Board of Governors Professor of Law and Judge Alexander P. Waugh, Sr. Distinguished Scholar (criminal law; criminal procedure; criminal adjudication; trusts and estates)

Professor Thomas has a B.S. from the University of Tennessee, an M.F.A. (creative writing) and J.D. from the University of Iowa, and an LL.M. and J.S.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty in 1986, he practiced law in Tennessee and was a member of the University of Tennessee faculty. Professor Thomas has published to date four scholarly books and more than 60 articles on various aspects of criminal law and criminal procedure. Double Jeopardy: The History, the Law was published by NYU Press and The Miranda Debate, co-authored with Richard A. Leo, was published by Northeastern University Press. Some placements for his articles include the law reviews of Michigan, Virginia, Texas, UCLA, NYU, California, Illinois, Ohio State, USC, and Northwestern. His casebook, Criminal Procedure: Cases, Principles and Policies, published by West Group and co-authored by Joshua Dressler, is now in its Fifth Edition and is widely used.

His third scholarly book, The Supreme Court on Trial: How the American Justice System Sacrifices Innocent Defendants, University of Michigan Press, presents a history of Western cultures sorting the guilty from the innocent, as well as an examination of the criminal procedure of France and a series of recommendations for decreasing the likelihood of wrongful convictions in the American justice systems. His latest book, Confessions of Guilt, on the history and future of the law of confessions, co-authored with Richard A. Leo, was published by Oxford University Press in 2012.