Summer 2016
In early 2014, President Obama announced an initiative to grant clemency to long-term federal inmates meeting certain criteria: they had served at least 10 years in prison, their offense was low-level and non-violent, they had no history of violence or ties to organized crime, their conduct in prison was good, and their sentence would be lower today by operation of law or policy. He called on lawyers and law students across the country to volunteer to represent these inmates in preparing their applications under this tailored program. In this class, students take up that challenge: they will visit individual inmates, determine their eligibility for the program, obtain all necessary documents and records, develop the inmate's release plan, collect letters of support from family and friends, and write up memoranda detailing how the inmate meets the criteria. Students who have worked on this project in the past have described it as among their most rewarding experiences in law school. The class is taught by Professor JaneAnne Murray, who is counsel of record for the inmate clients and a member of the steering committee of Clemency Project 2014 -- a consortium of defense organizations which is coordinating the recruitment and training of volunteer clemency lawyers across the country.
Students should register on the waitlist to be considered for this opportunity.
