SEATTLE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Seattle University School of Law’s students, faculty and alumni work for justice.
O U R TO P S TO R I E S
D e a n’s p e r s p e c t i v e ...To establish justice. This simple phrase is part of the preamble of the Constitution, one of the most important ideals upon which our country stands. It’s also a core part of who we are at Seattle University School of Law. It influences how we educate, the experiences we offer and the way we inspire our students and graduates to be leaders for change. You will see this throughout our program of legal education – from our No. 1 Legal Writing Program and our outstanding professors to our commitment to social justice and hands-on learning through our clinic and externship programs. This special issue of our Lawyer magazine spotlights stories from our recent issues that best illustrate how our students, faculty and alumni live out our mission. I invite you to learn more about us in these pages and on our website, www.law.seattleu.edu.
Best regards,
Mark C. Niles Dean and Professor of Law
Seattle University School of Law 40th Anniversary Celebration
Lawyer | Special Issue
April 11 at Sullivan Hall
2
Please join us to celebrate the years and look forward to the future. For more information, e-mail rsvplawalumni@seattleu.edu
Establish justice.
Contents
Inside this issue S E AT T L E
UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL
OF
L AW
4
Office of Admission Carol Cochran, Assistant Dean ccochran@seattleu.edu Whitney Earles, Director wearles@seattleu.edu Shontrana Gates, Assistant Director gatess@seattleu.edu
6
Amy Crusan-Kramer, Administrative Assistant akramer@seattleu.edu Eric Bender, Records Specialist bendere@seattleu.edu Administration Mark C. Niles Dean and Professor
8
Lisa Barton Associate Dean for Advancement Richard Bird Associate Dean for Finance & Administration Kristin Cheney ’84 Associate Dean for Library and Instructional Technology Donna Deming Associate Dean for Student Affairs Jack Kirkwood Associate Dean for Strategic Planning and Mission
Shawn Lipton Assistant Dean for the Center for Professional Development
A strong argument Student impresses with Court of Appeals appearance Her biggest case Janis Puracal ’07 devoted her life to her brother’s release
10 12
14
Changing the face Law school has legacy of diversity and access Out of the Ashes Professor’s documentary on 9/11 fund stirs emotions, asks hard questions Finally free International Human Rights Clinic
A jury of their peers Law students advise high schoolers in city’s first Youth Traffic Court
Seattle Universit y School of Law
Kathleen Koch Assistant Dean for Student Financial Services
9
A case for clemency Professor and students help transformed man win freedom
©2013 Seattle University School of Law
3
Lawyer | Special Issue
4
Associate Dean Paul Holland and Al-Kareem Shadeed were happy to see each other outside of the Monroe prision, where Shadeed spent 18 years before being released this fall. Photo by Matt Hagen
A case for clemency Professor and students help transformed man win freedom
I
Seattle Universit y School of Law
n 1994, Al-Kareem Shadeed was a nearly illiterate 24-year“ Every day I thank God for the blessing of being free. old with a drug habit when he tried unsuccessfully to steal No doubt about it, I appreciate all the work of Paul a high school teacher’s wallet. He had no weapon and no one was injured, but Shadeed’s conviction for attempted Holland and his team.” second-degree robbery resulted in a sentence of life in —Al-Kareem Shadeed prison without parole under the state’s new three strikes law. Even his victim argued at the time that Shadeed needed help, not a life behind bars. had undergone. Even with seemingly no chance of a life outside Today, Shadeed is a changed man – and a free man. Gov. Christine of prison, Shadeed immediately enrolled in classes and earned his Gregoire granted a petition for clemency filed by Seattle University GED. During his years behind bars, he took college writing classes School of Law Professor and students Ryan Pauley and Josh Springer. and earned a computer repair certificate. He regularly went to NarShadeed left prison, under strict conditions but grateful for another cotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings throughout chance to make a life. He is one of only four people in the country to his imprisonment, voluntarily took anger management classes, and be granted clemency after being sentenced to life in prison under a participated in a victim awareness program. three strikes law, according to the King County prosecutor. Springer and Pauley set out contacting