Post-Conviction Justice Project changes lives of two clients By Lauren Rogers and Heidi Rummel Students in the Post-Conviction Justice Project, headed by Professors Michael Brennan and Heidi Rummel, recently won life-changing victories for two clients. William and Jerome were both teenagers tried as adults and sentenced to die in prison (juvenile life without…
Twenty-two years into a life sentence for a crime committed as a teen, a former gang member found hope with the help of USC legal advocates.
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Former juvenile lifer client Louis shared his story for Homeboy Industries: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=181986496375414 "To be walking through that tunnel, with no light at the other side was, like, the worst feeling ever. All I know is my life was filled with hopelessness, fear and despair."
Cambodian refugee and PCJP client Tith Ton, 40, spent more than two decades in prison for killing a rival gang member. In December he was granted parole— approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom — but was immediately turned over to federal agents for possible deportation, reports the Los Angeles Times.
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KCRW's podcast Greater L.A. hosted PCJP client Louis Pham in a story about how former lifers are welcomed back into the community. When a lifer steps out of prison after so many years, often decades, they are smacked with an onslaught of smells, sights, and unfamiliar sensations. “I remember walking…
The inmates at the maximum-security Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California sat in a circle in the enormous gym, their hair graying at the temples and a decades-old refrain echoing through their heads: No optimism. No chance to go home. Most had been incarcerated for more than half their…
Six inmates sat in the visiting room of California’s Corcoran State Prison, and each one held a piece of paper. The information in their hands was basic enough; it’s what anyone could find out about them on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation website. But for these inmates meeting…
After spending more than 20 years in adult prisons, two inmates sought the legal services of student attorneys with the Post-Conviction Justice Project, which co-sponsored California’s 2014 Fair Sentencing for Youth Act and several subsequent juvenile justice bills.
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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…
Law students in USC Gould’s Post-Conviction Justice Project (PCJP) recently celebrated three major victories after hard-fought battles in Superior Court, and before parole boards and district attorneys. Law students successfully persuaded a Sacramento County Superior Court to impose a parole-eligible sentence on Dwayne Thomas DeLuna, a client sentenced to life…