Professor Laura Caldwell is the founder and director of the Life After Innocence Project at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. In this video, Professor Caldwell talks about the Project’s mission of helping recently exonerated and wrongfully prosecuted people reclaim their lives.
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Posted by Laura Caldwell
This morning, CBS did a great story on how tough it is to start over after you’ve been jailed for a crime you didn’t commit and then exonerated. I just wish they could have showed my two young, tenacious law students, Megan and Emily, battling court clerks all over the city of Chicago to get the records of Dean Cage and Jerry Miller expunged.
It’s unbelievably frustrating for those guys to have DNA prove conclusively that they never could have done the crimes, to get out of prison and receive a full pardon from the governor (that actually reads “Pardon with expungement”) and yet to find out that there is no automatic expungement. Their records still scream, “SEX OFFENDER.” Jerry found out the hard way when he applied for a job, was thrilled to learn the employer loved him, but then to be told, “Sorry, we can’t hire an ex-felon” when he is not an ex-felong at all.
We’re working to make sure that falsity is removed from court records, police and sheriff records and every kind of background check. It’s not easy. It’s not even a major uphill battle. It’s a dog fight. But Jerry is going to get there. Megan and Emily are making sure of that. Go girls!
Posted by Laura Caldwell
Our fearless president at Loyola is the enlightened and wonderful Father Michael Garanzini. When we started the Life After Innocence Project, he heard us when we said that although there are many legal needs of exonerees or those who have been wrongfully prosecuted (expungement, certificates of innocence, help with leases, etc.), there are so many other needs too like emotional support, job training, computer skills, etc. Our clients, Jerry Miller (26 years for a rape he didn’t commit) and Dean Cage (14 years), didn’t know how to use a computer, a cell phone; they didn’t have an email or know how to Google something. So in some respects, they are newly minted human beings, stepping into a fast, tech-y world without a clue of how to operate any of it.
To that end, Father Garanzini suggested we make the project an interdisciplinary one, pulling in support from Loyola’s school of social work, the business school, the medical school, the nursing school and the undergraduate studies.
The suggestion was a brilliant one. The school of social work is now working with us, with the help of Catholic Charities, to provide counseling for exonerees and their family members o and we’re exploring the potential of monthly support meetings.
The business school has been equally wonderful. Professor Mike Welch and his class, which includes both business and undergraduate students, have taken on our client Jerry Miller to explore with Jerry and his cousin different potential businesses he might start. The class intends to follow with Jerry again in the spring semester of 2010 to provide him with a more specific business model based on the business he chooses.
We look forward to working with additional schools and alumni, as well as anyone in the community who would like to volunteer time or opinions. Feel free to contact Erica Greene with any suggestions at egreene@luc.edu.
Witch Hunt is a documentary about residents in Bakersfield, CA who were wrongfully prosecuted and convicted for child sex abuse, and then later exonerated. The film focuses on John Stoll, who was accused of molesting six children, including his own son.
The documentary debuts Sunday, April 12th on MSNBC at 9pm cst.
A couple of weeks ago at the Innocence Network Conference in Houston, I met Barney Brown. Though you are unlikely to know either his name or the facts of his case, Barney’s story is perhaps one of the most egregious wrongful convictions in the history of the United States. (more…)