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Teaching the Law In Context- . failures of our justice system. They see the results of the training Taking the Broad View that they receive from the talented faculty of this Law School through the use of those skills on behalf of the clinic's clients. by Thomas F. Geraghty We know that they carry the legal skills learned at the Law School and the commitment to making things better into their this experience confirms is the imperative for us professional lives. In addition to the rewards of working with "w hatto not only train the minds of our students but to students, there could be no better job than helping to support engage their souls as well. Dick Speidel has called my the work of my marvelous colleagues who labor so long and attention to Dean Erwin Griswold's departing lecture as dean hard on behalf of their students and their clients. of Harvard Law School. In that lecture, Griswold pointed out One important lesson that we try to teach is the necessity that one of the risks of legal education-a risk that can lead to of continuing to grow as people and as professionals. After a tempering of our students' idealism-is that there is sometimes all, the goal of a university is to impart knowledge to be used 'too much intellect in the discussion and not enough spirit.' to better the community. In pursuing this goal, we must recog- Our community showed great spirit in the weeks and months nize and teach that law is practiced in context by providing leading up to [the Conference on Wrongful Convictions and the examples of how legal rules and institutions actually work and Death Penalty]. It was a privilege to be part of this triumph." how they interact with each other. -Lawrence C. Marshall, replying to his colleagues' congratu- We must take a "broad view" of latory note regarding the National Con(erence on Wrongful the nature and the purpose of our Convictions and the Death Penalty, November 19, 1998 teaching. The work of Bob Burns and Steve Lubet in constructing Larry Marshall's response to the praise of his colleagues and, their model litigation/ethics/evidence indeed, the manner of his leadership in conceptualizing and curriculum is an example of this inno- carrying out the National Conference on Wrongful Convictions vative contextual approach in the and the Death Penalty made explicit the dual roles of education: classroom. This sequence of courses to build knowledge and skill as well as capacities for ethical and is designed to impart knowledge and to provide students with committed lives. This holistic vision of legal education is what examples of how discrete legal subjects interact with each other drives a good clinical program. in the real world-that clients' problems and cases are seldom There is no more rewarding way to teach than to work resolved by addressing a discrete legal issue. The work of with the Law School's talented and committed students to help Cheryl Graves and Lisa Copland in involving students in the them learn the intricacies of legal representation in the class- creation of community mediation panels to address the prob- room and in the clinic on behalf of clients who, but for our lems of children who commit crimes is another example of how efforts, would be deprived ...... to develop new approaches to address problems in context . We teach students how to of basic human rights and Our students also learn in context through their representa- human necessities. Our solve problems and to create tion of clients. It is not enough to teach or to learn the discrete students are challenged to skills of research, writing, interviewing, counseling, and trial processes that lead to new develop lawyering skills in advocacy. We teach students how to solve problems and to cre- the classroom and in the ideas and iniatives that ate processes that lead to new ideas and initiatives that benefit courtroom and to recognize clients. We must think critically and creatively about methods benefit clients. and remedy the systemic Continued on page 2

Legal Clinic News & Notes Dean's Message of Cook County, in this newsletter, these programs have the center is striv- been enthusiastically received by our stu- ing to make the dents and will be important additions to juvenile courts that our community and curriculum. strong and vibrant clinical pro- serve Chicago a The successes and accomplishments gram is one of the cornerstones model system of described in this newsletter are a tribute of a great legal education. We A justice for children. to our f acuity, students, and staff and are are proud of the quality of our clinical A second in the best Northwestern Law tradition. program and the national stature and example is the I want to thank all who make these pro- recognition we have achieved both for work that is done on death penalty grams a success. our program overall and for its compo- cases and the National Conference on But we must do more. Because of nent parts: simulation and trial advocacy Wrongful Convictions and the Death space constraints, we currently cannot programs and live client clinics. Penalty, which was brilliantly organized accommodate all of our students who Our clinical program at Northwestern last fall by Larry Marshall. This program wish to participate in our distinctive is unique among American law schools. brought national and international atten- clinical programs. And some of our pro- As described in these pages, we do an tion to the fact that under our current grams are dependent on foundation excellent jo b of enabling our students to system of justice, at least 75 men and grants, which although generous, are not hone their trial skills in our simulation women were tried, convicted, and sen- permanent. We must put these important programs and to represent and counsel tenced to death for crimes that they did activities on firmer financial ground. We clients in our live client clinic. We also not commit. Regardless of anyone's per- can begin to do this through the Law provide externships that enable them to sonal views of the appropriateness of the School's recently launched capital cam- better understand the legal process. We death penalty, it was clear from this con- paign. I invite all who support our won- then go fur ther and encourage them to ( erence that wrongful convictions are a derful clinical program and the students examine our system of justice and to help serious issue that cannot be dismissed. who benefit to consider seriously a con- lead t he reform of law and legal institu- Our recently completed Strategic tribution to further its mission. tions. Thus, our students learn and work Plan calls fo r Northwestern to expand As always, I want to hear from our for justice on both a case by case and and broaden our clinical program. We community. If you have questions or systemic basis. have taken significant steps in this direc- thoughts about the clinic or our programs, One example of our work for legal tion by establishing the Small Business please do not hesitate to get in touch reform is the Children and Family Justice Opportunity Clinic and the International with Tom Geraghty or me. Center. Wo rking with the Juvenile Court Center for Human Rights. As described

Continued from page 1 we use to educate and the ways in which we, as lawyers, law the law firm of Sidley & Austin. In addition, the Law School teachers, and students can make a difference to individual has opened a new Center for International Human Rights, clients and to the community. headed by Douglass Cassel, a nationally recognized human Our clinical program has been fortunate to have the tal- rights advocate and scholar. Thus our students will find ented people and the resources that have enabled us to take this opportunities for clinical studies in the world of business broad view of the role of clinical education-one which com- and on behalf of people around the world. The Children and bines the best professional training with the capstones of client Family Justice Center, headed by Bernardine Dohrn, continues representation and critical examination of justice issues. It is the its important work of advocating for juvenile court reform Law School's dedication to this broad view of clinical education and will sponsor during the next year a series of important that makes the clinical program at Northwestern meaningful to conferences on the future of juvenile courts to coincide with the our students and valuable to our community. centennial of the Juvenile Court of Cook County. As the result This comprehensive view of clinical legal education has of Bernardine's work and the work of other members of the been carried forward by this year's developments in our clinical center's staff, the Law School has become an important contrib- program. The past year has been a particularly exciting and utor to the debate about the issues of justice relating to children productive time, a period of growth and of the creation of and families. new opportunities for our students. A new Small Business And what could be more important and exciting than Opportunity Clinic has opened under the leadership of Tom Larry Marshall's work on behalf of the wrongfully convicted? Morsch, a 1955 graduate of the Law School and a partner in The National Conference on Wrongful Convictions and the

Legal Clinic News & Notes 2 Death Penalty, held at the Law School last November and Death Penalty Conference Presents attended by 1,500 people from around the country and around a Vision for Reform the world, was the most compelling and important event ever held at the Law School. For our law students who are taking criminal law and procedure and who are working on criminal Northwestern University law professor Lawrence c. and death penalty cases in the clinic, the event could not have Marshall convened the National Conference on

