Heidi Rummel is clinical professor of law and co-director with Prof. Michael Brennan of the Post-Conviction Justice Project (PCJP), which advocates for the legal rights of convicted prisoners. Prof. Rummel discussed the PCJP’s mission and work in parole, habeas petitions and resentencing cases, providing insights into the ways student-lawyers have…
For the past three decades, USC Gould Professor Michael Brennan has mentored hundreds of fledgling lawyers. He has taught them how to be forceful when arguing in court, diligent when filing habeas petitions and sensitive when meeting nervous clients. Regardless of where they are today, many alumni say they are…
Just four weeks into the academic year, USC Gould’s Post-Conviction Justice Project is celebrating several significant victories. Students — and a recent graduate — successfully argued for a sentence reduction and parole grants for four deserving clients. READ THE ARTICLE
The first juvenile offender resentenced under the California Fair Sentencing for Youth Act was released from prison this week thanks to the work of law students with USC Gould’s Post-Conviction Justice Project (PCJP).
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Ask Kristen Bell about her favorite author, and she’ll respond with a deep laugh, as though she’s about to name someone whose work will seem inferior. But her answer is:”Dostoevski. I like 'The Brothers Karamazov' best. It’s very rich, both philosophically and psychologically, and [it’s] about the big questions we…
A 74-year-old woman, known as “Mother Mary” to family and friends, was released from prison March 24 after serving 32 years for crimes committed by her batterer. Mary Virginia Jones, represented by law students at USC’s Post-Conviction Justice Project, appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court. Dozens of family and friends…
For more than thirty years, the Post-Conviction Justice Project has represented thousands of clients before state and federal parole boards, and in both the state and federal court systems. For the past twenty years, students in the Project have represented state prisoners, mostly women incarcerated at the California Institution for Women, serving life-term sentences for murder convictions. Many committed crimes related to a history of physical or sexual abuse, and some were convicted for killing their abusers. PCJP client Rose Parker, now Dr. Rose Parker-Sterling, was one of only three life-term inmates to be released on parole under then-Governor Gray Davis. Her release in 2000 marked the first in an ever-growing number of PCJP clients to be released.
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See CBS News coverage of Mary Virginia Jones's release from prison after serving 32 years for a murder committed by her abusive boyfriend. See the story
Read the Los Angeles Times article about USC PCJP's efforts to free 74-year-old Mary Virginia Jones, convicted for her role in a 1981 murder, after 32 years behind bars. Read the article
In 2013, at age 38, PCJP Edel Gonzalez was considered for (and eventually granted) parole as the first inmate under a new law to have his life sentence reduced for a crime he committed as a juvenile. Governor Jerry Brown signed the California law that allows inmates similar to Gonzalez,…