRN]
  • Communication and Competence for Self-Representation, 84 Fordham L. R. 2121 (2016). [SSRN]
  • Modifying Unjust Sentences, 49 Ga. L. Rev. 433 (2015) [SSRN]
  • Smoke and Mirrors: Model Penal Code § 305.7 and Compassionate Release, 4 Wake Forest J. L. & Pol’y 49 (2014) [SSRN]
  • Conditions of Confinement at Sentencing: The Case of Seriously Disordered Offenders, 63 Cath. U. L. Rev. 625 (2014) [SSRN]
  • Vulnerability and Desert: A Theory of Sentencing and Mental Illness, 103 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 147 (2013) [SSRN]
  • Theorizing Mental Health Courts, 89 Wash. U. L. Rev. 519 (2012) [SSRN]
  • Representational Competence: Defining the Limits of the Right to Self-Representation at Trial, 86 Notre Dame L. Rev. 523 (2011) [SSRN]
  • Setting the Standard: A Critique of Bonnie’s Competency Standard and the Potential of Problem-Solving Theory for Self-Representation at Trial, 43 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1605 (2010) [SSRN]
  • An Administrative ‘Death Sentence’ for Asylum Seekers: Deprivation of Due Process Under 8 U.S.C. §1158(D)(6)’s Frivolousness Standard [SSRN]

University of Florida Levin College of Law
309 Village Drive
PO Box 117620
Gainesville, FL 32611
(352) 273-0804
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The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.