been a better and more broadening educational experience. In Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty with addition, the conference provides the clinical program and the the following remarks on November 13, 1998. Law School with exciting opportunities to contribute to the on- going debate about the fairness of our criminal justice system. er 14 months of As I observe and admire the efforts of those whose work anning, it gives is described in the following pages-Cynthia Bowman, Bruce e intense plea- Boyer, Bob Burns, Doug Cassel, Angela Coin, Bernardine sure to welcome you to Dohrn, Steve Drizin, John Elson, Derrick Ford, Cheryl Graves, the National Conference Ros Lieb, Steve Lubet, Monica Mahan, Larry Marshall, Vanessa on Wrongful Convictions Melendez, Tom Marsch, Len Rubinowitz, and Ora Schub- and the Death Penalty. I am grateful for the opportunities that they have given me to We stand here this take the broad view and to place in context all of the wonderful moment on the brink of and exciting challenges we face. a spectacular opportunity On a sad note, on January 6 our community suffered a to effect changes in pub- tragic loss with the death of Circuit Court Judge Joan Carboy '77. lic perceptions and public policy about the subject of wrongful Joan was a loving wife to Jim Epstein '78 and a loving mother convictions and about the death penalty. to Matthew and Nora. She was a compassionate and brilliant In Illinois in the last decade we have seen massive change judge who ruled on cases with common sense and knowledge. in public thought, and these changes have manifested them- Before becoming a judge, Joan served with distinction as a fed- selves in the ways in which the courts, the legislature, juries, eral district court clerk and as one of the Cook County State's and journalists look at cases. There is a new sensitivity to the Attorney's top trial lawyers. She, like Jim, was much sought death penalty that was not there 10 years ago. Ten years ago, after as a teacher. She taught regularly in the Law School's the face of the death penalty was that of John Wayne Gacy. Midwest Regional NITA courses and in the Law School's trial Today, the faces of the death penalty in Illinois are the faces advocacy program. Her knowledge and wit were appreciated by of Dennis Williams, Verneal Jimerson, Rolando Cruz, Gary all who were lucky enough to be her students. We are grateful Gauger, Perry Cobb, Darby Tillis, Joe Burrows, and Carl to Joan for sharing Jim with us. Jim has been a mainstay of our Lawson. These are the faces that people in Illinois think about, NITA programs as well as our trial advocacy program. As a and that is why we are moving toward reform. For example, coach of the Law School's national trial competition team, Jim that is why a moratorium resolution that has already passed devotes countless hours to developing the advocacy skills of committee will be voted on in the Illinois legislature. And that our students and leading them to success in local and national is why the Illinois legislature has passed, and the governor has competitions. Joan and Jim served as models for us-devoted signed, the most progressive bill in the country to provide DNA partners, loving parents, involved community members, and the testing to inmates who claim that testing will exonerate them. best of the legal profession. The broad hope of this conference is to bring that mes- This year's work on behalf of students, clients, and the sage-to bring those faces-into every home across this country. community is dedicated to the memory of Joan Carboy and We hope that the picture that will be taken tomorrow of the to Jim Epstein. 30-plus men and women who would be dead today had the state had its way will sear itself into the minds of policy makers Thomas F. Geraghty is associate dean fo r clinical education and voters and potential jurors. and director of the Legal Clinic. He maintains an active case- I have been asked over and over to describe in a more load, concentrating on criminal juvenile defense, death-penalty specific way what the conference hopes to accomplish. I cannot appeals, and projects dea ling with juvenile court reform and the representation of children.

Legal Clinic News & Notes 3 At the National Conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty, 30 men and women who had been convicted of crimes and sentenced to death who were later exonerated came forward to share their sto- ries. They each signed the statement that is printed in fu ll on the following page.

here this weekend. answer that question, for each of us has a different vision In addition to our about what we have come here for. Nonetheless, I would like dream of abolition, to provide some personal reflections on my personal wish list we have to focus with respect this event. on some hard, real- Personally, I oppose executions as a means of enforcing the istic proposals that criminal law. Even if we could ensure accuracy, I do not believe are going to be addressed in workshops and then again at the it is right for government to kill. I know that many of you may Sunday session, as to how we can make the system better, how not share that view, but number one on my personal wish list is we can get the cockroaches out of the sausages. the hope that the faces and the stories of the people that we are If we are going to continue to practice capital punishment, going to be highlighting this weekend will hasten the abolition we can do it a whole lot better than we currently are, and any of the death penalty. humane system has an imperative duty to take steps to improve. If you told Americans that 1 out of 20 sausages they eat So the second item on my wish list is that the conference will is infected with cockroaches, no one would ever eat a sausage spark debate on an agenda for reform and for a moratorium on again. Why, then, would America accept a death penalty when executions until those reforms can be studied and implemented for every seven people who have been executed, one person has by the proper bodies. ended up being exonerated as totally innocent? I do not believe The third item on my personal wish list is that, at the very the majority of Americans would accept the death penalty if least, the faces and stories of the wrongly convicted men and they knew about the realities of the ways in which we decide women who are here this weekend will put an end to the hyper- who should live and who should die. We are here this weekend bolic nonsense of trying to speed up executions by cutting off to educate America about those realities. avenues of relief. Even under the current system, there is grave I am a realist, however, and I know that Monday morning risk of error, but there are some who are trying to make the Representative McCollum is not going to get on the floor of system much worse. There are those who want to cut off post- the Congress and call for a moratorium on the death penalty conviction relief and habeas corpus relief, and there are those because of what happens here this weekend. Abolition is a long- who are seeking to cut off funding and resources for lawyers term, not a short-term goal. Nonetheless, I do believe that there and investigators to work on death penalty cases. These kinds is a potential for meaningful short-term reform that will reduce of changes should be unthinkable. the risk of executing the innocent and will reduce the risk of Indeed, it is truly perverse that the same people who look imprisoning the innocent. We need to focus on those things at our gathering and claim that the exoneration of the 75 proves that the system works, now want to change that very system. Even in the face of these wrongly convicted who nar- rowly escaped with their lives, there are people who are saying,

Legal Clinic News & Notes 4 "Let's execute inmates more quickly." Well, the fact is, if the The Children and Family Justice Center system worked then the way these people want it to work, by Bernardine Dohrn most of the people you will meet this weekend would be dead today. How can people who claim to value human life seek to dult society continues to be con- take measures that inevitably will extinguish innocent life? founded by a paradox: What This is my wish list. Number one, abolition. Number two, kind of persons are children? meaningful reform. Number three, thwarting the measures A The recognition that children are people, toward regressive reforms that threaten to make it even more with legal, constitutional, and human difficult to establish innocence. As you will hear tomorrow, rights, is a recent development in human we have people here whose innocence was not established to the history. Yet we know also that children satisfaction of the system until 5 or 7 or 10 or 13 or 18 or 21 are not identical to adults, that they need years after they were convicted. How, then, can we think about adult care, protection, and family stability hurrying up that process in the light of that kind of evidence? to thrive and to develop their capacities for brilliance, caring, No matter what differences we may have on some core humor, and joy. The abiding pleasure of our work at the issues-and I am sure there are many people here who support Children and Family Justice Center (CFJC) is that the legal the death penalty-surely we can agree that we must take every representation of children, far from being "kiddie law," is the measure humanly possible to reduce error. And of course even most intellectually demanding, rigorous, and ethically challeng- if we abolished the death penalty tomorrow, we would still have ing enterprise, involving fundamental human matters of family, to woi:ry about all those people who are being put away for loss, harm and violence, attachment, endurance, and recovery. the rest of their lives, being put away for 50 years, 20 years, The center began seven years ago with the extravagant goal 30 years, based on evidence that has no business ever leading to of helping to transform the Juvenile Court of Cook County- a conviction, based on prosecutions that never should have been the first court for children in the world-into an outstanding brought in the first place. system of justice for children, a vital community resource, and That is my sense of what we can accomplish, realistically, a model once again for the rest of the world. The path toward this weekend. We are going to hear gut-wrenching stories, and that goal has let us become a unique, maybe pioneering, chil- it is our job to take these stories and share them with people we dren's law center that combines seven elements: know around the country. Our task is to take these stories and • The CFJC provides direct legal representation for the whole the energy of all who gather and to work on improving some of spectrum of children's needs: safety (neglect, abuse, domestic the staggering problems that plague our criminal justice system. violence); education; health and disability; adoption, custody, and visiting; delinquency and criminal trials; immigration and asylum claims for unaccompanied children in INS custody. We gather together as proof positive • Our pedagogic mission is to teach law students children and of Justice Blackmun's admonition family law through outstanding supervision of talented clinical that "the death penalty remains faculty in real cases involving children and families. fraught with arbitrariness, discrimi- • We serve as a catalyst for change in the legal system by nation, caprice and mistake." We are engaging with a major urban court, the Juvenile Court of Cook alive today despite the criminal justice County, as an educational resource, research partner, indepen- system's intense efforts to kill us for dent critic, and policy advocate. crimes we did not commit. It is our • The CFJC is a research and policy center addressing unmet fervent hope that society is capable needs, redesign of systems, evaluation and assessment, and of learning from its mistakes. system consequences and protocols. • The center is grounded in three Chicago neighborhoods to Dean Van Zandt informed Justice learn from and with communities: The Community Law Clinic Blackmun of this signed statement and a replica was presented to provides legal services to children and youth in West Town, his family. and Community Panels for Youth in Austin and Englewood are developing restorative justice models. A powerful Children's

