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California Innocence Project

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+#REDIRECT [[California Innocence Project]]
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-'''Justin Brooks''' (born 1965) is an American criminal defense attorney, known internationally for his work in exonerating wrongfully-convicted persons and training defense attorneys. He is a co-founder and currently serves as director of the [[California Innocence Project]] (CIP),<ref>{{cite web |title= California Innocence Project: Our Staff: Meet the Team |url=https://californiainnocenceproject.org/about-the-project/meet-the-staff |work=California Innocence Project |accessdate=13 Nov 2016}}</ref> which has freed a number of high-profile clients, including football player [[Brian Banks (American football)|Brian Banks]],<ref name="recant">{{cite web |title= Brian Banks accuser recants rape claim |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mtOnNqma1I| publisher=YouTube.com: CNN |accessdate=13 Nov 2016}}</ref> who now serves as a spokesperson for the CIP. The CIP is part of the [[Innocence Network]],<ref>{{cite web |title= The Innocence Network: Innocence Network Member Organizations |url=http://innocencenetwork.org/members |work=The Innocence Network |accessdate=13 Nov 2016}}</ref> an affiliation of organizations dedicated to providing pro bono legal and investigative services to individuals seeking to prove their innocence of crimes for which they have already been convicted. Brooks is frequently interviewed on broadcast media and in print media about cases relating to his clients and others.<ref name="recant"/><ref>{{cite web |title= California Innocence Project Director Justin Brooks discusses Brian Banks' case |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcFW4YeOSZA |publisher=YouTube.com: California Western School of Law |accessdate=13 Nov 2016}}</ref><ref name="Huang">{{cite web |title=Matt and Grace Huang- Americans Institutionally Kidnapped in the Middle East |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5IC7H0vCtA#t=16 |publisher=YouTube.com: The David House Agency |accessdate=13 Nov 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Hernandez |first=David |title=Exonerated man thanks San Diego lawyers, students |url=http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-exonerated-man-thanks-innocence-project-2016jun29-htmlstory.html |work=The San Diego Union-Tribune |date=29 June 2016 |accessdate=13 Nov 2016}}</ref>
-Through the CIP, Brooks also serves as an advocate for clemency for the wrongfully convicted, and for legislation that would make it more difficult to convict the innocent, or would help free those whose convictions have been based on faulty or suppressed evidence or an inadequate defense. In April 2013, he walked 712 miles, from San Diego to Sacramento, on behalf of twelve of his clients: the so-called "California 12."<ref name="cal12">{{cite web |last=Godsey |first=Mark |title=All They Want for Christmas Is Their Freedom: Will Governor Brown Grant Clemency to the California 12? |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-godsey/all-they-want-for-christmas_b_4401816.html |publisher=The Huffington Post |date=9 Dec 2013 |accessdate=13 Nov 2016}}</ref> He also trains criminal defense attorneys in the United States and Latin America to handle cases involving exonerating the innocent.
-Among his many honors, Brooks in 2012 won the first annual Roberto Alvarez Award by the [[American Constitution Society]]<ref>{{cite web |title=San Diego Lawyer Chapter: Third Annual Reception |url=http://www.acslaw.org/events/2012-02-22/san-diego-lawyer-chapter-third-annual-reception |work=The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy |date=22 Feb 2012 |accessdate=13 Nov 2016}}</ref> and was voted one of San Diego’s Top Attorneys by the San Diego Daily Transcript in 2015.<ref>{{cite web |title=San Diego County Top Attorneys |url=http://www.sddt.com/Microsite/topattorney15/finalist.cfm?f=2983j98j&_t=Justin+Brooks#.WCj-BYWcEqR |work=San Diego Daily Transcript |accessdate=13 Nov 2016}}</ref> He currently serves as professor of law at [[California Western School of Law]] (CWSL) in San Diego.<ref name="cwsl">{{cite web |title=Justin P. Brooks |work=Faculty & Staff Directory |publisher=California Western School of Law |url=https://www.cwsl.edu/faculty-staff-and-campus-directories/faculty-and-staff-directory/j/justin-p-brooks |accessdate=16 Nov 2016}}</ref>
-==Early life, education and early legal career==
-Brooks was born in New York City in 1965. He resided for most of youth on the east coast of the United States, but attended high school in [[San Juan, Puerto Rico]]. In 1986, he received a [[bachelor's degree]] in business law from [[Temple University]]. He obtained his [[Juris Doctor |J.D.]] from [[Washington College of Law|American University Washington College of Law]] in 1990. In 1992, he earned an [[Master of Laws |LL.M]] in Trial Advocacy from [[Georgetown University Law Center]].<ref name="cwsl"/>
-Brooks practiced as a criminal [[defense attorney]] in Washington, D.C., California, Illinois and Michigan, taking court-appointed cases in D.C. for three years and ''[[pro bono]]'' cases for [[death row]] inmates in Michigan and Illinois for six years.
