Louisiana is the incarceration capital of the world. It houses the largest maximum-security prison in the United States and imposes some of the longest sentences of any state. The Criminal Justice Clinic not only represents people involved in Louisiana’s troubled criminal justice system but also is at the forefront of reform.
Students in the Criminal Justice Clinic learn a broad range of lawyering skills through individual client representation and engaging in systemic advocacy on behalf of their clients. Clinic students, under supervision of clinical faculty, represent clients at all levels of the criminal justice system - trial, appellate, post-conviction, federal habeas corpus, and parole. Representing indigent criminal clients in their misdemeanor and felony cases students appear before the Parole Board, argue motions and conduct trials, argue cases before the Louisiana Circuit Courts, the Louisiana Supreme Court, and in the United States District Court and Court of Appeals.
Recognizing that litigation alone often fails to achieve client goals or systemic changes, Criminal Justice Clinic students also participate in a range of reform activities on behalf of clients such as legislative reform, developing and implementing reform strategies with other criminal justice stakeholders and community education.
Prof. Katherine Mattes led students in the post-Katrina era, when the criminal justice system broke down. The flooded Orleans Parish Criminal District courthouse was closed for months, court records were not available, evidence was underwater, witnesses had scattered, and the indigent defense system was broken. Tulane’s Criminal Clinic along with Loyola Criminal Law Clinic were appointed to represent the more than 8,000 indigent defendants who had been incarcerated in Orleans Parish Prison and were now scattered across the state.
With the support of law student volunteers from the national Student Hurricane Network, the Tulane Criminal Clinic undertook the task of locating defendants, securing the release of those over-incarcerated or never charged, documenting the destroyed evidence, challenging the constitutionality of the public defender funding system – which had proven completely inadequate, and joining forces with others to rebuild New Orleans’ criminal justice system.
“The breakdown of the criminal justice system in New Orleans required the clinic to reconsider the way in which it advocated for its clients. Skills such as strategic planning, negotiation, legislative action, and community education were required because litigation was not possible.” Director, Katherine Mattes
The Clinic’s pre and post-Katrina work exposed a dire need to address the needs of people with mental illness held indefinitely after being found permanently incompetent to stand trial. These efforts ranged from collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union to challenge the standard of mental health treatment available in parish jails to serving on advisory working groups and testifying before the Louisiana legislature to enact competency laws that were constitutional.
Clinic students also collaborate with expert fellows from the Tulane Forensic Psychiatry Department, participating in a week-long joint course that culminates in a mock insanity trial. This interdisciplinary partnership allows law students to examine experts in preparation for real competency determinations and gives fellows an opportunity for additional practice through mock hearings.
The Clinic is leading the charge to implement the United States Supreme Court’s Miller vs. Alabama ruling in a state that has, until recently, sentenced juveniles to life in prison without parole with impunity. Following the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling that life without parole sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional, the clinic advocated on behalf of clients in the Louisiana Supreme Court seeking new sentences under the ruling, strategized and testified for legislative reforms, and successfully petitioned the criminal courts for new sentences. This year alone, two clinic clients who were both sentenced to die in prison at age 16 have been granted parole after collectively spending over 65 years at Angola State Penitentiary.
The Criminal Justice Clinic has contributed to “dethroning” Louisiana as the incarceration capital of the United States and the world. Students were instrumental in drafting and arguing before the state legislature for the passage of Act 469 – a bill that made people sentenced to life for third-strike non-violent felonies eligible for parole.
Continuing to advocate for clients inside and outside the courtroom, to the state Supreme Court and to the state Capitol, Criminal Justice Clinic students build upon the work of former generations of students in the fight for justice.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Criminal Justice Clinic was awarded the Clinical Legal Education Association Award for Excellence in a Public Interest Project for work identifying, locating and representing Orleans Parish inmates who had been displaced by the evacuation.