Legal Clinic News cS;, Notes 5 Children's Rights Lawyer Visits from the Netherlands In fall 1998 the Legal Clinic was pleased to have a distinguished visitor, ] aap Doek, professor of la w at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam . Doek served on the executive board of the Interna- tional Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect and cha ired the Board of Child Rights Worldwide. He is first vice president of the European Law Facu lties Association and a board Th e CFJC hosted t he Second Annual Juve nile member of the A msterdam Fo undation for Internationa l Research Defender Summit at t he Law School last fa ll. on Working Children. His reflections on his work as an in terna - tio11a l children's lawyer appea r below. Pro Bono Network has recruited and trained 150 attorneys Almost 30 years ago I started my professional from 15 major law firms to represent children in delinquency career with the Department of Justice, Child Protection and disability cases. Division, in The Hague. After my PhD, I was appointed as • We have become a national resource providing critical an assistant professor at the Vrije Universiteit in analysis and knowledge about children's law, the preparation of lawy_ers who advocate for children, and the administration Amsterdam for child protection and family law. In 19781 of justice. became a juvenile court judge and returned to the Vrije • The CFJC promotes alliances within the University on Universiteit as a professor for family and juvenile law. matters of social justice for children, encouraging research and And that is what I still am, besides being a deputy judge academic inquiry into the barriers to children's development, in the District Court of The Hague. Over the years, I equity, and fairness. became more and more involved in national and inter- • Working in ways that synthesize these elements permits the CFJC/clinic team to address new legal areas involving children national non-governmental organizations in the area of as they arise. Last year, we began representing unaccompanied children's rights in general or in the area of prevention children in INS custody, worked to develop and promote new of child abuse and neglect, including economic (child guidelines for refugee children, and participated in training laborer) and sexual exploitation (child prostitution, lawyers, law advocates, and judges. New policy areas, such pornography). as interrogation of child witnesses and suspects, or the death Why would a lawyer devote his career to this area penalty for children, demand attention and experience. The of the law? My answer is rather complicated because adoption of adolescents, the intersection of welfare reform and child welfare, the availability of guns to children, new there is both an emotional commitment and a profes- school suspension/expulsion practices, legislative mandates sional interest. And, for those who think that you can to try children in adult criminal court, pervasive violence in practice law without emotions, either go to some other children's lives, new family structures, emerging human rights courses or rethink about the "why" of becoming a lawyer. standards for children-the wealth and expanse of children's When I was a student I became involved as a volun- law is magnificent. teer in youth work in the inner city of Amsterdam. I met weekly with a group of young boys and spent a couple Bernardine Dohrn is director of the Children and Family Justice Center. of weeks in summer camps with them. Being a "green" 19-year-old boy from a very quiet, moral area, I learned a lot about shoplifting, poor learning, and low socioeco- nomic positions. And I liked "my" boys. I think a rather simple motivation for my commitment to children is that I like them. They deserve the best we have.

Legal Clinic News e, Notes 6 Clinic News

Grace and Arthur Freeman Fund Community Law Clinic are fundamentally unique beings who are Continues to Serve Chicago's not simply "mini-adults." The founders The clinic is grateful for the establishment Near West Side recognized that because children's person- of the Grace and Arthur Freeman Fund alities are not yet fixed and because they for the Legal Clinic, established with a Along with director Angela Coin, the are especially susceptible to adult and $100,000 gift from Arthur Freeman '38 volunteers in the Community Law Clinic, peer influences, children are both less cul- and Grace Freeman. Arthur Freeman, located on Chicago's Near West Side, pable for their actions and more likely to senior counsel at Schwartz & Freeman, have successfully litigated juvenile benefit from intervention than are adults. has assisted students and faculty on clinic delinquency appeals, expulsion, and It is for this reason that the founders cases as a member of Tom Geraghty's suspension hearings in the Chicago aimed to develop a separate court system clinic section. He has also been active Public Schools. Only three years old, the that would hold children accountable for in death penalty and juvenile cases. Community Law Clinic now has a roster their actions but also offer them the guid- The fund established by Arthur and of more than 170 volunteers from over ance and opportunities necessary for Grace Freeman will be used to support 30 firms and corporations in Chicago. them to lead crime-free and productive the supervision of students who represent The Community Law Clinic's lives. Today, these common-sense notions clients in the Legal Clinic. Children's Law Pro Bono Program has about children are being abandoned as successfully represented disabled children society demonizes children in trouble and Training the Child Advocate from low-income families, including as politicians use them as pawns in get- Program 54 children between ages 3 and 16 who tough-on-crime agendas. The goal of the were among the thousands of youths The Law School, in cooperation with the commemoration is to reclaim children as removed from the SSI rolls in Illinois. National Institute for Trial Advocacy, national treasures and to reaffirm the Many of the families were provided recently hosted the fourth annual noble ideas that led to the creation of the with benefits while their appeals were Training the Child Advocate Program. juvenile court. pending. Often, volunteers were able to The program, attended by 36 lawyers The first such event was the Second manage their cases successfully at the first and 20 faculty, provides training to Annual Juvenile Defender Summit, held level of appeal. Lawyers and paralegals lawyers who represent children in delin- at the Law School October 23-25, 1998. from Baker & McKenzie and Seyfarth, quency cases and lawyers who represent The summit, which was sponsored by the Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson gave children and parents in abuse and neglect ABA Juvenile Justice Center, the Youth approximately 30 to 40 hours per case to proceedings. The offices of the State's Law Center, and the Juvenile Law Center, this effort. Attorney of Cook County, the Public brought together more than 200 juvenile Guardian of Cook County, and the Cook defense attorneys from throughout the CFJC Commemorates First County Public Defender were represented United States to discuss issues and strate- Juvenile Court as students and as faculty. Faculty gies that affect clients and better ways to included Catherine Ryan '72, chief of The CFJC is planning a series of exciting represent them in court. the State's Attorney's Juvenile Justice events in connection with the 100th The center developed a speakers Bureau, and Rita Fry '79, Cook County anniversary of the first children's court in series that highlighted issues relating to Public Defender. We were also grateful the world, founded in Chicago by Jane the court. The first such event took place that Zelda Harris joined us from the Addams, Lucy Flower, Julia Lathrop, and in November and featured three social University of Arizona, where she is other crusaders for children. The CFJC is historians-David Tannenhaus, Anne now a clinical professor of law, and that also working closely with the Children's Meis Knupfer, and Mara Dodge-who Annette Appell returned to teach with us Court Centennial Committee and the discussed the history of the court and its from the University of Las Vegas School Child Law Center of Loyola University- prospects for the future. of Law, where she is an associate profes- Chicago's law school to help shape these The speakers series will continue sor of law and teaches civil procedure, commemorative events. through July (the centennial is July 3, evidence, and family law. The Cook County Juvenile Court 1999) and to date includes the following was founded on the premise that children speakers:

Legal Clinic News & Notes 7 Franklin Zimring, law professor, notorious child killers from her convic- the Children of the State?" The questions criminal and juvenile justice expert, and tion for murdering two boys at age 11, asked in that meeting led to the establish- author of numerous books and articles, through her time spent in the juvenile ment of the nation's first juvenile court including most recently American Youth and criminal corrections, to her release and forged a new understanding of child- Violence, and James Bell, staff attorney and struggle to come to terms with her hood. One hundred years later, the con- at Youth Law Center, litigator on behalf past, spoke April 7. ference is assembling parents, educators, of children who are incarcerated in Angela Y. Davis, author, activist, and service providers, doctors and nurses, unsafe institutions, and winner of presti- academician, will speak about her current children, artists, clergy, and business and gious ABA Livingstone Hall Award for effort to stem the growth of the prison community leaders to assess the state of outstanding juvenile advocacy, spoke on industrial complex, a growth which is Illinois's children, to reaffirm society's January 26. increasingly being fed by young men and responsibilities toward its children, and LeAlan Jones, journalist and com- women of color, on April 21. to outline the ways in which each seg- mentator on award-winning radio docu- In addition to these speakers, ment of society can take better care of mentaries (Ghetto Life 101 and Remorse, Marian Wright Edelman, director of the its children and better prepare them for the 14 Stories of Eric Morse), spoke on Children's Defense Fund, has expressed the future. February 17. an interest in participating in the series, Corne! West, professor of philosophy although a date for her appearance has Students Travel to Africa as in religion not yet been set, and we recently invited Part of Clinical Program and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. More than 40 second- and third-year African- Each speaker makes a 30- to 60- students have traveled to Ghana or American minute presentation related generally to Tanzania as part of a unique clinically studies at the state of children and families in the based course developed by Cynthia Harvard United States, with particular emphasis Bowman and Tom Geraghty. The course University, on the poorer children and families who involves students doing in-depth research Corne/ West and Sylvia find themselves enmeshed in most juve- on legal issues in Ghana and Tanzania. Hewlett, founder of the National nile court systems. Speakers are being During the first seven weeks the students Parenting Association and author of the asked to spend an hour with the children selected and developed their topics and award-winning When the Bough Breaks, in Cook County's Juvenile Temporary did research in the Africana collections were the keynote speakers. West and Detention Center to educate, inspire, and at Northwestern; all of the research was Hewlett discussed their book The War offer hope, and to include the detained undertaken in teams of four to six stu- Against Parents on February 18. youth directly in the series. dents. In mid-March, the students trav- Mike Males, author of The Scapegoat The centennial commemoration con- eled at their own expense to Ghana, with Generation: America's War on Adoles- cludes with a conference in partnership Bowman, or Tanzania, with Geraghty, to cents and Framing Youth: Ten Myths with the National Council on Juvenile do field research in each of the areas About the Next Generation, and Thomas and Family Court Judges in Chicago under study, returning to Northwestern Grisso, forensic clinical psychologist, pro- July 17-21. to write up their findings and present fessor of psychiatry and author of numer- Another key centennial event, which them to the group. ous books and articles, including most the CFJC is co-sponsored with Voices for These projects build upon work that recently Forensic Evaluation of Juveniles, Illinois Children, is a three-day working Bowman and Geraghty have done during spoke March 3. conference, "Who Are the Children of the last three years in Africa, where they Gitta Sereny, internationally Illinois ? Building a Charter for the have collaborated with the faculty of the renowned journalist and author of the Future," which took place February 18-20 Addis Ababa University School of Law to number-one best seller in Britain, Cries at the Law School. One hundred years develop its clinical curriculum. Bowman Unheard, The Story of Mary Bell, a ago, leaders of government, clergy, and and Geraghty visited Ethiopia in 1995; powerful story of moral regeneration that charitable organizations came together in Geraghty visited again in 1996 to lead an chronicles the life of one of Britain's most Illinois for a meeting entitled "Who are

