LAW 5637 - Wrongful Conviction Clinic

Third Year Students Only
This is an experiential clinical course in which students assist life-sentenced, potentially innocent incarcerated clients with investigating and litigating applications for postconviction DNA testing. Students study the causes of wrongful convictions that include mistaken identification, false confessions, racial bias, problematic forensic evidence, perjury, and police/prosecutorial misconduct. Student case work includes investigating claims of innocence, searching for evidence to be DNA tested, and litigating post-conviction petitions under intensive faculty supervision. Students learn the essential lawyering skills of fact investigation, client interviewing and counseling, legal research, document and evidence review, and drafting pleadings and motions, and written and oral advocacy. Students are certified to practice under Louisiana Supreme Court Rule XX. This course is graded Pass/Fail (E, HP, P, and F). Participation requires consent of the instructor. There is a mandatory pre-semester orientation. Pass/Fail Experiential Learning