Changed By a ClassSanta Clara Law students reflect on their experiences as interns at the Northern California Innocence Project.By Elizabeth Kelley GilloglyEvery year, dozens of Santa Clara Law students work as interns at the Northern California Innocence Project. We spoke with several current students and asked them to share their thoughts about the experience—how it changed them, how it surprised them, and what was most meaning ful to them. Here are some of their answers.
SADIE WATHENIn this class, I have learned that I am at my best and am most productive when I am working on a project that will truly impact the freedom and dignity of another individual. I felt I was making a valuable contribution to society. This class also made me see the human side of lawyering. My expe rience at NCIP showed me that being a lawyer is not merely about drafting doc uments or doing research but also about being able to relate to your clients. The most meaningful part of this class was learning that there is a place in the legal profession for people like me who want to improve the system and to positively impact the lives of others and the community at large.
MATT CURRYThis semester taught me not to take guilty verdicts at face value. There are plenty of different points in the conviction process where a mistake, honest or otherwise, can imprison someone for life. Yet even when those mistakes are acknowledged, undoing the result takes a ton of hard work and good luck. It was inspiring to work with NCIP attorneys doing things to investigate every possible angle of an inmate’s claim, but it was also depressing to see so many cases of poor, uninspired lawyering by the inmates’ original attorneys, the result of which is next to impossible to undo. The most meaningful part of the class was being involved in someone’s life in such an intimate way. It is powerful to know that a client was given a second chance at justice.
MABEL LINIn this class, everything was meaningful, from getting to work on a real case to learning more about the criminal justice system to working with extremely skilled and intelligent attorneys. What surprised me was the extent of how unjust the criminal system can be. It’s unsettling that a defendant can be convicted based on evidence that really does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. This class has also impressed upon me the significant and positive impact that attorneys have even after a case has been tried and decided. To overturn something that the state has already committed itself to is not an easy thing to do.
CURTIS MACONI believe that this class, more than any other class I’ve taken at Santa Clara Law, has best prepared me to actually practice law. After thinking that I was a born prosecutor, this class taught me that what I really want to do is be a public defender. Watching Linda Starr and Jill Kent strategize on ways to basically go where no lawyer has gone before really opened my eyes to the fact that there are still trails to be blazed in criminal law. The most meaningful part of the class for me was the case work. For most students (including me) this is the first time they’ve ever worked on a real case. There’s something exhilarating about evaluating a file and investigating it and then being allowed to offer your opinion on what the next step should be.
ALANA HAWKINSIn this class, my vision of what an attorney can do has definitely expanded. I had no idea that an attorney had to be so creative. I’ve also learned to truly read and think more critically, and I’ve learned patience. When we work on the cases, we’re lucky if we have all of the court documents and other case-related files in front of us. This means that we need to make the most of the documents that we do have and pull as much of the information from them as possible. In addition, I was lucky enough to be in class for two exonerations. Those really were the most meaningful parts of class for me. |