Legal Clinic News & Notes 8 East African conference on clinical educa- through exposure to legal systems and as a postgraduate fellow at Business and tion. Bowman was host last fall to the practices in developing countries. Professional People for the Public Interest dean of the University of Ghana School Bowman and Geraghty, both of in Chicago, a 29-year-old public interest of Law and recently visited Ghana to whom lived in Africa when they were law center with a diverse practice concen- consult with the law school there on the graduate and law students, look back on trating in the areas of fair housing, the development of its curriculum. Prior the experience as both valuable and environment, and school reform. projects were conducted in cooperation transformative. It is their hope that these Kimberly Lloyd was one of three with students and faculty in Ghana and projects will create links between the recipients of the Law Student Award Ethiopia and included a study of the students and their counterparts in Africa given by the National Association of Ethiopian war crimes trial, assistance that will endure for lifetimes. Another Public Interest Law (NAPIL). She was with public defender programs, and other goal of the program is to build long-term honored for her outstanding public human rights projects. institutional relationships between the interest work at the ACLU Foundation Several of the students involved this law schools involved that will permit of Southern California this past summer. year have experience working in Africa. on-going collaborations involving The NAPIL Law Student Awards were For example, Bil Barnes '99 was a Peace research and training. presented at the Annual NAPIL Honors Corps volunteer in Chad for three years Reception in November in Washington, before coming to Northwestern. Bil writes: Recent Graduate, Two Students D.C., where Lloyd was specially recog- "Having already spent time in Africa, Honored for Public Interest nized and congratulated by both first lady I am only too aware of the inequities and Activity Hillary Rodham Clinton and Supreme tragedies that often result from failure to Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Recent graduate Angela Daker '98 and adhere to the rule of law. Where I lived, third-year students Jonathan Kaden and my friends were sometimes ruled by an Northwestern Inaugurates Kimberly Lloyd were recognized during AK-47 and 'laws' changed daily. Just Small Business Opportunity the past year for their work in public before I left Chad, I had the opportunity Clinic interest law. to meet with a group of local lawyers Angela Daker received one of the Consistent with the Law School's strategy who had undertaken the task of drafting 10 prestigious Soros Justice Fellowships of expanding its clinical program, two a human rights document, the first of its awarded nationally this year. An active new clinics have recently been estab- kind in Chad. Sadly, this document was participant in the Legal Clinic during lished, one focusing on small business not considered by the ruling party. law school and after graduation, Daker and the other on international human "Through the project that we under- devoted herself to the representation of rights (see following article). take this semester, it is not our place to children charged with serious crimes, The Small Business Opportunity export Western norms in the hopes of a participating in several trials in criminal Clinic (SBOC) was established as the 'quick fix.' To do so would be presump- court and many transfer hearings in juve- result of an initiative by second- and tuous and would smack of neo-colonial- nile court. The Soros Justice Fellowship third-year students, including a number ism. Rather, it is our goal to cooperate will allow her to continue her work on who are seeking combined JD/MM with law students and law teachers and behalf of children in juvenile court at degrees from the Law School and the to work with them on collaborative Northwestern's Community Law Clinic, Kellogg Graduate School of Management projects." working on community-based juvenile in Evanston. Almost one-half of the 600 Students express strong enthusiasm justice solutions. students at Kellogg already take courses for these programs. The opportunity to Jonathan Kaden received a one-year involving entrepreneurialism. The SBOC conduct research that will be useful to fellowship from the Skadden Fellowship will add practical legal experience to the countries that do not have substantial Foundation, which awards fellowships to management curriculum. Leaders of the resources for research appeals to all of the students and outgoing judicial clerks for student group include Miluska Novota '99 students involved. In addition, students work in the public interest. He was cho- and Tesha McCord, JDMM '00. view their participation as an opportunity sen as one of the 25 fellows from among A corequisite to the program is a to broaden their educational experience several hundred applicants. He will serve seminar on small business issues being

Legal Clinic News & Notes 9 taught by Thomas Morsch '55, senior Since opening its doors in mid- began with its establishment last August lecturer and director of the SBOC, and September, the SBOC has been contacted and will conclude by year's end. The cen- faculty member Thomas Eovaldi. by more than 20 prospective clients, ter's work will be carried out by faculty, Marsch, a long-time senior partner in ranging from a young dentist who wants staff, and students of Northwestern the Chicago office of Sidley & Austin, to purchase a dental practice, to graphic University, as well as by volunteer lawyers has also served as president of the designers and software consultants who and visiting fellows and interns. Chicago Bar Foundation, Public Interest want to start their own companies, to An internationally recognized legal Law Initiative, and Chicago Lawyers community organizations and not-for- practitioner, scholar, and journalist, Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. profit organizations who need help incor- Doug Cassel previously directed the He is hopeful that the SBOC will provide porating or seeking tax-exempt status. International Human Rights Law practical experience in representing New matters are being referred to the Institute of DePaul University and has not-for-profit organizations as well as SBOC almost every day by governmental served as consultant on human rights to business clients and may motivate some organizations, community groups, and the United Nations, the Organization of participants to consider a career in legal service providers. Four third-year American States, the United States public interest law. students participated in the clinic in the Department of State, and numerous non- The SBOC will provide services to fall, with six expected for the spring. governmental organizations. In addition clients in accordance with a published Participants in the SBOC continue to to directing the center, he is teaching fee schedule, with charges ranging from explore ways to involve more students human rights law. $250 for a simple incorporation to an from Kellogg. It is hoped that over a The center's advisory committee, hourly rate of $40 for more complex period of time, the link between the Law currently in formation, already includes transactions such as the negotiation of School's clinical program and a variety of an impressive array of distinguished operating agreements and zoning prob- internships being offered by Kellogg can experts, including Richard Goldstone, lems. Fees collected will be offset against be blended together into a joint enterprise justice, Constitutional Court of South the expenses of operating the program. resource center offering both legal and Africa; Juan Mendez, director, Inter- Students participating in the program business advice to clients. Morton American Institute of Human Rights, have been asked to help establish the Kamien, assistant dean of entrepreneurial Costa Rica; Thomas Buergenthal, SBOC as part of their entrepreneurial studies at Kellogg, and Stephen Rogers, Lobingier Professor of Comparative and experience. This will include drafting the director of Kellogg's entrepreneurial International Law, George Washington standard legal forms, preparing engage- clinics and internships, are cooperating University; Jerome Shestack, former pres- ment letters for clients, and developing an in the effort. ident, American Bar Association; and appropriate marketing plan for the SBOC. John Schmidt, partner, Mayer, Brown & Eovaldi and Marsch will also super- Center For International Platt, and former associate attorney gen- vise the work of other third-year students Human Rights Established eral of the United States. who elect to participate in a small business The center hopes to focus its initial The Center for International Human practicum at the Community Economic activities through several programs, Rights of Northwestern University School Development Law Project in downtown including The Holocaust, Genocide, and of Law was established in August 1998 Chicago or at Bullwinkel Partners, a law the Law; International Justice; The Rule under the leadership of director and firm located in the Evanston Technology of Law; Globalization and Rights; senior lecturer Douglass Cassel. The Innovation Center. Democratic Institutions; International center conducts academic and practical As a teaching technique, students Human Rights in the United States; work in support of internationally recog- involved in the SBOC or a practicum will Women's Rights; The Americas; Africa; nized human rights, democracy, and the be asked to share their experience with and National Human Rights Institutions. rule of law. It will emphasize a compre- other students in the Small Business Issues hensive, interdisciplinary approach and seminar. Likewise, seminar participants invite participation by other University will be expected to assist in the entrepre- departments. Its start-up phase, devoted neurial aspects of developing the SBOC. primarily to organization and planning,

