Valena Beety
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valenabeety.bsky.social
Valena Beety
@valenabeety.bsky.social
Criminal Law Prof, Indiana University Maurer (@iumaurerlaw.bsky.social). Post-Conviction Litigator, Indiana Innocence Project. Writer, MANIFESTING JUSTICE. Queer and inspired by Rumi: “let the beauty of what we love be what we do.”
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Intro post! I’m Valena Beety, law prof at Indiana University (Maurer), board member starting up the Indiana Innocence Project, and I write about wrongful convictions of women and queer people. Did you know 75% of female exonerees were wrongly convicted where no crime occurred? New book in 2025.
Reposted by Valena Beety
Dissenting from the court's majority, one judge sounded the alarm about ignoring recanted forensic testimony, saying the medical examiner's reversal "calls into doubt the foundation of the trial."

By @pamelacolloff.bsky.social
Appeals Court Upholds Shaken Baby Conviction Despite Medical Examiner Recanting Testimony
Dissenting from the court’s majority, one judge sounded the alarm about ignoring recanted forensic testimony, saying the medical examiner’s reversal “calls into doubt the foundation of the trial.”
www.propublica.org
November 6, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by Valena Beety
I'm so excited about this year's line up for our external faculty workshop series, y'all! We'll be welcoming Guy-Uriel Charles (Harvard), @pbaronmiller.bsky.social, @richardalbert.bsky.social, @valenabeety.bsky.social 1/2
September 10, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Reposted by Valena Beety
🎧 AI is changing how we work, how we make art, and how we access healthcare. @jennoliva.bsky.social joined Taonga Leslie on #BrokenLaw to explore how AI and algorithms are being used to restrict access to healthcare & how lawyers and patients can advocate for greater fairness and transparency.
Episode 181: AI and Health Equity | ACS
www.acslaw.org
August 20, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Valena Beety
Prof. @valenabeety.bsky.social talks about the progress made by the newly established Indiana Innocence Project. Great work being done by Indiana University faculty and students! indianapublicmedia.org/news/iu-stud...
IU students, faculty helping build Indiana Innocence Project
The Indiana Innocence Project is taking on clients, assisting in appeals and hiring staff a year after it formally launched last summer, and IU-Bloomington students and faculty are a big part of the o...
indianapublicmedia.org
June 16, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Valena Beety
A huge thanks to @brnnewsfacts.bsky.social for interviewing me about my recently published Indiana Law Journal essay, Regulating Healthcare Coverage Algorithms available here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
July 15, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Valena Beety
Purdue is trying to ban the student newspaper from using the university's name in its title and ending preferred campus access--in the name of institutional neutrality.
Purdue Cuts Off Student Paper Citing Institutional Neutrality
Purdue University has ended a long-standing partnership with its independent student newspaper, The Purdue Exponent, and will no longer distribute papers, give student journalists free parking passes ...
www.insidehighered.com
June 6, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Reposted by Valena Beety
Our latest on ways that states can provide better heath data sanctuaries to at-risk populations (spoiler alert: stop sharing data with health care criminalization states & stop collecting sensitive healthcare info). Thanks to my co-authors @lizchiarello.bsky.social & Wendy Bach
Four Things States Can Do To Further Protect Health Care Privacy | Health Affairs Forefront
As experts in health, law, and privacy, we wrote this essay to draw attention to prescription drug monitoring programs and their potential for harm.
www.healthaffairs.org
June 6, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Reposted by Valena Beety
JUST IN: Democrat John Ewing has defeated Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, a Republican who was running for a fourth term.

Ewing, who currently serves as Douglas County's treasurer and will be Omaha's first Black mayor, leads Stothert 56 to 44 percent with most ballots counted.
May 14, 2025 at 3:39 AM
Reposted by Valena Beety
A man checked out 100 books on Jewish history, Black history, and LGBTQ+ education from a library only to burn them
Man burns 100 Beachwood Public Library books on Jewish, African American, LGBTQ+ education: report
“I condemn this act, not only because it is a crime against our institutions and community, but also because it is fundamentally un-American. This nation was founded on the right to free speech and op...
www.cleveland19.com
May 14, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Reposted by Valena Beety
I have written many healthcare stories, but never before have I written about my own health. I decided to do so after learning one of my drugs costs nearly $1,000 a pill and just 25 cents to make. What I found was an incredible story of discovery and exploitation. www.propublica.org/article/revl...
The Price of Remission
When I was diagnosed with cancer, I set out to understand why a single pill of Revlimid cost the same as a new iPhone. I’ve covered high drug prices as a reporter for years. What I discovered shocked ...
www.propublica.org
May 8, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Valena Beety
NEW, from me: Shaken baby syndrome--a diagnosis that has resulted in wrongful convictions across the country--continues to shape criminal prosecutions and child welfare investigations, under the name "abusive head trauma."

