When scholarly training meets real-life lawyering, the stakes can feel awfully big. Which is exactly how it is for the instructors and students of Stanford Law School's Criminal Defense Clinic.
The clinic represents clients who face lengthy or life prison sentences under California's three strikes law, even though their crimes were so arguably minor that their convictions seem unreasonably harsh. The merit of the law, which imposes sentences of 25 years to life following conviction for any third felony when the first two were "serious" or violent, is therefore an implied issue. But the guiding factor for the clinic is how the statute was applied to the various clients.
For instructors Michael Romano, JD '03, a practicing defense attorney, and Galit Lipa, a former public defender, that presents a nuanced challenge. Their involvement as supervisors is essential because students are not yet lawyers, but the core legal research, factual investigation and advocacy, including court appearances, are the heart of the class work.
"Teaching and representing a client at the same time is a balance," explains Lipa. "How much do you let the student struggle when the client needs something done? How much do you let the students fail so that they can learn?"
Success has been much more of a theme than failure. Lipa joined Romano on the project in the summer of 2007, shortly after the clinic got under way with co-founders Romano and Professor Lawrence Marshall. As of early December, Lipa and Romano had supervised cases in which six clients with life sentences were released and two more were resentenced to much shorter terms. In cooperation with non-Stanford attorneys, the clinic also helped with the original sentencing hearings for another three cases, each resulting in far less than the possible life sentence. Six more cases have not reached the end of legal maneuvering.
"One of the ways that you teach people is that you give them a lot of responsibility, and we do," says Romano. "And we feel comfortable doing that because they are great." The students are sensitive to the responsibility, but also motivated by it. "I had no idea how much a law student could do, and it has been both frightening and empowering," says Emily Galvin, a third-year law student. Well, more frightening or more empowering? "That depends on how my case turns out," she replies.
The clinic's work has gotten some media attention, plus criticism from Mike Reynolds, the citizen who helped draft the state's three strikes law following the murder of his daughter. Reynolds summarizes the work of the clinic as "naïve." He sees its efforts as undermining an effective law by spotlighting atypical prosecutions and convictions, creating a perception of unfairness. The clinic's intentions aside, asserts Reynolds, the law's opponents have made a point of publicizing misleading cases.
Romano's response is that the clinic's main interest is on the practical training provided to students through the defense work. He also notes that the Law School's apolitical mission is reflected in other projects, such as the Criminal Prosecution Clinic that works with the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office.
Lipa and Romano's students think Reynolds is wrong about unjust convictions being overblown as a problem. "We get contacted about hundreds more cases than we can take," says Kathleen Fox, another third-year student, "and many are meritorious."
The longest a clinic client has been out of prison is about a year. "They're all doing great at this point," says Lipa. "They're clean and sober, they've reconnected with their families, a lot of them have gotten really good jobs. So far, so good."
