During his time as a student in the Clemency Project Clinic, Sam Buisman ’25 was a standout. Not only did he represent one of the clinic’s New York clemency clients in a successful judicial second look, but he also filed an amicus brief in the Minnesota Supreme Court and represented a client who received a pardon extraordinaire from the Minnesota Board of Pardons — three firsts for the clinic since its founding in 2014.
Now, Buisman, who received the Law School’s Excellence in Public Service Award and was a senior articles editor of the Minnesota Law Review, is taking on another first as the clinic’s inaugural Hassan & Nazie Nemazee Fellow.
“I am truly passionate about this work,” says Buisman, who most recently was a judicial law clerk for Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge Kevin Ross. “Clemency work at heart is an exercise in compassion.”
For more than a decade, the Clemency Project Clinic has advocated for inmates serving disproportionately long prison sentences. Under the supervision of Professor JaneAnne Murray, the clinic’s founder and director, students learn through hands-on involvement in real clemency or “second look” petitions.
A Law School committee of four professors conducted a national search for the Hassan & Nazie Nemazee Fellow. Buisman’s application rose to the top. Murray describes him as having “a very wise head on young shoulders.”
“I wanted somebody with the intellectual rigor to make great legal arguments,” she says. “But I also wanted somebody with the emotional empathy to connect with our clients and to communicate with them well, so that they trust us and trust that their story is safe with us, and that we are going to give them the best shot we can give.”
With Buisman’s help, Murray hopes to expand the Clemency Project’s vision and footprint, eventually creating pathways for other clinics under this umbrella to reform an American criminal justice system that she says is deeply broken.
“The clinic serves people who are so often forgotten about by the state, society, and many attorneys,” says Buisman. “What the clinic is trying to do is breathe humanity back into the law and how it deals with our neighbors after they’ve been given that scarlet letter. We are driven to empower people to reintegrate into their communities, to have more time to parent, to live fuller lives.”
Murray says that, along with intellect and empathy, Buisman has a bond with the students and will offer unique insight thanks to his experience in the clinic.
“Last year, I had six students, and every one of them was recruited by Sam,” she says.
Buisman isn’t taking his new position lightly and is committed to fulfilling and building on the clinic’s vision. Now with two licensed attorneys on staff, the clinic can take on more students and clients while also broadening its policy work; Murray and Buisman hope to work with students to writeamicus briefs and advance legislation such as the Survivors Justice Act, which would encourage judges to consider a defendant’s history as a domestic-violence survivor as a mitigating factor at sentencing. Buisman describes the mission as addressing both the root causes and symptoms of mass incarceration while “engaging law students in the fight.”
“I see this as my chance to pay it forward,” he says. “I see my job in large part as ensuring that the students coming through the clinic under my and Professor Murray’s stewardship get those same opportunities that I did and leaving the clinic in a place where it can continue providing those opportunities for generations of Gophers.”
The two-year fellowship is the result of a gift from Nazie (Eftekhari) Nemazee and her husband, Hassan. While Nazie has a long history of funding human rights causes, criminal justice reform is especially important to the couple. Hassan is a formerly incarcerated individual who spent nine years in federal prison before being released in 2019.
“This is very close to both of our hearts because we both firmly believe that if you have served your term, you have accepted responsibility, and you are not a threat to the community, there is no reason why you should not be entitled to clemency,” says Hassan.
The United States imprisons more people than any other country. While it accounts for about 4% of the world’s population, it has about 16% of the world’s people in prison.
When Nazie first encountered Murray and her students, including Buisman, they were touring state-of-the-art prisons in Europe. Nazie says she was blown away by their work and dedication to the cause.
“I am so delighted that Sam was selected because I really think this is the beginning of his career,” she says. “This is not the highlight. He is going to go far. He’s a thoughtful, compassionate, smart, quick-witted young man.”
Buisman is excited to get to work.
“The more we expand the clinic, the more ambitious we get, the more involved students can get,” he says. “It means more clients and systemic level accomplishments. There’s this beautiful synergy to all of these projects that we’re looking at, and I’m just so excited to get to play a part in it.”