Fargo Think & Drink

Justice on Trial: Does Fair Process Matter More Than the Verdict?

Featuring Bruce Ringstrom and Dane DeKrey

Sunday, Feb 23, 2025

4-5 pm CT

Sons of Norway Troll Lounge, Fargo ND

We want our criminal justice system to produce "just" outcomes: no innocent person should ever be charged, the guilty should be punished and rehabilitated, society should be protected from dangerous actors, victims should be restored to where they were before victimization, et cetera. But the system spends far more time and energy arguing over how the system works (the process) than what the system produces (the result). This can and often does result in a process that is regarded as just, but an outcome that is regarded as unjust: the innocent are sometimes convicted, the guilty are sometimes acquitted, and victims are rarely made whole. We will discuss why this focus on the process is generally better than a focus on outcomes, and some of the seemingly insoluble problems that procedural justice creates for broader justice.

This event is a great alternative to your usual coffee catch-up with friends or even an interesting date idea! We’ll start with a presentation from our speaker(s) and then you’ll have the chance to join in on discussions at your table, sharing thoughts and ideas with others. Each ticket includes one complimentary drink (beer, wine, soda).

* Members, please note: The coupon code for our free online classes cannot be used for this in-person event. *

SPEAKER BIOS:

Bruce Ringstrom

Bruce Ringstrom Jr. has spent the last 15 years practicing criminal law. After graduating from Moorhead High School, Bruce served in the United States Navy for 4 years, then moved back to Moorhead to attend MSUM, majoring in philosophy and history. Upon graduation, he attended Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul. While there, Bruce completed an internship at the Minnesota Public Defender Appellate Office and was a student attorney at the Anoka County Public Defender’s Office, where he represented nearly 1,000 clients. After law school, Bruce spent several years as a full-time public defender in northern Minnesota. In 2013, he started Ringstrom Law, a criminal defense boutique. In 2021, Bruce partnered with Dane DeKrey, and the two formed the firm Ringstrom DeKrey PLLP. Bruce is a graduate of the Minnesota Public Defender Trial School and Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyers College, and is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Minnesota State Bar Association. Bruce is licensed in Minnesota and North Dakota, and has been admitted pro hac vice to practice law in Georgia. Bruce is a member of the steering committee for Philosophy for All, Fargo-Moorhead. Philosophy for All has as its aim to approach philosophical problems in a non-technical way to enable everyone to participate in discussion and debate.

Dane DeKrey

Dane DeKrey is a criminal defense lawyer who has spent a decade practicing both private and public law. He’s received various awards for his work, including being named a Minnesota Super Lawyer “Rising Star” and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Dane also became a Certified Criminal Law Specialist in 2024. Prior to co-founding Ringstrom DeKrey, Dane was the director of the ACLU of North Dakota. Before that, Dane worked as an assistant federal public defender in Fargo, where he handled hundreds of federal criminal cases. Dane attended law school at the University of Minnesota. Before law school, Dane worked for Congressman Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota and attended college at UND. Dane serves on the board of Lunch Aid North Dakota and as an advisor to the Great Northern Innocence Project.

EMCEE BIO:

Dennis Cooley received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Rochester in 1995. His teaching and research interests include theoretical and applied ethics with a focus on pragmatism, bioethics, business ethics, personhood, and death and dying. He is the author of Technology, Transgenics, and a Practical Moral Code, Death’s Values and Obligations: A Pragmatic Framework, and co-edited Passing/Out: Identity Veiled and Revealed. He is Secretary General of the International Academy of Medical Ethics and Public Health; Editor of Springer’s International Library of Bioethics; Associate Editor of Elsevier’s Ethics, Medicine and Public Health; and Director of the Northern Plains Ethics Institute.

FUNDED IN PART BY:

Fargo-Moorhead Opera. Interested in court-themed programming? Check out the Opera's upcoming show Scalia/Ginsburg. About the show: "Derrick Wang's Scalia/Ginsburg was last year's most produced new opera in the country. Emulating the remarkable friendship between the conservative Judge Scalia and the liberal Judge Ginsburg. This new opera demonstrates that we are all proud Americans and art brings us closer. The evening's curtain warmer will be Gilbert & Sullivan's delightful courtroom farce, Trial by Jury. A wife sues her philandering husband, then runs off with the Judge. A perfect pair for the perfect evening!
Northern Plains Ethics Institute. A growing need for enhanced democratic participation in society prompted the formation of the Northern Plains Ethics Institute (NPEI). Chartered by the North Dakota Board of Higher Education in 2000, the NPEI’s Initiative at NDSU has addressed some very important ethical challenges in agriculture, education, political life, health-care, technology, and business facing the area and nation.

HND VALUE STATEMENT:

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or Humanities North Dakota. However, in an increasingly polarized world, we at Humanities North Dakota believe that being open-minded is necessary to thinking critically and rationally. Therefore, our programs and classes reflect our own open-mindedness in the inquiry, seeking, and acquiring of scholars to speak at our events and teach classes for our Public University. To that end, we encourage our participants to join us in stepping outside our comfort zones and considering other perspectives and ideas by being open-minded while attending HND events featuring scholars who hold a variety of opinions, some being opposite of our own held beliefs.

Humanities North Dakota classes and events are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities

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701.255.3360
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