Legal Clinic News & Notes 1 0 Until the Wheels Come Off the Cart Under Rule 711 of the Illinois Supreme Court, third-year law students who work for organizations such as the by Zachary B. Silverstein Northwestern Legal Clinic may obtain a temporary attorney's license. This "711 license" allows us to practice law under the Over the course of a summer and a semester working in our supervision of a member of the Illinois bar. For most of us, the Legal Clinic, I have seen several things the likes of which I have 711 license is the first real personal experience we have with the yet to see in a classroom. Perhaps the most memorable is the powers and responsibilities society grants to attorneys. gruesome nine-inch scar that snaked along a young man's belly Although most of us are acutely aware of our limitations as and marked the surgery he had undergone as a result of bullet neophyte attorneys, the powers of a licensed student attorney wounds received in a gang shoot-out. "Sorry, homie," he told are real. Not only will the guards at the Juvenile Court building me amiably as he lifted up his T-shirt. "But you don't know waive you in past the long lines of people waiting to pass what it's all about 'ti! you got one a these." Or the little apart- through the metal detectors, but a judge will sit quietly (all ment, teetering on the edge of squalor, where one of our clients right, sometimes) as you argue your client's case before her. lives with his mother and an uncountable number of people. Your actions can have bite out of court, too. Recently, Amid the chaos, a tiny boy dressed in only a diaper repeatedly when a state official refused to conduct a court-ordered admin- hiked a large baking potato-as if it were a football-that he istrative hearing to determine whether our client would be had recently freed from a bag lying amid the trash and dirty placed in a facility as an alternative to being sent to the clothes on the apartment floor. As a clinic student, I have come Department of Corrections, another student and I filed a across sq:nes like these that range from the dimly tragic to the motion asking the presiding judge to hold the official in con- monstrously comic. But what continues to haunt me, every time tempt of court. One week later, as I prepared to argue the I am in court, are the carts. motion in court, I was informed that not only had the state offi- It is 9:30 in the morning on a weekday at Juvenile Court. cial changed his mind, but that all parties involved had come to The little courtroom is beginning to rustle itself awake. A young an agreement that our client should in fact be placed in the prosecutor with very short hair and a lifeless gray suit bangs the alternative facility at the county's expense. I will never know for courtroom door open, dragging behind him a cart. I hate the sure whether our motion helped the state official to change his carts, I am thinking. The cart is a spacious but simple metal mind. But I can't help thinking that the work Kristen Belcher basket on wheels. Nothing to it, really-and the public and I did had some positive impact on our client's best interests. defender, already situated at her table in the courtroom has ' Of course, in addition to this newfound sense that one can one, too. I hate the carts because they contain so many soulless have an impact as an attorney, there is an accompanying sense manila files, one for each clinic client and everyone else who of responsibility. One feels quite acutely all of the pressures that stands accused of criminal wrongdoing. Lord, I think to myself, go along with being the zealous advocate for his client that our please don't let me be a forgotten name, scribbled on a police code of ethics requires: the required preparedness, necessary report, hidden deep inside a faceless manila folder in one of availability, and the essential knowledge of areas of law that those carts. As the cart rolls into the courtroom, so turn the still seem very new and more than a little vague. But there is wheels of what passes for justice here. another aspect to the clinic student attorney's responsibility for But there's no time to think about that now. The court- which no one ever really prepares you. I think of it as the room has sprung to life, the sheriff announces, "All rise," and underside of an attorney's responsibility. court is in session. Before long, the clerk calls the name of one You feel the underside of this responsibility when you walk of our clients. I have not worked much on this client's case into a holding cell behind the courtroom in Cook County before today and I hesitate a moment when his name is called. Criminal Court and three or four inmates, locked behind bars, "Northwestern?" the clerk persists. I hurry up to the bench and start clambering through the crowd in order to get your atten- take my position next to Johnny B. and before the judge. The tion. "Hey, man, I need to talk with you! Hey, you gotta help state's attorney has pulled Johnny's folder out of the cart. He me out.... " Or when you go to visit your client before his looks at it for a moment and then updates the judge on court appearance in the holding room at the juvenile court, and Johnny's case. the same thing happens. "Can I talk with you?" A boy is mouthing the words through the thick glass and gesticulating

Legal Clinic News & Notes 1 1 Continued from page 11 wildly. And again, when you make your way out from visiting The Advantages of a Clinical Education your client in the Cook County Jail: As the door of the elevator by Cathryn E. Stewart that will rescue you from the dank smell of the jail cells begins to close, an inmate pleads, "Can I just get your card? I need a Reflecting on the past two years, I realize that my clinical edu- lawyer." This repeated plea for help, from people who don't cation gave me a distinct advantage over my peers. After gradu- know anything about you other than that you appear to be a ation from law school, I became associated with a six-person lawyer, exposes you to another expectation. It is the expecta- firm specializing in criminal defense and civil litigation. While tion-if somewhat hopeless-of a whole group of people who I was certain that my experience in the Legal Clinic would don't care about your grades, who will never make it to your contribute to my success as an attorney, I did not know the graduation, and who could care less which Chicago law firm is extent to which that was actually true. In reality, my clinic edu- keeping pace with New York firm salaries these days. It is the cation proved invaluable in all aspects of my practice of law, expectation that you, or someone who dresses like you, might including, surprisingly, civil litigation. I could write about how be, could be, has to be that vital link between an accused per- the clinic assisted the development and refinement of important son and whatever it is we mean by "justice." skills such as trial advocacy, research, and writing. However, There is irony here. Even as people think I have some I choose to focus on the less tangible, but equally important power as an attorney, I start to feel small. As people clamor for ways in which my clinical education contributed to my success assistance that I cannot give, as I pick out individuals who as an attorney. appear to need help from a limitless supply of faces, I become The most obvious advantage my clinical education gave aware ·of how many people out there feel like they need legal me was a familiarity with the court process. Unlike most other representation so badly that they will beg an inexperienced, recent law school graduates, by the time I appeared before a third-year law student for help. For a cart he doesn't even judge as an attorney, I had already appeared before several carry. I start to feel a certain awful, creeping kinship with the judges and thus did not experience the angst that is typically prosecutors and the public defenders who push and pull those associated with newcomers. In having this confidence, I carts around day in and day out, in courtroom after courtroom. remained focused on the issues before the court and articulated Those carts that represent just how innumerable our social my position clearly. In addition, I knew firsthand that one can- problems are, just how overburdened the criminal justice not always anticipate what will occur in court and thus was less system is, and how unwieldy, weighty, and resistant to change flustered when the unexpected occurred. In knowing that a these problems and the system are. In the face of all this, I feel strange twist of events was not necessarily due to any oversight so small. on my part, I was able to adjust to the development and deal I am in adult criminal court now, waiting for our chance with it promptly and with some degree of sureness. to go before the judge. I watch as the prosecutor pulls a manila This confidence extended into the halls of the court. One of folder out of her cart and begins reading from a police report the greatest obstacles facing new attorneys is that they are often inside it. I mean, this is her argument. "Your honor, on June 18, treated as such. Opposing counsel, state's attorneys, even other 1998 the defendant did unlawfully and without legal justifica- defense attorneys are often patronizing when they discover that tion ~ssault the victim .... " Her verbatim reading of the report they are dealing with a recent law school graduate. Some attor- makes it clear that she has not reviewed this file until this neys attempt to capitalize on inexperience by justifying delays very moment. ("This is the way things happen here"), denying the existence of And the wheels of justice turn. documents, or telling you that your requests are unreasonable ("No one ever asks for that"). In criminal court, I was able to Third-year student Zachary B Silverstein is a graduate of Yale combat this with ease: I knew what documents were available University. and the typical time it took to acquire those documents. I knew when I could (and should) go to the judge with discovery com- plaints. I knew what to ask the Chicago police to determine whether I had been given all of the relevant documents. I knew to ask the courtroom clerks and public defenders questions. Most importantly, I made sure the assistant state's attorneys