-==Beginning of interest in the wrongly convicted==
-In the mid-1990’s, Brooks read about the case of a 21-year-old Chicago women, Marilyn Mulero, who had been sentenced to death on two [[homicide]]s on a [[plea bargain]] without a trial.<ref name="Fidler">{{cite web |title=Justin Brooks on defending the wrongly convicted, and Cressida Campbell's woodblock art [radio interview] |publisher=Conversations with Richard Fidler |url=http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/02/05/2483560.htm |accessdate=16 Nov 2016}}</ref><ref name="Mulero">{{cite web |title=California Innocence Project: Marilyn Mulero |publisher=California Innocence Project |url=https://californiainnocenceproject.org/read-their-stories/marilyn-mulero |accessdate=16 Nov 2016}}</ref> The situation made no sense to Brooks: virtually always, a defendant plea bargains for a lesser sentence, yet Mulero had received the harshest possible sentence.<ref name="Fidler"/>
-Brooks met with Mulero, and discovered that, though two men had been shot and killed, three women, not just Mulero, had been present at the scene of the crime.<ref name="Fidler"/><ref name="Mulero"/> He went to the crime scene to investigate and discovered that the only eyewitness to the crime could not possibly have witnessed it from her vantage point.<ref name="Fidler"/><ref name="Mulero"/> Brooks also discovered that this witness was the girlfriend of one of the victims... a fact never revealed in court.<ref name="Fidler"/>
-Over the Christmas holidays, five of Brooks' students volunteered to help him with the case. They got a jury to reverse the death sentence, though the guilty plea against Mulero still stood.<ref name="Fidler"/> As of late 2015, she was still in jail, though not on death row. In November 2015, Brooks prepared to submit a petition to the United Nations' Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions as “probably [his] last legal option” to free Mulero.<ref name="Mulero"/><ref>{{cite web |title=The Marilyn Mulero Case: A Human Rights Violation |publisher=YouTube: Justin Brooks  |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvT_CPiOQTU |accessdate=16 Nov 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |authors=Maureen Cavanaugh, Gina Diamante, Hoa Quach, Neiko Will |title=San Diego Attorney Seeks U.N.’s Help To Free Convicted Killer |publisher=kpbs.org  |url=http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/oct/14/other-options-exhausted-san-diego-attorney-asks-he |accessdate=16 Nov 2016}}</ref>
-==California Innocence Project==
-===Origins===
-Brooks said that "one night, after visiting Mulero, I was sitting in my car on a freezing Chicago evening and I decided this [exonerating innocent people] is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I quit my job. California has the largest prison system in the world, so I thought this would be a great place to start. The California Western School of Law had a small criminal defense institute that had a little bit of budget for what I wanted to do. They hired me on as director and I turned it into the California Innocence Project."<ref>{{cite web |last=Braun |first=Siobhan |title=When you're guilty til [sic] proved innocent |publisher=San Diego Reader |date=19 Aug 2015 |url=http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2015/aug/19/cover-guilty-til-proved-innocent/?page=2 |accessdate=16 Nov 2016}}</ref>
-Brooks co-founded the CIP in 1999.<ref name="about">{{cite web |title=California Innocence Project: About CIP |publisher=California Innocence Project |url=https://californiainnocenceproject.org/about-the-project |accessdate=16 Nov 2016}}</ref><ref name="bio">{{cite web |title=California Innocence Project: Meet the Staff |publisher=California Innocence Project |url=https://californiainnocenceproject.org/about-the-project/meet-the-staff |accessdate=16 Nov 2016}}</ref> He realized the benefits of getting law students like his own to work on such cases: the students could thus help the innocent, and in this way they could also be trained in defense work, as this experience would provide "a live clinical training, the same way doctors learn in hospitals."<ref name="Fidler"/> Brooks at first naively thought that he would have difficulty finding cases, but when [[The Los Angeles Times]] published an editorial praising the founding of the project, Brooks was inundated by innumerable boxes of material from potential clients, as well as by people visiting its office on behalf of incarcerated friends and family members.<ref name="Fidler"/> The response was so great that Brooks claims that CWSL had to temporarily pretend that it was not associated with the project.<ref name="Fidler"/>
-===Process===
-===High-profile cases===
-===Advocacy===
-==Teaching career==
-Brooks’ first full-time teaching job was at [[Georgetown University Law Center]] where he taught corrections law and was appointed as the Assistant Director of Georgetown’s Corrections Clinic after completing his fellowship.  In that position he co-founded Georgetown’s Family Literacy Project with Professor Richard Roe — a program devoted to teaching inmates how to teach their children how to read and then providing family literacy activities where the children went to the prison and were taught by their parents.<ref name="cwsl" />
-Brooks’ second full-time teaching job was at [[Thomas Cooley Law School]] where he taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Corrections Law, and Death Penalty Law.  He directed a death penalty clinical program and directed the national moot court programs.<ref name="cwsl" />