people who had worked with “Every day I thank God for the blessing of being free,” Shadeed Shadeed during his imprisonment. The list of supporters was extensaid. “No doubt about it, I appreciate all the work of Paul Holland and his team.” Did you know? 144 students participated in 17 different clinics offered Holland, who is now the associate dean for academic through the Ronald A. Peterson Law Clinic in a range of areas from immigrant affairs, was directing the law school’s Ronald A. Peterson to community economic development and mental health court. Law Clinic and teaching in the Youth Advocacy Clinic when he agreed to take the case. It has been one of his most rewarding and gave his students a remarkable opportunity. sive, and every one of them attested to the power of his personality “This case is a rarity – the justice system corrected itself in an instance and their belief in his readiness to rejoin free society. when it didn’t have to.” Holland said. “It would have been lawful for It was great experience for the students and left a lasting impresthe life sentence to stand, but it wouldn’t have been just.” sion. “This kind of case makes it feel good to practice the law,” Springer A great lesson said. “I don’t get the gratification every day that I got when I was working on this case. I would be OK if this was the pinnacle of my Holland knew taking Shadeed’s case would require him and the stulegal career.” dents assigned to the case, Ryan Pauley and Josh Springer, both ’09, Springer practiced insurance coverage and insurance defense as an to learn a lot, about the clemency process and, more importantly, associate at Cozen O’Connor before starting his own law practice. He about their client. volunteers monthly at the Greenwood Legal Clinic, which he calls the “When you hear that term ‘life without parole’ you think of the worst best part of his legal work. crimes possible,” Pauley said. “When I heard about what he did, and Pauley, who practices with his father, Tim, at Pauley Law Group, that he was in for life, I thought, ‘how is that even possible?’” also found the experience meaningful. “It made me a better attorney,” From the first meeting with Shadeed, the team knew that it was he said. “No matter what I do in my legal career, I really did make a essential that they find a way to make the Clemency and Pardons Board difference. We helped him get his life back.” and, eventually, the governor see the transformation that Shadeed
5
Did you know? The mission of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality is to advance justice and equality through research, advocacy, and education. It is named for the man who deďŹ ed military orders to report to a Japanese internment camp during WWII and took his challenge to the United States Supreme Court 40 years later.
A strong argument Lawyer | Special Issue
Student impresses with Court of Appeals appearance
6
Arguing before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was the highlight of Will Witherspoon’s law school career. Photos by Matt Hagen.
District Court because of policy changes within the Department of Corrections, he said the experience was invaluable. He is especially grateful for the support from faculty and practicing attorneys who helped him prepare. “Through their questioning, testing, and brainstorming of the arguments, I’ve learned what it takes to fully prepare,” he said. Witherspoon completed law school in the Part-Time Program, while continuing his work as an engineer at The Boeing Co., which required travel to the Middle East. “It’s demanding,” he admits, but he is excited for a career change that came about unexpectedly. While working for Boeing in Japan, he took a certificate course in torts at the Tokyo campus of Temple University School of Law.
Witherspoon talks with Erika Koch , a 2L who worked on the case.
“There was something about it that clicked with me,” he said. So he started looking at law schools and was drawn to Seattle University School of Law’s social justice focus. “I just kind of fell in love with it,” he said. That prompted him and his wife to move back to the United States so he could attend law school. It was the right decision. Witherspoon excelled. In addition to his clinic work, he was an extern for Federal District Court Judge Thomas Zilly and was named the Dean’s Medalist at December graduation. After his work on the Hoisington case, he is more committed to doing public interest law. He hopes to pursue that in his home state of Tennessee. “There were so many people involved in this case, all fighting the fight, doing good,” he said. “It was really inspiring and gave me something to strive for.”