Legal Clinic News & Notes 1 2 with whom I dealt knew I knew all of this. I cannot overstate gained from a written description. Moreover, I have noticed a the advantage this gave me in the discovery phase and in negoti- definite shift in attitude by police officers and state's attorneys ating plea agreements. This confidence served me in similar when I tell them I have been to the scene. In addition, given ways in dealing with opposing counsel in civil litigation. the fact that the assistant state's attorneys usually do not have My clinic experience taught me that every disagreement time to visit the scene, the fact that I did sometimes has a does not have to turn into a huge battle. This is a lesson that "psych-out" value in that I know something that they don't. every new attorney has to learn. At the beginning of my third Finally, a visit to the scene enhances communication with your year of law school, I was convinced that every assistant state's client about the events and gives them greater confidence in attorney was hiding crucial information, was counseling wit- your work. nesses not to talk to me, and was in general working against Moreover, the clinic showed me the value of treating every justice. Any time we disagreed I was always ready to take the case as equally important. On several occasions in private issue straight to the judge, so that he could see how unreason- practice, opposing counsel asked, "Why are you making such able the assistant state's attorney was, countered by my obvious a federal case out of this? This isn't a murder case; this isn't a pragmatism and righteousness. I am grateful that I learned the million dollar lawsuit." My response is always the same: error in this attitude without alienating too many attorneys and "Because it is a federal case to my client." While the realties of angering too many judges. Young attorneys are too ready to private practice mean that you don't have the same amount of fight. We believe that if we back down when we are obviously time that was available in law school (or the same amount of correct, we are seen as weak. In reality, we are seen as unrea- people assisting you), going what is deemed the extra mile is sonable by both opposing counsel and the presiding judges. worth it. The work ethic I developed in the clinic resulted in When there is an issue that is truly worthy of a fight, we have a better dispositions for my criminal clients, larger settlements for greater success at winning if we have chosen our battles care- my civil clients, and a greater sense of accomplishment for me. fully. While I did not appreciate the lesson at the time, I recog- Finally, the contacts that I developed in the clinic were of nized its value once in the private arena. great use in private practice. I have a list of people with whom I Working at the clinic also developed my investigation tech- dealt, co-counsel, opponents, even judges, with whom I still niques. In addition to the knowledge I gained from the clinic consult. A reminder that I worked with (or against) them while professors, I learned a great deal from my case team members. a student at Northwestern Legal Clinic always assures a return Students who are exposed to criminal cases for the first time phone call. These people serve as great sources of information, are naturally willing to take more risks and try new things. support, and other contacts, which is invaluable in the Chicago For example, if one talks to a seasoned defense attorney, he will practice of law. inevitably be told not to bother calling the investigating officer I am certain that my clinical education contributed to my assigned to the case, because "cops never talk to defense success in private practice in countless other ways. I think it attorneys." Members of my clinic team had never heard "no was the most singularly valuable aspect of my education at comment" from police officers and thus felt that they had noth- Northwestern. I developed great trial advocacy skills, excellent ing to lose by calling them. More often than not, the police writing skills, a heightened level of confidence, and a tremen- actually talked (granted the value of the information varied). dous appreciation for the value of teamwork, professional In my private practice, I continued to call on the investigative ethics, and the practice of law in general. police officers and, more often than not, they talked to me. This is tremendously helpful not just in preparing my case, but Cathryn E. Stewart '96 recently joined the clinic faculty as a in negotiating pleas. Having an arresting officer say that your senior lecturer. She is currently working on a project with Bruce child client "isn't a bad kid" or "wasn't really at fault" can go Boyer in which they are assessing the current models of repre- a long way with a state's attorney or judge. sentation in the Cook County Abuse and Neglect Court. This Similarly, as clinic students we always went to the scene project was commissioned and funded by the Chief Judge of the of the alleged offense. Most defense attorneys do not have the Circuit Court of Cook County. time to do this. I always make time, as I discovered that even if you cannot use the specifics of a location for impeachment purposes, a visit to the scene gives you insight that cannot be

Legal Clinic News & Notes 1 3 Status Report

Clinic Remains Active in • Finally, in another death penalty case, Death Penalty Cases People v. Scott Kinkead, the clinic won a new trial for a defendant who pied guilty Under the leadership of Tom Geraghty and sought the death penalty. Clinic stu- and Larry Marshall, students have dents and lawyers discovered that our been involved in a number of death client was taking Thorazine at the time penalty cases. of his plea. The case is now set for trial in Mason County, Illinois. The clinic is • The Orange case presents the impor- assisting new trial counsel in the prepara- national attention when it was discovered tant issue of whether the pattern and tion of the case for trial. that the same detective who obtained the practice of police torture in Area 2 will client's confession also obtained the con- be admissible to support our client's Clinic Appeals Juvenile Court fessions from the seven- and eight-year- persistent claim, one that he made when Conviction of 11-Year-Old old boys who were initially charged with he was first brought before a judge in the murder of Ryan Harris. Prosecutors 1984, that he was electroshocked by his The clinic handled the appeal of an for the Harris case were forced to drop police interrogators. The clinic was able 11-year-old boy who was convicted in the charges (see activities update for Steve to convince a post-conviction hearing juvenile court of the brutal murder of Drizin for further elaboration). The con- judge to vacate a death penalty and grant an 83-year-old woman. The only evi- fession in the clinic's case was obtained our cli~nt a new sentencing hearing. dence against the child was an oral state- under strikingly similar circumstances. However, the same judge denied relief on ment that was not corroborated by the a claim that our client's confession was physical evidence at the crime scene. Trial Clinic Wins Transfer Case coerced by police torture. The clinic has counsel for the minor failed to move to appealed the dismissal of the coercion suppress these statements, and the trial Clinic lawyers Steve Drizin and Tom claim to the Supreme Court of Illinois. court did not hold a voluntariness hear- Geraghty and students Maria Minor '98, Students are heavily involved in the ing to determine whether the statements Will Rhee '98, Angela Daker '98, and preparation for the sentencing hearing, were coerced. On appeal, the conviction Bil Barnes '99, recently won a significant which should take place in spring 1999. was affirmed in a close 2-to-1 decision transfer case. The client, a 12-year-old The post-conviction judge and the with Justice Warren Wolfson dissenting. boy, was charged with arson and murder. Supreme Court of Illinois must decide After losing the appeal, the clinic The state alleged that he set a fire in an how to proceed given the fact that one enlisted the help of the Chicago law firm apartment building at the request of an portion of this case (the sentencing hear- Jenner & Block to prepare a petition to older gang member who was angry at a ing) is pending in the Circuit Court, appeal before the Illinois Supreme Court. resident of the building for interfering while the other portion of the case (the Monica Vaca '97, who worked on the with his drug trade. Tragically, an elderly coercion claim) is in the Supreme Court appeal, wanted to continue with the case woman died in the fire. Several tenants of Illinois. while employed at Jenner & Block as a of the building were injured when they • In another death penalty case, People summer associate. Jenner & Block agreed jumped from windows to escape the fire. v. Dino Titone, the clinic obtained a new to co-counsel the case with the clinic. The client, who denied setting the fire, trial based on the fact that the client was After the Illinois Supreme Court had an I.Q. of 54. He also had a rather convicted and sentenced by a corrupt refused to take the case, Jenner & Block extensive juvenile court history. The judge. Titone was recently tried and agreed to continue working on the case. state's evidence against him consisted of convicted again (represented this time In September 1998, a federal petition was his alleged oral statement to the police by a lawyer retained by his family) and filed challenging the constitutionality of indicating that he was nearby when a received a sentence of natural life. the confession and the juvenile court con- friend went into the building and set the viction. This federal case commanded

