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SKILL SHARPENER
Law Students Actively Involved in Northwestern’s Center on Wrongful Convictions [by Erica Winter] It’s not a typical summer job. Law students working at Northwestern University School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions hit the ground running as they seek to prove clients’ innocence or lesser culpability in cases where a court has already ruled.
forensics, “but I was having a lot of fun.”
After just a few weeks at the center, Nicole
LeFrancois was an undergraduate at the
LeFrancois, who will be a second-year
University of Chicago when then-Governor of
Yale Law student in the fall, is traveling to
Illinois George Ryan commuted the sentences
Tarleton was also “pessimistic,” he says,
Michigan to interview witnesses and test alibi
of all 157 Illinois death-row inmates. The
“I was surprised when we won; happy, but
evidence in an effort to help a center client.
Center on Wrongful Convictions was instru-
surprised.” When the Williams case was
LeFrancois is glad to be getting involved
mental in freeing several wrongly convicted
resolved in early July, Tarleton and the other
and values “having contact with real people
people at that point, and its work was cited
Center workers went to work on other cases.
whose lives depend on what we do.”
in the Governor’s January 11, 2003, speech
Tarleton worked at the Center for three
announcing the mass clemency. LeFrancois
semesters in a row, including last summer,
The Michigan client, who has been in prison
remembered the speech and its result, as
and he says, space allowing, “Hopefully, I can
for 15 years, was convicted of a murder-arson
well as the center. “I really admired their
come back.”
after her husband died in a fire that destroyed
work,” says LeFrancois. Monica Hunt is also going into her third year
their home, says Jane Raley, the center’s Senior Staff Attorney and Assistant Clinical
Governor Ryan’s actions also inspired
at Northwestern Law. This summer, she
Professor at Northwestern Law.
Michael Tarleton not only to work at the
is working at a Washington, DC, law firm.
center, but also to go to law school in the first
Last summer at the Center, working on the
The center’s staff members think the
place. Tarleton will be a third-year student at
Darnell Williams case for one month was “an
convicted woman is innocent and that the
Northwestern Law in the fall and intends to
extraordinary experience,” Hunt says. She
fire was an accident. “Arson cases are the
become a public defender. He is against the
helped to draft the memo to the governor of
happening thing right now,” says Raley. Arson
death penalty, “and I’m generally concerned
Indiana. “I had no idea how much we were
science, she explains, like DNA-identification
about the way people are treated by our jus-
contributing until it was over,” Hunt says of
science, has expanded greatly in the past few
tice system,” he says. This summer, Tarleton
the student involvement in the case. “We
years. Advances have allowed more accu-
is working with the Georgia Public Defender
learned a lot with the guidance of the lawyers
rate identification of causes of fires. These
Standards Council.
there,” she says.
reevaluate whether the conclusion of arson
Last summer, with the Center, Tarleton
One of Hunt’s tasks for the Williams case
was accurate in the first place.
worked on the Darnell Williams case, in
was going to meet the victims’ families to
which a man on death row in Indiana was set
inform them that the Center was working to
While in Michigan, LeFrancois, along with
to die within weeks, while his convicted co-
change Williams’s death sentence. It was
others from the center, will be re-interview-
defendant had his death sentence changed to
“not a pleasant experience,” she says; the
ing witnesses and checking the client’s
life in prison after testing with a very low IQ.
family was very angry at first and did not want
techniques can be used in old arson cases to
to talk with her and her colleague. It was
alibi. The client had said she was far from her home when the fire started, during a
Tarleton did research on disparities in sen-
important to visit the victim’s family, says
snowstorm. LeFrancois and her colleagues
tencing between defendants. It “felt good to
Hunt, because “they’d been neglected by the
will check driving times between their client’s
be a part of it,” says Tarleton. He also worked
system as well.” The family had not been
location and her home, estimating how long
in Indiana with others from the Center, talk-
previously informed that Williams’ sentencing
it would have taken in the snow. “It’s an inter-
ing with former jurors, as well as investiga-
was being challenged.
esting case,” says Raley.
tors who had been at the murder scene. “It’s odd,” says Tarleton, who is very interested in
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In her work at the center, Hunt saw that “we
continued on back
SKILL SHARPENER
don’t just represent the defendant, but also decency.” In law school, the law can seem like a completely adversarial process, says Hunt. Instead, says Hunt, lawyers should be stewards of the system and the people on both sides. Lawyers should “make sure everyone in the process is cared for,” she says, especially in criminal law. “Our job is not to win; it’s to make amends the best we can.”
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