Seattle Universit y School of Law
rguing before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is a rarity for practicing lawyers. So when Will Witherspoon found out he would have the chance to do so while still a student, he knew it was an extraordinary opportunity. “It was absolutely the defining moment of law school,” said Witherspoon, who graduated this month. He is the first Seattle University School of Law student to appear before the appellate court as part of a law school course. He made his argument in Hoisington v. Williams in October, challenging policies at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island that require residents to be strip searched and shackled during transport to off-island medical appointments. He appeared under the supervision of Korematsu Center Clinical Teaching Fellow Anjana Malhotra and Korematsu Center Executive Director Bob Chang. He argued that the visual body cavity searches and shackling of civilly committed detainees constitute punitive conditions of confinement and unreasonable searches and seizures where residents are under constant armed guard during transport and other, less intrusive alternatives are available at the facility. The judges and professors were impressed, with Judge Milan Smith congratulating Witherspoon on his advocacy and comparing him to the attorneys he hears. “He did a fantastic job,” Chang said. “Will’s great performance is also a credit to the superb legal education he received at our law school and to the tremendous help he received from so many of our colleagues and members of the practicing bar who took the time to moot him over the last two months.” Witherspoon started work on this case with Elise Fandrich and other students in the law school’s Civil Rights Amicus Clinic last spring. He was supported in his preparation by faculty, members of the practicing bar, and student fellows of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality. Malhotra, who taught the law school’s Civil Rights Amicus Clinic last spring, contacted the Ninth Circuit regarding cases that students might handle. Given the civil rights focus of the clinic and the pressing need to provide legal assistance to pro se clients in Washington, she and Chang agreed this was an excellent case for them. “This case is significant because, in it, we argue that there are limits on the way that the state can treat individuals held in indefinite civil detention,” she said. “Because Monte Hoisington has already served his sentence and is civilly detained, he has greater constitutional rights than prisoners.” Though Witherspoon was disappointed in the ruling, which didn’t address their argument and instead remanded the matter back to
7
Her biggest case
Lawyer | Special Issue
Janis Puracal ’07 devoted her life to her brother’s release
8
fter graduating from New York University, Janis Puracal set her sights on law school, thinking she would do criminal defense work. After summer jobs with the Seattle firms of Riddell Williams and Bullivant Houser Bailey, she happily changed course to civil litigation when Bullivant offered her a position. “I was really excited to get into practice because I had a little taste of it,” she said. While enrolled at Seattle University School of Law, she completed an externship at the International Tribunal at the Hague, which piqued her interest in international law. “It was an amazing experience. I got to interact with judges from around the world,” she said. Her law school experience became invaluable as she explored both criminal defense and international law in the fight to save her brother from a Nicaraguan prison. Jason Puracal was wrongfully convicted and spent nearly two years in the notorious La Modelo prison before being freed by an appeals court in September 2012. Janis says the proceedings were replete with violations of Nicaraguan and international laws and revealed a striking lack of evidence. Jason has consistently maintained his innocence. He has suffered repeated violations of basic human and legal rights during his detention and imprisonment. Professor Tom Antkowiak credited Janis, a 2007 graduate, who led the fight for Jason’s release. She put together a team of supporters and kept Jason’s story in the public eye. Jason and Janis ’07 Puracal have a lot to smile about now “Janis was the advocate that made it all happen, and I can tell you as someone who that he has been reunited with his family. Photo by Matt dedicates my own profession to international human rights, Janis has really taken Hagen. me to school,” he said. “Janis, with her sophisticated advocacy methods, has taught me and my clinic so much about what it means to zealously and really fantastically represent your client in both domestic and international proceedings.” She worked tirelessly on her brother’s case on top of her regular caseload. She and other human rights and international Did you know? The law school’s International Human Rights attorneys pursued numerous avenues to ensure his release, Clinic won a victory for a man wrongfully imprisoned in Mexico and including petitions to the United Nations, stories in the national students have traveled to Washington, D.C. and Costa Rica for and international media and letters from U.S. Congressman to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. arguments before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Seattle University School of Law Professor Tom Antkowiak and the law school’s International Human Rights Clinic is monitoring the case and will eventually submit a detailed complaint on Jason’s behalf to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. “I just don’t know where we would be if I didn’t have a background in the law,” she said. “We have a whole team of people who are working night and day for Jason, and they are all people we have found because of my background in the law and ability to network.”