Legal Clinic News ex, Notes 1 4 fire. His friend told the police that the client set the fire. The adult who allegedly commanded that the fire be set was also apprehended and is awaiting trial in criminal court. After an extensive hearing that took place during the spring and summer of 1998, the judge first ordered the client to be tried in juvenile court. In response to post-hearing motions, the judge vacated his order and sent the case to another Angela Daker and Bil Barnes. The case has retained a psychiatrist who has con- juvenile court judge for a new transfer is now set for trial in Juvenile Court. cluded that the client is fit to stand trial. hearing. At both hearings, the child's The students assigned to this case, in This case presents cutting edge issues probation officer, the court psychiatrist, addition to using and honing their trial concerning the competence of children to the court psychologist, and our privately skills, became expert in the psychological stand trial, not to mention the question retained psychiatrist recommended that and psychiatric issues in the case. In addi- of whether children of such a young age the client not be transferred. He had tion, they became knowledgeable about should ever be tried for criminal offenses. limited intellectual capability; he had the resources available for "rehabilita- The capacity of such children to under- responded well to the services available tion" in the juvenile justice system and stand and to waive Miranda rights is also in the Cook County Juvenile Temporary the extent to which their client could at issue. As the result of this and other Detention Center. After hearing the evi- benefit from those services. As the result cases in which children have been interro- dence presented at the second hearing, of their involvement in this case, the stu- gated by police without benefit of family the judge denied the state's motion dents also confronted difficult juvenile or counsel, the State's Attorney of Cook to transfer. justice policy issues such as whether chil- County has appointed a commission to The students and faculty in this case dren should be tried as adults and how investigate police interrogations of very conducted an extensive investigation of the "transfer" decision should be made. young suspects. That commission is the facts, marshaled and presented the The case was a self-contained course on charged with the responsibility of deter- expert testimony in opposition to trans- juvenile justice. mining whether such children should be fer, and prepared and presented opening charged criminally, and what safeguards statements and closing arguments. The Clinic to Challenge Fitness of should be in place when they are interro- hearing was conducted primarily by Nine-Year-Old to Stand Trial gated by the police. Students and faculty are in the The clinic represents a nine-year-old process of preparing expert witnesses charged with murder in a case to be tried to testify at the fitness hearing and at in juvenile court this spring. Prior to trial, the hearing to suppress our client's state- the court has ordered a fitness hearing to ments to police. This case, like the determine whether the client understands transfer case described above, provides the nature of the charges against him and students with the opportunity to partici- whether he can cooperate with counsel. pate in cases involving important legal In addition, there will be a hearing to issues, to prepare complex cases for trial, determine whether he had the capacity and to interact with leading experts in to understand his right to remain silent adolescent psychiatry and psychology. and to waive Miranda rights. The clinic defense team, under the leadership of Angela Coin, retained the services of a leading forensic psychologist who found the client unfit to stand trial. The state

Legal Clinic News & Notes 1 5 Faculty News

In October 1998 Cynthia Bowman played Bob Burns won his third teaching award Conference on Ethical Issues in the host to a number of women law professors in as many years: Students voted him the Delivery of Legal Services to Low Income from Africa who are working with her on Robert Childres Memorial Award for Persons. She is a board member of Human an ABA/USIS-sponsored project on devel- Teaching Excellence for the second time in Rights Watch Children's Rights Project oping curricula on women and the law for the last three years. Princeton University and the Midwest Coalition for Human use in African law schools. The visitors Press will publish his new book, A Theory Rights, and serves on the board of the also consulted with Tom Geraghty, Cheryl of the Trial, in the spring. He recently pub- Peace Museum. Last year, Dohrn visited Graves, Bernardine Dohrn, Vanessa lished Evidence in Context and a second South Africa and Vietnam to gain cross- Melendez, and Doug Cassel of the Legal edition of Problems and Materials in cultural perspectives on children's human Clinic and visited the Cook County Juvenile Evidence and Trial Advocacy, both with rights and legal issues. She is on the Court and the Metro Y sexual assault vic- Steve Lubet as co-author. A second edition Executive Committee of the Children's tims' support project. Bowman traveled to of Exercises and Problems in Professional Court Centennial Commemoration and Ghana in early December to direct a work- Responsibility, with Lubet and Tom Geraghty, serves on the Citizens Committee for the shop on curriculum for women and the is due soon. About 30 schools have adopted Juvenile Court. law, attended by women from other one or more parts of the series. African countries as well as Ghanaian Steven Drizin is working with Bernardine women's rights activists, and hopes that Angela Coin is working on the expanded Dohrn and Christina Gabriel Kanelos '96 in a book of materials will ultimately result Children's Law Pro Bono Program, litigating coordinating the CFJC's juvenile court cen- from the project. Also as a result of the serious offenses for some of the youngest tennial activities. In addition to these cen- African law professors' visit to North- children charged in the court, and provid- tennial activities and his ongoing caseload, western, Bowman developed a new ing basic legal advice and assistance to Drizin has written several op-ed articles course entitled International Team Project: low-income families at the Community Law that appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Ghana, which is described elsewhere in Clinic, the near west satellite office of the Chicago Sun Times, and the Chicago Daily this newsletter. Northwestern University Legal Clinic. Along Law Bulletin, and has appeared on numer- with students and volunteer attorneys Coin ous television and radio shows about juve- Bruce Boyer continues his work on behalf has been providing legal advice to families nile justice issues. In particular, he has of children and families on the neglect and from the West Town location. In juvenile been a frequent source for comment on a abuse side of the Juvenile Court of Cook court, Coin and her students are currently Chicago case involving a seven- and eight- County. Boyer is currently working on a representing a 14-year-old boy accused of year-old boy who were charged with first- research project, funded by the Circuit first-degree murder. degree murder in connection with the Court of Cook County, designed to assess death of 11-year-old Ryan Harris. Charges the adequacy of legal representation Bernardine Dohrn continues her work as aga inst the boys were later dropped when offered to parties in child welfare cases. director of the CF JC. She currently serves police discovered semen at the crime Boyer is being assisted in this project on the board of directors of the Erikson scene. It was determined that boys so by Cathryn Stewart '96. In addition, this Institute, the Chicago Reporter, and the young could not have produced semen. past January, Boyer served again as pro- Violent Injury Prevention Center of Drizin has appeared on the News Hour, gram director for the Training the Child Children's Memorial Hospital. Dohrn is a Chicago Tonight, ABC World News Tonight, Advocate Program, an intensive trial skills member of the Expert Work Group for the CNN's Headline News, National Public Radio, training course jointly sponsored by the Adoption 2002 Project of the U.S. Depart- WBEZ, and other television and radio Law School and by the National Institute ment of Health and Human Services, and outlets in connection with the Ryan for Trial Advocacy. a member of the Domestic Violence/Child Harris case. Abuse Working Group of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. She participated in the Fordham

Legal Clinic News & Notes 1 6 The Ryan Harris case exposed many with special needs. Targeted goals of these Criminology; and "Learning From Tragedy: flaws in the juvenile justice system, espe- lawsuits include employing more special Representation of Children in Transfer and cially in the way the police, the State's education certified teachers and teachers' Waiver Proceedings," Wake Forest Law Attorney's Office, and the courts handle aides, speech-language aides, social work- Review, which he co-authored with Will cases involving younger children. The case ers, and school based psychologists. Rhee '98. The spring 1999 edition of The has led Drizin to step up his advocacy Individually, compensatory educational Chicago Bar Record includes his article efforts on behalf of children and has services to make up for the lack of any "Centennial of the Juvenile Courts: What allowed him to expose many of the flaws meaningful educational program at the Would Jane Addams Think?" in the current system to the general public. JTDC are being sought for these minors Geraghty was also a member of the He hopes that through his work and the upon their release. faculty in two training programs, spon- work of many others, new legislation will sored by the Federal Defender Program be proposed and passed that will make Tom Geraghty continues to supervise and NITA, for lawyers who represent con- the juvenile justice system fairer for all students on delinquency cases in the demned prisoners in state and federal Illinois children. Juvenile Court of Cook County and on post-conviction proceedings. These pro- death penalty cases. In juvenile court, his grams, which were held in Philadelphia John Elson taught first-year Civil students have been addressing the prob- and in Knoxville, teach investigation, fact Procedure this year. He also supervised lem of obtaining critically needed social gathering, and advocacy skills. Tom also students in cooperation with attorneys and mental health services for children taught in a teacher training program for at the Legal Assistance Foundation of whose delinquency stems from educa- Department of Justice lawyers at the Chicago and continues to work on an tional and psychological deficits. National Advocacy Center in Columbia, important case involving access of Chicago Geraghty served on the planning South Carolina. Public School students to special educa- committee for the second annual National tion services in the least restrictive envi- Juvenile Defender Summit, held at the Cheryl Graves is an attorney with the ronment. In addition, he works on cases Law School in October. The summit was CFJC. Since 1993 she has been engaged in involving lawyer misconduct in domestic attended by 250 lawyers from around the the representation of children in juvenile relations cases. Elson serves as co-chair country. At the National Conference on justice proceedings and administrative of the Chicago Council of Lawyer's the Wrongfully Convicted and the Death matters. As part of her efforts on behalf of Committee on Lawyer Discipline. Penalty, he made presentations on the children and families, she has worked with monitoring of police and prosecutorial a number of community-based and advo- Derrick Ford has continued his work on misconduct and on developing resources cacy organizations in Chicago to develop behalf of children in delinquency cases and training for lawyers who represent alternative juvenile justice and delin- with special emphasis on children with clients in death penalty cases. Geraghty quency prevention programs. These pro- special education needs. He is also active continues to direct the Midwest Regional grams include the Street Law Peer in the representation of children in immi- Session of the National Institute for Trial Education Project, a law-related education gration and asylum cases. This semester his Advocacy (NITA), which hosted a record program aimed at preventing recidivism students will be working closely with the number of participants last year, as well as among juveniles; Girl Talk, a weekly pro- Chicago Board of Education to arrange the NITA's Training the Child Advocate Program gram for girls incarcerated at the Cook delivery of appropriate special educational held at the Law School in January. He has County Juvenile Temporary Detention services for approximately 300 eligible recently appointed to the board of direc- Center focusing on gender-specific issues; minors currently residing at the Juvenile tors of the Chicago Area project. and Community Panels for Youth, a com- Temporary Detention Center. The clinic has During 1998 he published "An munity-based juvenile court diversion filed several administrative actions against Introduction to the Symposium on the the Chicago Board for their continued fail- Future of the Juvenile Court," Journal of ure to fulfill the federally protected educa- Criminal Law and Criminology, with Steven tion rights of these incarcerated minors Drizin;"Justice for Children: How Do We Get There?" Journal of Criminal Law &

