A Message from the Executive Director
Our clinical work has a renewed energy this fall as students return to campus and we are increasingly able to pivot our work to in-person interaction with the community. We are inspired by our clients who have overcome significant obstacles to achieve success and who remind us how much more needs to be done. We are grateful for our students, partners and supporters who make this work possible. Giving Tuesday is coming up on November 30. We hope you’ll consider including our clinics in your giving plans. Watch for forthcoming announcements in the coming month.
-Elizabeth Bluestein
| |
The Loyola Project for the Innocent (LPI) Secures Release of Client Dwight Jones
| |
The Loyola Project for the Innocent (LPI) secured the release of client Dwight Jones, who served 21 years of a life-without-parole sentence for a crime he did not commit.
On Sept. 2, 2021, Judge Charles R. Brehmer of the Kern County Superior Court vacated Jones’ conviction, resentenced him to time served and ordered his immediate release. The judge made this ruling after considering a motion filed by the prosecution along with new evidence from numerous alibi witnesses, who saw Jones standing outside in front of his house at the time of the shooting. Jones, who is now 41, has maintained his innocence since the time of his arrest in 1999.
“Over the last four years, LPI’s staff and amazing clinic students worked tirelessly re-investigating the case and successfully uncovered a mountain of new evidence supporting Jones’s claim of innocence,” said Paula Mitchell '02, the Judy and Steve Page Executive Director of the LPI. More>>
| |
In-Person Community Services Return With Pandemic Protections
| |
Clinic students have been excited to return to in-person classes and to serving clients in the community this fall. Pictured above are Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic (LIJC) staff as they resumed regular in-person consultations at Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights; Collateral Consequences of Conviction Justice Project (CCCJP) Director Elie Miller providing in-person expungement services at Homies Unidos in Westlake for National Expungement Week, and Youth Justice Education Clinic (YJEC) staff and students advocating for a young client at an in-person mediation.
| |
|
Sunita Jain Anti-Trafficking Policy Initiative Directors Hired
As Director of Federal Policy for the Sunita Jain Anti-Trafficking Policy Initiative, a partnership of the LSJLC and the Loyola Anti-Racism Center (LARC), Sabrina Talukder will work to advance anti-trafficking policy as part of a larger progressive anti-violence movement focused on survivor empowerment against individual and state perpetrated violence. For Joseph Villela, the State Policy Director for the Sunita Jain Anti-Trafficking Policy Initiative, working with immigrants and underserved communities is more than a professional pursuit, it’s a personal commitment to empowering the underserved. Villela and Talukder will work in collaboration with the LSJLC clinics to advance anti-trafficking and survivor rights policy reforms while engaging law students to have a broader impact.
| |
Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic Celebrates Catalino's Progress on Path to Citizenship
| |
This month the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic (LIJC) celebrated a victory in one of its longest-running cases. Client Catalino had originally obtained legal U.S. residence in the 1980s through the seasonal agricultural worker program. When he met LIJC attorneys in 2014, he was at risk of deportation. LIJC alumni Brenda Ayón Verduzco '16 and Delilah Maestas '16 were the first LIJC students to represent Catalino in seeking a form of relief available to longtime US residents, cancellation of removal. After they graduated, supervising attorneys Alejandro Barajas and Sandra Hernandez continued the fight for Catalino over the course of multiple hearings and delays as well as the twists and turns of changing US immigration policy. In September, Catalino finally regained his green card and is now back on the path to citizenship.
| |
Students, Staff and Exonorees Celebrate International Wrongful Conviction Day at LLS
| |
LPI exonorees, staff and students met on Saturday, Oct. 2, International Wrongful Conviction Day, to exchange stories and celebrate the clinic’s 10 years of work representing those imprisoned for a crime they did not commit. "That was the day my life changed. That was the day hope became real," said Janet Dixon, while reflecting on the moment Loyola Project for the Innocent responded to her letter calling for help.
| |
Clinics Welcome Three Post-Graduate Fellows
| |
 |
From left to right: Claire Davey '21, Jessica Sanborn '21 and Ayesha Hussain '21.
| |
| | |
 | LCCR Offers Landlord-Tenant Options Counseling
In anticipation of the expiration of Covid-19 eviction protections, the Loyola Center for Conflict Resolution (LCCR) launched a Housing Options Counseling Project to help tenants and landlords navigate the new post-pandemic landscape. LCCR has trained more than 50 LLS students to assist with options counseling, providing callers with the information needed to make informed decisions about the best paths to resolution. | |  | Clinic Alumni: We Want to Hear from You!
As we move forward with renewed energy to plan for the future, we want to hear from the experts —our clinic alumni! If you were a student in any LLS clinic, please answer a few questions to help us understand how your clinical experience has played out in practice and how we can best prepare the next generation of attorneys for others. Share>> | |
| | |
LSJLC In The News: Recent Highlights
- Texas Is The First State To Make Buying Sex A Felony. Will This Help Trafficking Victims? NBC News, Aug. 12, 2021
- Dwight Jones Released From Kern County Prison After Serving 21 Years Of Life Sentence For Crime He Did Not Commit, CBS Los Angeles, Sept. 10, 2021
- After 21 Years in Prison for Murder, Wrongly Convicted Man Starting Over in L.A., ABC Los Angeles, Sept. 11, 2021
- Sirhan Sirhan’s Possible Parole Creates Divide in Kennedy Family and Beyond, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 12, 2021
- L.A. County Sheriff Has Legal Power To Ban Gang-Like Groups Of Deputies, County Lawyers Say, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 17, 2021
- Los Angeles County Sheriff's Unit Accused of Targeting Critics, Political Opponents: Report, The Hill, Sept. 23, 2021
- Criminalists in Jane Dorotik Murder Case Had Record of Problems in Lab, Defense Says, San Diego Tribune, Oct. 4, 2021
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