A jury of their peers Law students advise high schoolers in city’s first Youth Traffic Court
Did you know? The Youth Traffic Court was recognized with a Colleen Willoughby Youth Civic Education Awards by Seattle CityClub.
I
Jim Owens ’12 advises Garfield student Erika Monda, who was serving as a defense attorney.
High School students at the law school, rather than in Municipal Court. “Youth courts provide an opportunity for teens to take responsibility for their driving mistakes, while keeping their driving record clean,” said Margaret Fisher, a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at Seattle University School of Law and a national expert in youth courts, who oversees the law school’s involvement. Qualified defendants appear before the Youth Court, receive a sanction of community service, youth court jury service, preventative education and/or similar consequences. If they comply, the infraction will be dismissed and will not be reported to the Department of Licensing or appear on a defendant’s driving record. Garfield High School students serve as judges, jurors, prosecutors and defense attorneys and court staff. They are trained and supported by volunteer law students. Six law students worked on the program launch, including Forrest Smith ’12.
“I can’t help but be inspired by the dedication that these high school students have to the program,” Smith said. “I hope many of them will pursue a career in law later in life.
Forrest Smith ’12 talks with Garfield student Obsitu Yacub about a case.
Seattle Universit y School of Law
n this case, the defendant is a high school junior, a good student and a varsity football player who volunteers at a homeless shelter feeding meals to the hungry. He’s also an inexperienced driver who caused an accident when he failed to yield at an intersection. The oncoming driver swerved to miss him and went up on a sidewalk, hitting a stop sign and damaging her car. The driver had a small child in the car. “I felt absolutely terrible,” the boy testified in a classroom at Seattle University School of Law. “I was really scared for everyone in the other car. Luckily no one was hurt.” He will be working off the $2,200 in damage his parents had to cover and had his driving privileges taken away for a while. But he chose to have his formal punishment determined through a jury of his peers rather than a judge through the new Seattle Youth Court, collaboration between the law school, Seattle Municipal Court and Garfield High School. The jury in his case determined he should write a letter of apology to the other driver and serve on two Youth Court juries. If he completes that, his ticket will be dismissed. He and his mother say the focus on accountability and reflection on the importance of safety could be more effective for new drivers than a fine. The city’s first Youth Traffic Court allows eligible teen drivers to appear before Garfield
9
Changing the face
Law school has legacy of diversity and access Alexis Oliver ’08, who works as a policy advisor for the Washington governor’s office, shares a laugh with Professor Paula Lustbader ’88, at a celebration of the ARC program. Photo by Marcus Donner.
W
hen Judge Mark Chow graduated from Seattle University School of Law in 1979, he was the only person of color in his class. He was one of the early beneficiaries of the law school’s efforts to reach out to underrepresented groups, which has grown into the acclaimed Academic Resource Center.
“Everyone told me, “Nope, you can’t make it,’ but this law school was the only place I was
Lawyer | Special Issue
aware of that was willing to take a look at other factors than the culturally biased LSAT. I was
10
very fortunate.” Today, Seattle University School of Law is the Northwest’s most diverse law school and is nationally recognized for its inclusive environment. One of the pillars of that commitment is the life-changing Access Admission Program and Academic Resource Center. “Among the things I most love about Seattle University School of Law are its diverse faculty
and student body and its commitment to equal justice,” Dean Mark C. Niles said. “ARC is at the heart of that.” More than 700 alumni have enhanced the legal profession with their service. This program, one of the few remaining true access programs
Did you know? Seattle University School of Law is the most diverse law school in the Northwest. The Class of 2015 is comprised of 31 percent students of color, 47 percent women, and 26 percent students from out of state. Students range in age from 21 to 61, with the average age being 26.
in the country, is literally changing the face of the legal profession. An anonymous donor who also believes in that mission has created an
the District Court level, and served on the Judicial Education Committee,
endowment of more than $8 million for ARC scholarships.
making sure diversity issues were incorporated into curriculum.
