| LW.12971 / LW.12972 Professor Vanessa Potkin Professor Jane Pucher Open to 3L and 2L students; LLMs if space is available Maximum of 12 students |
Year-long clinic 14 credits* No prerequisites or co-requisites. |
Course Description
Fieldwork
Students will be expected to complete fifteen hours per week of case-related work at the Innocence Project office. This work will give students the opportunity to directly participate in every aspect of exoneration litigation and learn about the legal and practical challenges of reinvestigating and bringing forth claims related to crimes that happened many decades ago. Under supervision, students will be expected to take ownership of their case work and will be able to measure the impact of their work at the end of the clinical year.
Seminar
The seminar will cover all aspects of the substantive law at issue in students' cases, with particular focus on the legal requirements and procedural barriers in bringing forth post-conviction claims for relief. The seminar will also cover DNA testing and its role in post-conviction innocence litigation; the impact of innocence exonerations on reform in the criminal legal system; and the role of emerging technologies in wrongful arrests and prosecutions. In the spring semester, after completing a unit focused on the role of oral arguments in post-conviction advocacy, students will prepare and argue for post-conviction relief for their clients in mock oral arguments before a panel of leading post-conviction litigators
Application Procedure
Students should submit the standard application, resume, and transcript online through CAMS, the online application system. The professors will contact you to schedule an interview.
* 14 credits include 5 clinical credits and 2 academic seminar credits per semester.