Through the University of Richmond’s Institute for Actual Innocence law clinic, students have taken a leading role in advocating for the rights of the wrongfully convicted for 15 years.

It was the first in-house residential Innocence Project run by a faculty member in the state of Virginia, and with professor Mary Kelly Tate’s leadership, students screen, investigate, and litigate felony cases where there is credible evidence of the convicted person’s innocence. Throughout its 15 years, the clinic’s work has expanded from actual innocence cases to include other types of advocacy related to wrongful conviction, such as cases in which defendants are excessively charged or sentenced.

“We cannot overstate the importance that wrongful convictions have in terms of an individual life. That is central and cannot be forgotten,” Tate said in a University of Richmond Magazine article about the clinic’s anniversary. “But wrongful convictions are also tremendously dangerous in terms of a systematic threat to the legitimacy of the criminal justice system. They erode confidence in our justice system, and our justice system is the system that makes decisions about life or liberty.”

She is proud of the legal clinic’s accomplishments, noting that her all-student staff is smaller than similar teams that focus on innocence and post-conviction work.

“This fact has not stopped it from securing significant wins, effecting change, and raising awareness,” she said.

The clinic is run like a law firm, and students who become involved take a wrongful convictions course that is oriented toward legal theory and addresses why innocent people are sometimes convicted. Students then collaborate across professional and disciplinary sectors of society, including with lawyers, prosecutors, forensic scientists, judges, and elected officials. 

“An important outcome of directly representing persons in need of legal assistance is the student exposure to the role of public service in the life of a lawyer,” Tate said. “The concrete legal skills and experiences gained in the clinic also provide students a practice-ready competitive advantage when they graduate.” 

Related:

• Read the Richmond Law magazine story
• Watch the Spider Talks episode