The Access Admission Program considers an applicant’s life experi-
Like Chow, ARC alumni are thriving in all forms of practice. They
ence and promise in addition to traditional admission criteria, and
are state and federal court clerks; partners and associates; prosecutors
ARC provides the support necessary for their success. Given access
and defense attorneys; public interest lawyers; attorneys for nonprofit
to legal education, ARC alums enrich the law school and the profes-
organizations; educators; corporate counsel and judges.
sion. Although they comprise only 10 percent of the student popula-
The law school’s dedication to diversity extends well beyond the ARC program, knowing that diversity enriches the experiences for all students and alumni. That commitment includes recruiting faculty and students from the broadest range of backgrounds and experience and working to create a more diverse legal profession, through a variety of curricular and programmatic initiatives. Among the many ways the law school promotes diversity: • Students can take courses on a variety of subjects related to diversity taught by national recognized critical race scholars. A Law and Social Inequality Focus Area provides a range of courses dealing with disparities based on race, poverty and gender. • Professor Robert Chang, Executive Director of the law school’s Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality, co-chairs the Task Force on Race and Criminal Justice, a coalition of judges, legislators, law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys, academics and representatives from other legal community and community organizations that came together to investigate and challenge racial bias in the
Professor Dave Boerner poses with a group of alumni and students, who are all grateful for his work over the years.
criminal justice system. • A year-round Lawyering in a Diverse World series offers workshops designed to empower students with skills and tools on a variety of
tion, ARC students are disproportionately overrepresented as faculty scholars, Student Bar Association presidents and graduation speakers. They go on to be leaders in the legal profession, bar associations and their communities. They continue to serve the law school long after they graduate. Lustbader ’88, has a solid program of support, which begins with specially designed summer coursework.
• The Racial Justice Leadership Institute is a new professional development opportunity to faculty and staff as part of our commitment to create a positive climate for all members of the law school community. Niles said the law school is continually looking for ways to embrace and promote diversity.
After law school, Chow was a King County deputy prosecutor, helping
“Each generation has its own diversity issues and objectives,” Dean
establish the pioneering Mental Health Court. He worked in private prac-
Niles said. “Progress in some areas should never be used as a reason not
tice and served as legal counsel for Mayor Charles Royer. He was elected
to remain vigilant in the ongoing mission of creating a just, equitable
to the bench in 1991 – the first Asian American in the state to serve at
and inclusive world.”
Seattle Universit y School of Law
The ARC program co-founded by Professors Dave Boerner and Paula
issues related to diversity.
11
Did you know? Professor Marilyn Berger is the co-author of some of the mostused casebooks on trial advocacy
Lawyer | Special Issue
and pre-trial advocacy.
12
Professor Marilyn Berger
Out of the Ashes Documentary on 9/11 fund stirs emotions, asks hard questions their loved ones and their tragic loss, but also how working with the fund helped and hampered their personal recoveries. They include a retired firefighter whose son was one of 343 firefighters killed; the widow of the co-pilot of Flight 93; a woman whose husband was killed, and whose journey was further complicated because her husband was an undocumented worker; a widow of an insurance agent who rejected the Fund and felt compelled to file a lawsuit in order to demand answers and accountability; a same-sex partner of a woman who died in the Twin Towers who battled for recognition as a same-sex partner survivor; and the family of a woman who died from respiratory disease caused by the toxic dust created by the collapse of the towers. The film has been shown in New York, Washington, D.C. and at law schools around the country, many of which use it as a curricular tool. “Out of the Ashes” raises important questions: Did the Fund undermine the legal system, as its critics claim? Or did it offer victims a way to avoid the extraordinary cost, complexity and excruciatingly slow pace of a lawsuit? And if the Victim Compensation Fund was the right thing to do, do those affected by other tragedies like Hurricane Katrina, the Oklahoma City bombing, and other disasters also deserve compensation? If so, is this Fund, with its methods for calculating the value of a human life, an appropriate model? The film attempts to answer such questions, but does not present one point of view. “It’s up to the viewer to decide,” Berger said. Along with debating the fund in a legal sense, younger students may gain a greater understanding of the devastating attacks. Although it seems most people recall in detail where they were the moment the towers were struck and the resulting fear and anguish, Berger said that as time moves on, law students aren’t as personally connected to the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. She noted that some students watching the film today were just children when the attacks occurred. Berger, an authority on pretrial advocacy, established the Films For Justice Institute in 1996 and produced three educational documentary films in the series “Lessons from Woburn” about a lawsuit brought by families in Woburn, Mass., alleging contamination of their drinking water. The original participants appear in the documentary, based on the lawsuit, Anderson v. W.R. Grace, the book by Jonathan Harr, “A Civil Action,” and the Hollywood movie by the same name. The films are used in more than 100 law schools.