-Brooks currently teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, federal criminal law, trial advocacy, and comparative criminal procedure at California Western School of Law in San Diego, California.  He is the founding director of the [http://Www.californiainnocenceproject.org California Innocence Project], a law school clinic devoted to freeing the wrongfully incarcerated.  He is also the executive director of The [http://www.cwsl.edu/main/default.asp?nav=icda.asp&body=icda/home.asp Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy], a program devoted to criminal defense attorney training, co-director of [http://www.accesocapacitacion.com ACCESO Capacitacion], a program devoted to oral skills training for Latin American lawyers, co founder and director of the law school’s [http://www.cwsl.edu/main/default.asp?nav=trial_advocacy.asp&body=trial_advocacy/home.asp LL.M. Trial Advocacy Specializing in Federal Criminal Law], and co-founder and co-director of [http://www.redinocente.org/ Redinocente], an organization devoted to creating and supporting innocence programs throughout Latin America.<ref name="cwsl" />
-Brooks has been a visiting professor at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, Universidad Interamericana, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, New England School of Law’s Summer Law Program in Galway, Ireland, and South Texas College of Law’s Summer Law Programs in Malta and the Czech Republic.  He has taught multiple times in California Western School of Law’s Chile Summer Program.<ref>{{cite web|title=Chile Summer Program|url=http://www.cile.edu/chile.html|publisher=Consortium for Innovative Legal Education|accessdate=21 Sep 2012}}</ref>
-===Legal career===
-Since 1999 he has been representing clients in conjunction with his work as Director of [http://www.californiainnocenceproject.org California Innocence Project].<ref name="cwsl" />  The project has exonerated several wrongfully convicted clients including [http://www.californiainnocenceproject.org/index.php/read-their-stories/jason-kindle Jason Kindle], [http://www.californiainnocenceproject.org/index.php/read-their-stories/john-stoll John Stoll], [http://www.californiainnocenceproject.org/index.php/read-their-stories/kenneth-marsh Ken Marsh], [http://www.californiainnocenceproject.org/index.php/read-their-stories/adam-riojas Adam Riojas], [http://www.californiainnocenceproject.org/index.php/read-their-stories/timothy-atkins Tim Atkins], [http://www.californiainnocenceproject.org/index.php/read-their-stories/reginald-cole Reggie Cole], [http://www.californiainnocenceproject.org/index.php/read-their-stories/rafael-madrigal Rafael Madrigal], and football player [http://www.californiainnocenceproject.org/index.php/read-their-stories/brian-banks Brian Banks].<ref>{{cite web|title=California Innocence Project Home|url=http://www.californiainnocenceproject.com|accessdate=21 Sep 2010}}</ref>
-<gallery>
-<!-- Deleted image removed: File:Stoll brooks.jpg|In court with John Stoll -->
-File:Atkins court.jpg|In court with Tim Atkins
-</gallery>
-==Awards and recognitions==
-*[[American Constitution Society]] Robert Alvarez Award (2012)<ref>{{cite web|title=American Constitution Society for Law and Policy: San Diego Chapter Third Annual Reception|url=http://www.acslaw.org/San_Diego_Fundraiser_2012}}</ref>
-*Paul Bell Memorial Award (2011)<ref>{{cite web|title=Appellate Defenders Inc: PAUL E. BELL MEMORIAL AWARD|url=http://www.adi-sandiego.com/award.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=California Western School of Law News|url=http://www.kintera.org/site/c.5oJHLWPvFdJUG/b.6713437/k.5DA1/California_Innocence_Project_Receives_Award_for_Appellate_Defense.htm}}</ref>
-*California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year (Criminal), California Lawyer (2010),<ref>{{cite web|title=California Lawyer Journal: 2010 California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year}}</ref> (2012)[http://www.kintera.org/site/c.5oJHLWPvFdJUG/b.8566179/k.62ED/California_Innocence_Project_Staff_Named_California_Lawyer_Attorneys_of_the_Year.htm]
-*50 People to Watch in 2010, San Diego Magazine<ref>{{cite web|title=San Diego Magazine, 50 People to Watch in 2010|url=http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/San-Diego-Magazine/January-2010/50-People-to-Watch-in-2010/}}</ref>
-*Top 100 Lawyers in California, Los Angeles Daily Transcript (2007, 2008, and 2009)<ref>{{cite web|title=California Western School of Law News|url=http://www.cwsl.edu/main/default.asp?nav=news.asp&body=news/brooks_top_100_2009.asp}}</ref>
-*Post Conviction Lawyer of the Year, San Diego Criminal Defense Bar Association (2006)
-*San Diego’s Top Attorneys, San Diego Union Tribune (2006, 2007)
-*Brooks’ work has been featured by NBC,<ref>{{cite web|title=California high school football star cleared of rape 10 years later|url=http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/25/11877259-california-high-school-football-star-cleared-of-rape-10-years-later?lite|date=25 May 2012|publisher= NBCNews.com|accessdate=21 Sep 2012}}</ref> ABC,<ref>{{cite web|title=ABC News|url=http://abcnews.go.com/US/football-star-exonerated-rape-conviction-press-charges-accuser/story?id=16438059#.UDVVHdCe6wE}}</ref> CNN,<ref>{{cite web|title=CNN Saturday Morning News|url=http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1205/26/smn.05.html}}</ref> and other major news outlets.
