Herbert L. Packer

Herbert Leslie Packer (1925 – December 6, 1972) was an American law professor and criminologist. His key work is the book The Limits of the Criminal Sanction, which proposed two models of the criminal justice system, the crime control model and the due process model.

Life and career Packer was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He earned a B.A. in government and international relations in 1944 from Yale University and was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned an LL.B. in 1949 from Yale Law School and was article editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Packer was a law clerk for Judge Thomas Walter Swan from 1949 to 1950. After working for the law firm of Cox, Langford, Stoddard & Cutler, he became a law professor at Stanford in 1956. He did not finish a planned biography of Learned Hand.

In an article in The Nation called "A Measure of Achievement" (1964), Packer concluded that the Warren Commission did a "conscientious and at times brilliant job" compiling the Warren Report and concurred that it proved "beyond a reasonable doubt" that U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.