Nearly every week, Prof. Heidi Rummel received a phone call from [name redacted]’s mother. The anxious woman would describe her son’s plight and plead for USC’s Post-Conviction Justice Project to take his case.
PCJP students worked tirelessly on his case, and he was resentenced in 2014 under the Fair Sentencing for Youth Act. They worked another three years to convince the parole board and California Gov. Jerry Brown that he had been completely rehabilitated and should be released.
Following the Governor ‘s 2015 reversal of parole, PCJP achieved victory in November 2017.
He became the PCJP’s first juvenile resentencing client to be released from prison.
“Representing a client is like taking a journey together. The value of going through the downs—numerous denials—in order to eventually achieve our goal together—parole—is something I would not have learned inside a classroom. I am very thankful.”
Jihyuk Song, JD 2019
