Reply #45: Perfectly said, and if I dare add a little: [View All]

[madmusic]

Northern California Innocence Project

The Northern California Innocence Project is a law school clinical program providing a unique educational oppurtunity for law students to investigate possible wrongful convictions and represent imprisoned clients with claims of actual innocence. Student evaluate case histories, including transcripts, medical reports, and appellate briefs, as well as work with prisoners, crime and evidence labs, law enforcement, defense attorneys and prosecutors to help prove claims of innocence. Supervised by experienced legal and forensic staff, NCIP law students innocence claims by reviewing case histories, appellate briefs, transcripts, medical recors and other documents. They participate directly in the investigative process by interviewing prisoners, witnesses, crime lab personnel, law enforcement, defense attorneys and prosecutors to help prove claims of innocence. Beyond investigating their cases and interviewing witnesses, NCIP students draft legal documents such as motions, declarations, briefs, legal memoranda and letters to attorneys, clients and others. Students also attend and participate in court proceedings. NCIP students begin the semester with an intensive two day training session known as "NCIP Boot Camp" and continue learning by attending classes twice weekly which focus on post-conviction law and issues relevant to wrongful conviction. Class topics include federal and state habeas corpus procedures, post-conviction DNA testing laws. investigation techniques, witness interview strategies, and the science of DNA testing. For every 50 hours of participation in the program including casework and class attendance, a student earns one unit. Graded Credit/No Credit. Public Interest and Social Justice Law Certificate course. (3-6 units).
Student Comments

What the Students Have to Say

"The Innocence Project is what law school should be about! I have learned to put into practice the concepts taught in Evidence, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Trial Advocacy. But more importantly I've learned that being a lawyer means to care for clients and their welfare. The people we are representing are not just nameless, faceless numbers but people with families, feelings, and histories."
-Linda Berkowitz

"A society is judged by the manner in which it treats its most vulnerable. Liberty is a precious right but people are often deprived of it without dignity and respect. In the Innocence Project we have a chance to right two wrongs: We treat the people in prison who write to us with respect and we work to exonerate them if their claims of innocence are viable."
-Karen Rega

"The thought of an innocent person serving time for a crime that he or she did not commit is so repugnant, that I felt it was my duty as a human being to volunteer at the Northern California Innocence Project."
-Marcia Raymond

"Participating in the Project has provided a crash course in the labyrinth of the post-conviction appellate and habeas processes as well as some of the fundamental, insidious flaws in the arrest and suspect identification processes. It is also a lesson in the difficulty of establishing what kind of case actually satisfies the test of a 'claim of actual innocence.' "

"The overall objective of the Northern California Innocence Project is awesome and clear. I could not miss the opportunity to be involved."
- Sara Johnson

"The criminal justice system makes mistakes. 89 innocent people freed from prison only begins to prove this fact. We can either ignore the problem or we can fix it. The Northern California Innocence Project provides students with the unique opportunity to be part of the solution early in their legal careers."
- An Nguyen

http://www.ncip.scu.edu/law/ncip/ncip_the_course.html

Boldness added. Thanks for this post, H2O Man.