Innocence Clinic

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The Innocence Clinic is dedicated to identifying and correcting wrongful convictions and is committed to exonerating innocent individuals and combating injustice. The clinic handles cases involving innocent individuals incarcerated for a minimum of 10 years who have new evidence ranging from recanting witnesses to new witnesses discovered by students to prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel. The clinic also accepts cases involving DNA evidence. The majority of the cases handled by the clinic involve serious offenses such as rape and murder and the majority of our clients are serving life sentences.

In this hands-on project, law students have the opportunity for live client representation and the responsibility of:

• Investigating innocence claims and litigating post-conviction motions when appropriate
• Reexamining cases in their entirety and providing post-conviction representation to defendants with compelling claims to innocence
• Contributing to the project through fact investigation, interviewing defendants and witnesses, and legal research and analysis

Students may also have the opportunity to research, draft, and file motions for post-conviction relief, and appear in court on behalf of those wrongfully convicted. Project responsibilities include detailed knowledge of the project's procedures and thorough documentation of actions taken on cases through memo writing. The entire project is paperless and requires extensive emailing and software involvement. Investigation of innocence claims includes case screening, witness and client interviews, motion writing, and research. Students may have the opportunity to litigate motions for post-conviction relief.

Time Commitment

Ten (10) hours per week of field work/litigation/investigation/screening/memo writing and case documentation, and one hour of class time per week. Also (2) two hours of individual case staffing per week is required.

Class Requirements

Class time will include a discussion of how to screen and investigate cases, case rounds, brainstorming, and post-conviction law.

Pre-requisites

• Students without CLI status will not be permitted to appear in court on behalf of clients.
• Non-CLI may participate in all other aspects of the clinic (interviewing clients and witnesses, fact investigation, and screening).

Co-requisites

Wrongful Convictions: Causes and Remedies

In this companion course to the Miami Innocence Clinic students will explore areas such as federal and state habeas corpus, collateral remedies, and causes of wrongful convictions, scientific evidence, and DNA science. This course is a graded 2 credit lecture class.

Grading/Class Size/Credits

The clinic is graded and meets the writing or skills requirement. It is also a University wide CIVIC engagement course. Enrollment is limited and students will be selected by Professor Mourer. The clinic is 4 credits per semester. Students who show exemplary performance may be permitted to continue in the clinic subsequent semesters.