My story of what happened to one family.

www.propublica.org/article/shak...
He Frantically Called 911 to Revive His Infant Son. Now He Could Face 12 Years in Prison.
Exonerations and new science continue to raise questions about shaken baby syndrome, a diagnosis that lives on under a different name: “abusive head trauma.” Critics say the name deflects scrutiny whi...
www.propublica.org
December 30, 2024 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Valena Beety
Unreal. The Brox DA's office found this man innocent but "the presiding judge refused to dismiss the conviction, arguing that it would set a precedent to undo scores of other convictions. [He indicated] that if he did, the floodgates of other appeals would open."

www.amny.com/new-york/bro...
The wrong man: Bronx native left devastated after judge denies exoneration following 30-year legal battle | amNewYork
Eduardo Caba was supposed to finally have a moment of salvation in a Bronx court on Monday afternoon following a three-decade legal battle over a crime he
www.amny.com
May 13, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Valena Beety
Reposted by Valena Beety
"The judge overseeing the case against the Defense Department's firing of transgender service members revealed that the military spends eight times more on erectile dysfunction medication than on gender affirming care." www.newsweek.com/us-military-...
US military spends eight times more on Viagra than gender-affirming care
In a hearing over the Defense Department's removal of transgender service members, a judge uncovered that the military spends $42 million a year on Viagra.
www.newsweek.com
May 11, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Reposted by Valena Beety
As a first gen college student, the child of an immigrant, & an USMA grad that was privileged to have an expansive, rigorous, and eye-opening, taxpayer-funded academy education just some three decades ago, this is so heartbreaking.
West Point professor Graham Parsons resigns from his position: "Cadets are told constantly that they are to lead a life of honor, to choose the harder right over the easier wrong, to have moral courage. But now they are learning that these are just empty slogans." www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/o...
Opinion | West Point Is Supposed to Educate, Not Indoctrinate
www.nytimes.com
May 8, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by Valena Beety
A huge thanks to @inquest.bsky.social for publishing my new essay. This piece is inspired by a longer law review article (The "New" Drug War) that I wrote with Taleed El-Sabawi, and was published by the Virginia Law Review last fall located here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
May 6, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Valena Beety
We're excited to host the 3rd discussion in the B10 Law Schools' "Rule of Law in 2025" series tomorrow. Join @valenabeety.bsky.social, @katieeyer.bsky.social, @deborahwidiss.bsky.social, and @ohiostatelaw.bsky.social's Marc Spindelman for "Rearticulation of Sex and Gender." go.unl.edu/ruleoflaw
April 8, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Valena Beety
We simply had to intentionally destroy the world’s strongest economy while dismantling our scientific and educational infrastructure to ensure that a team with a trans girl would never finish second place in the Mountain West volleyball standings again
April 2, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Valena Beety
“The lab report that says they found gasoline is bullshit. Every part of the state’s case rests on that.”
The Arson Evidence Doesn’t Hold Up. Florida Is About to Convict Her for Murder Anyway.
Florida prosecutors say Michelle Taylor used gasoline to set a fire that killed her son. Top forensic chemists say they’re wrong.
interc.pt
March 31, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by Valena Beety
Pay attention to this, friends. Especially these days, you really don't want your genetic information floating around out there unprotected.
California residents: If you (naively IMO) signed up for the "23andMe" genetic testing service, please understand that your data may soon be sold to an even more untrustworthy company -- but you can still order it deleted before it's too late.

oag.ca.gov/news/pres...
Attorney General Bonta Urgently Issues Consumer Alert for 23andMe
Californians have the right to direct the company to delete their genetic data OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued a consumer alert to customers of 23andMe, a genetic testing
oag.ca.gov
March 24, 2025 at 3:29 AM
March 24, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Reposted by Valena Beety
Great news! "Vanderbilt Law School to establish 'innocence clinic' for the wrongfully convicted": fox17.com/news/local/v...
Vanderbilt Law School to establish 'innocence clinic' for the wrongfully convicted
Vanderbilt Law School has announced a recent gift is being used to establish The Gail Anderson Cañizares Innocence Clinic.
fox17.com
March 9, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Valena Beety
A key takeaway from Columbia should be that compliance does not buy safety. Unis are viewing the admin's attack on higher ed as a prisoner's dilemma (best strategy: comply), leading to a collectively worse outcome. The only way out is collective action, & unlike true PD, unis can coordinate action.
March 7, 2025 at 9:41 PM