Seattle Universit y School of Law
hen Professor Marilyn Berger heard Kenneth Feinberg speak about the grueling and emotional process of administering the $7 billion 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, she knew he should document the story. Convincing him of that was another story. Berger waited to talk to Feinberg, the special master of the Victim Compensation Fund, after his moving keynote speech at a conference in New York. “He told haunting stories about 9/11 families, the impact of the Fund on their lives, and the uniqueness of the Fund in 9/11 history,” Berger said. Feinberg dismissed her, saying he didn’t know her or the law school and didn’t understand the need to talk about it. But she wasn’t easily deterred. “It took me years to win him over,” said Berger, who seven years later has released, “Out of the Ashes,” a compelling documentary in which Feinberg is a major presence. The film, which was produced by Berger through her Films for Justice Program at the law school, is a powerful story about the controversial September 11 Victim Compensation Fund and whether it offered justice to survivors and their families. It examines the legal, moral and ethical ramifications of the Fund and its impact on the civil justice system. The federal government created the Victim Compensation Fund – the largest public entitlement program in history – just 11 days after the attacks. It eventually distributed more than $7 billion to more than 5,500 families. “Out of the Ashes” tells the stories of seven 9/11 families and how they struggled to make sense of the tragedy – and how they chose to deal with the Fund that was designed to help them put their lives back together. The film portrays both the strengths and its weaknesses of the Fund. Featured interviews include Feinberg, who is now overseeing the $20 billion fund to pay claims related to the BP Gulf oil spill. He speaks candidly about the difficulty in persuading victims to give up their right to sue, the problems created by ambiguity in the law that established the Fund, and how the heart wrenching stories affected him as he struggled to essentially put a price tag on a life, over and over again. Deputy Master Deborah Greenspan and many of the attorneys who represented victims’ families in different capacities also appear in the film. But the poignant, painful and candid interviews with the families are the heart of the film. Families of several victims talk not only about
13
Finally free International Human Rights Clinic secures release for man unjustly imprisoned in Mexico
F Ananías Laparra-Martínez celebrates his release with his wife, Rosa GodínezChávez, and daughters Rocío Laparra-Godínez and Amanda Laparra-Godínez.
Did you know?
Several other faculty members work
and teach in the area of international human rights, including Professor Ron Slye, who spent three years on the Kenyan Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and Professor Won Kidane, who has worked with students to help refugees and immigrants secure the legal rights to remain in the
Lawyer | Special Issue
United States.
14
ive years ago, Professor Tom Antkowiak was in southern Mexico doing migrants’ rights work with a Mexican attorney, Ricardo Lagunes-Gasca, and human rights organizations when he first heard about the case of Ananías Laparra-Martínez. Antkowiak learned that Chiapas police had illegally detained Laparra-Martínez in 1999 and beat him severely. They tortured his 14-year old son in front of him and menaced his 16-year-old daughter with rape, all with the acquiescence of government prosecutors. Under this extreme duress he was forced to sign documents confessing to a murder he did not commit. Three family members were similarly coerced into signing corroborating declarations. Despite informing the presiding judge of these reprehensible tactics, no torture was investigated. Laparra-Martínez was convicted of murder on the basis of the illegally-obtained and completely false declarations and sentenced to over 28 years in jail. “After Ricardo and I examined the documents, it was clear that it was another case of tortured confession – a tactic sadly common in Mexico,” said Antkowiak, who teaches the International Human Rights Clinic at Seattle University School of Law. Today, Laparra-Martínez, 64, is a free man, thanks to the work of the Clinic and its partners. Mexican federal government representatives and officials from the state of Chiapas released Laparra-Martínez from prison in February. He had been incarcerated for more than 12 years for a crime that he did not commit. “Mr. Laparra-Martinez and his family were in a particularly difficult situation,” Antkowiak said. “Their own government had persecuted them at every turn, and they were stigmatized in their community. No one believed that he was framed by police. But his family, especially his wife, Rosa, and his daughter Rocio, are incredibly strong and committed people. They have suffered so much, but never gave up.” The case has been years in the making. Antkowiak has been to Mexico many times, meeting Laparra-Martínez in prison and visiting his family. In 2008, Antkowiak and his Clinic students began international
Professor Tom Antkowiak, center, talks with co-counsel Alejandra Gonza and his former student Garrett Oppenheim ’08, who worked on the case. Photo by Marcus Donner.
