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…
USC Post-Conviction Justice Project Director Heidi Rummel joined the rapper Common to help shine a light on criminal justice bills – including SB 394 which USC law students helped draft and promote. They met with state lawmakers in Sacramento in conjunction with the Imagine Justice concert on the Capitol mall grounds featuring…
In October 2017, two bills co-sponsored by USC's Post-Conviction Justice Project were signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. Assembly Bill 1308 extends the Youth Offender Parole Process to age 25, and Senate Bill 394 eliminates life-without-parole sentences for children. Heidi Rummel, co-director of PCJP, and PCJP students have been…
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…
Convicted of a murder at age 18, Marvin Mutch spent 41 years in prison despite multiple appeals and valiant efforts by the California Innocence Project. Because he maintained his innocence, Marvin Mutch was denied parole at 21 hearings. That is, until last year, when the PCJP represented him at his…
USC Gould Prof. Heidi Rummel and Post-Conviction Justice Project student Scott Mills ’16 were awarded the 2016 “California Lawyer Attorney of the Year” by the Los Angeles Daily Journal newspaper and California Lawyer magazine. The pair was recognized at a recent ceremony in San Francisco for their groundbreaking legal work in…
USC Gould’s oldest and newest clinics are celebrating milestones this year — the Post-Conviction Justice Project (PCJP) marks its 35th anniversary, and the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) turns 5 years old. Since 1981, the PCJP has offered hands-on legal training to nearly 1,000 USC law students, serving clients at…
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…