-==Academic publications==
-*''Wrongful Convictions: Cases and Materials,'' Vandeplas Publishing LLC (1st ed. 2011) <ref>{{cite book|last=Brooks|first=Justin|title=Wrongful convictions : cases and materials|publisher=Vandeplas|location=Lake Mary, Fla.|isbn=160042158X}}</ref>
-*''Find the Cost of Freedom: The Struggle to Compensate the Innocent for Wrongful Incarceration and the Strange Legal Odyssey of Timothy Atkins'', (with Simpson) 49 San Diego Law Review 3 (2012)
-*''¡Inocente! The Challenge of Bringing Innocence Work to Latin America'', The University of Cincinnati Law Review (Fall 2011).
-*''Ayudando a Liberar a los Inocentes en Chile y en toda América Latina'', Revista 93, Santiago, Chile (Summer 2011).
-*''Blood Sugar Sex Magik: A Review of Postconviction DNA Testing Statutes and Legislative Recommendations'', (with Simpson) 59 Drake Law Review 799 ( (2011).
-*''The Hurricane Meets the Paper Chase: Innocence Projects New Emerging Role in Clinical Legal Education'', (with Stiglitz and Shulman) 38 California Western Law Review 413 (Spring 2002).
-*''The Politics of Prisons'', 77 Michigan Bar Journal 154 (February 1998).
-*''Will Boys Just be “Boyz N the Hood? African-American Directors Portray a Crumbling Justice System in Urban America'', 22 Oklahoma City University Law Review 1 (Spring 1997).
-*Lead article. Reprinted in ''Screening Justice-The Cinema of the Law: Significant Films of Law, Order and Social Justice'', edited by Strickland, Foster, and Banks, Hein and Co (2006).
-*''How Can We Sleep While the Beds Are Burning? The Tumultuous Prison Culture of Attica Flourishes in American Prisons Twenty-Five Years Later'', 45 Syracuse Law Review 159 (Fall 1996).  Reprinted in Prisoners and the Law by Ira Robbins.
-*''The Dire Wolf Collects his Due While the Boys Sit by the Fire: Michigan Cannot Afford to Buy into the Death Penalty'', (with Erickson) 13 Thomas M. Cooley Law Review 877 (Fall 1996).
-*''Justice For Sale:  Is a Death Row Inmate Entitled to Discovery After the Judge Who Presided at Trial is Convicted of Taking Bribes to Fix Case''s, 7 Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases 433 (April 1997).
-*''Should Sexually Violent Predator Laws Allowing Long-Term Commitment Be Treated as Civil or Criminal?'' 1 West’s Legal News (Dec. 10, 1996).
-*''Don’t Model Our Correctional System'', 106 Prison Service Journal 40 (July 1996).
-*''Policing the Judiciary: When Can a Judge be Convicted of Interfering with a Federal Criminal Investigation?'', 6 Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases 287 (1995)
-*''Keeping the Jailhouse Lawyer Out of Jail'', 9 Criminal Justice Magazine 18 (Summer 1994).
-*''It's a Family Affair - The Incarceration of the American Family: Confronting Legal and Social Issues'', (with Bahna) 28 University of San Francisco Law Review 271 (Spring 1994).  Lead article.
-*''Exile on Main Street...Inmate Transfers From Puerto Rico to the Continental United States Violate Due Process'', 27 Interamericana Law Review 1 (Spring 1993).
-*''Addressing Recidivism: Legal Education in Correctional Settings'', 44 Rutgers Law Review 699 (Spring 1992). Reprinted in South Africa in the University of Bophuthatswana Law Review (Fall 1992).
-==External links==
-*[http://www.cwsl.edu/main/default.asp?nav=icda.asp&body=icda/home.asp Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy]
-==References==
-{{reflist|2}}
-{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Justin}}
-[[Category:California lawyers]]
-[[Category:Living people]]
-[[Category:1965 births]]
-[[Category:Wrongful conviction advocacy]]