“The Commission’s decision gave us a new and meaningful opportunity to negotiate with officials from the state and federal governments,” said Alejandra Gonza, cocounsel in the case. After an intense period of negotiations – with key support from Lagunes-Gasca, the Clinic’s partner attorney in Mexico, and the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights – the Clinic secured Laparra-Martínez’s outright release. Garrett Oppenheim ’08 was one of the original Clinic students on the case and has stayed very involved. Oppenheim said working in the International Human Rights Clinic was the high point in his law school experience. He volunteers regularly with International Bridges to Justice and the King County Housing Justice Project. “One of the most important things I’ve done in my life is to have had the privilege of having worked on his case,” Oppenheim said. “As I have said many times, the heroes of the case are his wife and daughter, Rocío and Rosa, whose courage in the face of an unjust system brought his plight interna-
Seattle Universit y School of Law
litigation, which included students drafting a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in Washington, D.C. “Mr. Laparra-Martínez was singled out by judicial police because he was an easy target. Powerless and poor, his arrest would cause no objection and would provide authorities an effortless conviction,” Antkowiak said. “Coerced testimony is often permitted by Mexican courts, which foments widespread torture and other abusive practices by police.” The United Nations, Human Rights Watch and several other organizations have condemned Mexican security forces for their systematic use of torture to obtain confessions. A turning point in the case was the presentation of the Clinic’s petition to the InterAmerican Commission. A number of law students contributed to the preparation of the extensive submission. The Commission eventually ordered the State of Mexico to improve Laparra-Martínez’s detention conditions and medical treatment. The Clinic then leveraged the international decision against government authorities.
tional recognition. It was an honor to have been associated with such bravery and to have been able to play even a small role in assisting their crusade.” The Clinic and its partners will continue to work on behalf of Laparra-Martínez and his family so that the Mexican government will provide them full remedies for the severe human rights abuses they have suffered since 1999. These efforts include pending litigation before the Inter-American Commission, as well as initiatives with various Mexican authorities. Antkowiak has extensive experience in global and regional human rights systems. Before joining the faculty, he was a senior attorney at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of the Organization of American States and served as a special assistant to Oscar Arias, Nobel Peace Laureate and President of Costa Rica. He has provided numerous opportunities for students to be exposed to international human rights cases, including presenting oral arguments before the Inter-American Commission that challenged Peru’s attempts to open the Amazon to resource extraction without duly consulting indigenous communities, and taking students, including Oppenheim, to argue before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica, the highest tribunal for human rights matters in the hemisphere. The Clinic has also worked with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, providing technical assistance to enable the Commission to work with the new African Court on Human Rights. Both provide human rights protection for the entire continent of Africa. “The Ronald A. Peterson Law Clinics generally take the cases of the indigent and vulnerable,” Antkowiak said. “Our students are committed to helping these populations at home and abroad.”
15
901 12th Ave., Sullivan Hall P.O. Box 222000 Seattle, WA 98122-1090
CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED
Seattle University School of Law is committed to social justice. Our No. 1-ranked Legal Writing Program and renowned faculty, along with real-world externship and clinical opportunities, prepare our students to be leaders for a just and humane world. www.law.seattleu.edu
Non-ProďŹ t Org. U.S. Postage PAID Seattle, WA Permit No. 2783