Legal Clinic News & Notes 1 7 program based upon a balanced and Steven Lubet's latest book, Expert social work students learn together how restorative justice model. During the Testimony: A Guide for Expert Witnesses to approach these difficult cases with summer of 1998, Graves traveled to South and the Lawyers Who Examine Them, was supervision from both professions." Africa with a delegation of 12 youths and recently published by NITA. His earlier adults to demonstrate the law-related peer work, Modern Trial Advocacy, has been Larry Marshall conceived and led the education and community panels models adopted by over 70 law schools and scores recent National Conference on the to corrections officials and political leaders of CLE programs. He attributes the success Wrongful Convictions and the Death interested in implementing such programs of his books to "the inspiration that I Penalty. The conference, which attracted in the new South Africa. Her work with stu- have been able to draw from the many over 1500 attendees from 40 states and dents involves them in both direct client outstanding lawyers who teach in 10 countries, focused international atten- representation and advocacy/policy initia- Northwestern's Trial Advocacy program. tion on the defects of our justice system tives affecting juvenile justice issues. In many ways, my books represent a distil- that cause wrongful convictions. It was, Graves received her bachelor's degree lation of their wisdom, skills, and judg- perhaps, the most noteworthy event ever from Carleton College, a master of public ment." Graduates of the program should held at the Law School. Speakers at the health degree from the University of be happy to know that the "Northwestern conference included, in addition to those Illinois, Chicago, and a JD from Illinois model" of advocacy training is spreading wrongfully convicted and sentenced to Institute ofTechnology Chicago Kent across the country. death, Anthony Amsterdam, Bryan College of Law in 1984. Her legal work Stevenson, Steven Bright, Michael Tigar, has be-en focused in the area of public Monica Mahan continues to be an active and Jesse Jackson Jr. Marshall continues interest law. She has worked with the member of the steering committee of his work on behalf of the wrongfully con- Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, Girls Link, a collaboration of public and victed, representing clients on death row the Office of the Cook County Public private agencies working to provide ser- and consulting with lawyers around the Defender and Access Living, an advocacy vices to girls in the Cook County juvenile country on cases in which claims of organization for people with disabilities. justice system. Additionally, she is assisting innocence are raised. in the monitoring of the Hill/Erickson Zelda Harris accepted an offer to teach at consent decree that requires the Illinois Vanessa Melendez, a graduate of the University of Arizona School of Law, Department of Children and Family Fordham University School of Law, has leaving a legacy at Northwestern of superb Services to deliver appropriate services to joined the clinic as a senior lecturer. teaching and outstanding advocacy. We pregnant and parenting teen DCFS wards. Previously, Melendez served as staff attor- miss her. We are grateful, however, that she Mahan is also working on a project to ney at the Robert B. McKay Community will return regularly to Chicago to continue assist the juvenile court in establishing Outreach Law Program of the Association her work as a co-team leader in the Midwest protocol for case closure for teen DCFS of the Bar of the City of New York, where Regional Session of NITA. At Arizona, she wards that will insure that youth wi ll have she supervised volunteers assisting clients heads the domestic violence clinic. housing, education, and health needs through the Immigrant Women's and addressed before being emancipated Children's and Refugee projects. Melendez from court jurisdiction. is providing services for immigrants seek- She reports that "The CF JC continues ing asylum, particularly women and ch il- to be a fieldwork placement for MSW stu- dren. Her program involves students in dents from Loyola School of Social Work. casework with women and children who The social work students are teamed with require representation in immigration and the law students on our juvenile court asylum issues. Students serve as advocates cases; many of the children come from for clients applying for residency, seeking troubled families where housing, employ- asylum, or in the midst of removal ment, and education issues need attention proceedings. in addition to the legal issues. Law and

Legal Clinic News & Notes 1 8 Ora Schub is an attorney recently hired by the CF JC to represent children and adults Bob Burns's New Book To Be Published in domestic violence proceedings, immi- by Princeton gration asylum cases, and other children's law cases. She supervises law students in Bob Burns's talents as a teacher their work on these cases. and scholar are evident in his Schub is currently developing and forthcoming book, A Theory of coordinating the Connections Project, the Trial, to be published by working with foster care youth in indepen- Princeton University Press. The dent living to access information and book is a rich and complex resources and focus on issues that critically impact their lives. She is working with the analysis of the trial, integrating Community Justice Initiative, Girl Talk, and Burns's knowledge of philoso- other community youth-based programs. phy and social science with his practical experience as Additionally, she is working with various a trial lawyer. The first paragraph of the book's intro- human rights organizations on human duction provides a preview: rights issues of unaccompanied minors. "This book grew out of a long attempt to under- Prior to coming to Northwestern, she headed the Adult Disabled Division of the stand an epiphany, one I have experienced and that Public Guardians Office, supervised the seems often to occur in American trial courts. In the Advocacy and Deaf Services Program at course of trial, there emerges an understanding of Access Living, a disability rights organiza- the people and events being tried that has a kind of tion, and worked as a staff attorney with austere clarity and power. This experience surprises the Legal Assistance Foundation of and 'elevates' the participants, including the jury. The Chicago and with the Criminal Defense grasp of what has occurred and what should be done Consortium. During this time Schub was president of the United Legal Worker's seems to have a kind of comprehensiveness, almost Union and the Chicago Chapter of the self-evidence, of which it is extremely difficult to give National Lawyers Guild. She also helped account. It involves factual and normative determina- to create the first Misdemeanor Domestic tions of very different kinds. The evidence and legal Violence Court in the country. doctrine do not together determine the result in any Schub is presently a member of the logical sense, there is considerable freedom at play, yet National Lawyer's Guild and the advisory board of the Arab American Action Network the best course is apparent. The certainty that emerges and has participated in several human is often less about the accurate representation of a rights delegations to the Middle East. past event-what I call a 'screenplay'-than it is a kind of knowledge of what to do. Judgment as it occurs at trial is a kind of skillful performance of a particularly complex kind. And those in a position to know seem almost universally to agree that the level of perfor- mance, day in and day out, is very skillful indeed.''

Photos by Jim Ziv and Diane Sc hmidt

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Inside Northwestern Clinics established A third-year law A Legal Clinic hosts conference for small buiness student takes a f acuity member on wrongful opportunities and look an inside remembers her convictions and international look at juvenile own clinical 3 the death penalty 9 human rights . 11 court 12 education

Professor La wrence Marshall looks on as Rolando Cruz, whose conviction and death penalty sentence was suc- cessfully overturned through the efforts of Marshall and Northwestern Law students, is embraced at the National Conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty.