Bidish Sarma J.D.
Clinic Professor
Education
J.D., Yale Law School, 2008
B.A., University of Michigan, 2005
Departments
- College of Law
Bio
Bidish Sarma joins the law clinic faculty after previously serving as a fellow with the Jesuit Social Research Institute at Loyola University New Orleans. Before coming to Loyola, he was an assistant district attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Orleans Parish District Attorney's office. In Louisiana, he has provided pro bono representation to individuals serving life sentences in their commutation proceedings and post-conviction litigation. He also supported the development and launch of The Visiting Room Project.
He began his legal career in 2008 at the Capital Appeals Project in New Orleans, where he represented individuals sentenced to death on their appeals. He served as a clinical teaching fellow at the Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic from 2012 through 2015 and has also taught as an adjunct professor at Tulane Law School and the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.
Bidish received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 2008. While at Yale, he received the Khosla Memorial Fund for Human Dignity Prize, which is awarded to the student who best demonstrates an active engagement in advancing the values of human dignity. He graduated with highest distinction from the University of Michigan in 2005 with a B.A. in political science and philosophy.
Publications
All publications are available on SSRN.
ARTICLES
The Second Look Movement and Reducing Mass Incarceration, 63 AM. CRIM. L. REV. 211 (2026) (with Sophie Cull)
Finality is Not the Last Word, 59 AKRON L. REV. 619 (2026) (symposium)
Using Deterrence Theory to Promote Prosecutorial Accountability, 21 LEWIS & CLARK L. REV. 573 (2017)
The Emerging Eighth Amendment Consensus Against Life Without Parole Sentences for Nonviolent Offenses, 66 CASE W. RES. L. REV. 525 (2015) (with Sophie Cull)
Why We Would Spare Walter White: Breaking Bad and the True Power of Mitigation, 45 N.M. L. REV. 429 (2015) (special issue, by invitation)
The Way the Court Gauges Consensus (and How to Do It Better), 35 CARDOZO L. REV. 2397 (2014) (with Robert J. Smith and Sophie Cull)
How and Why Race Continues to Influence the Administration of Criminal Justice in Louisiana, 72 LA. L. REV. 361 (2012) (with Robert J. Smith)
Challenges and Opportunities in Bringing the Lessons of Cultural Competence to Bear on Capital Jury Selection, 42 U. MEM. L. REV. 907 (2012) (symposium, by invitation)
Struck by Lightning: Walker v. Georgia and Louisiana’s Proportionality Review of Death Sentences, 37 S.U. L. REV. 65 (2009) (with Robert J. Smith and G. Ben Cohen)
ESSAYS, COMMENTS, REPORTS
How Hall v. Florida Transforms the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment Evolving Standards of Decency Analysis, 62 UCLA L. REV. DISC. 186 (2014)
An Enduring (and Disturbing) Legacy: Race-Neutrality, Judicial Apathy, and the Civic Exclusion of African-Americans in Louisiana, 1 HLRE 49 (2011)
Commentary, When Will Race No Longer Matter in Jury Selection?, 109 MICH. L. REV. FIRST IMPRESSIONS 69 (2011)
Response to “Snyder v. Louisiana: Continuing the Historical Trend Toward Increased Scrutiny of Peremptory Challenges,” 109 MICH. L. REV. FIRST IMPRESSIONS 42 (2010)
Furman’s Resurrection: Proportionality Review and the Supreme Court’s Second Chance to Fulfill Furman’s Promise, 2009 CARDOZO L. REV. DE NOVO 238 (2009)
A Cold Day in Apprendi-land: Oregon v. Ice Brings Unknown Forecast for Apprendi’s Continued Vitality in the Capital Sentencing Context, 3 HARV. L. & POL’Y REV. (Online) (Apr. 24, 2009) (with G. Ben Cohen and Robert J. Smith)
Interrogations and the Guiding Hand of Counsel: Montejo, Ventris, and the Sixth Amendment’s Continued Vitality, 103 NW. U. L. REV. COLLOQUY 456 (2009)(with Robert J. Smith and G. Ben Cohen)
THE MYTH OF NORMALCY: IMPUNITY AND THE JUDICIARY IN KASHMIR (2009) (Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic Yale Law School)
Still in Search of a Unifying Principle: What Kennedy v. Louisiana and the Supreme Court’s Denial of the State’s Petition for Rehearing Signal for the Future, 118 YALE L.J. POCKET PART 55 (2008)