Page 29 - ACTL Journal Win24

The 2022-2023 Committee held its first meeting on Oc- tober 24, 2022 and immediately started investigation of the thirty-six applicants vying for the award. As is the practice, after several committee meetings, the appli- cants were whittled down to three finalists and site-vis- its were conducted of each. After careful review of the visit reports, the Committee voted to select Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO) – Second Chance at Life Initiative. In 2022, the Board of Regents and Founda- tion Trustees of the American College of Trial Lawyers had increased the award amount from $100,000.00 to $150,000.00. Innocence Project New Orleans – Second Chance at Life Initiative is the first recipient of this gen- erously expanded award amount.
We lawyers, at our core, have great love and respect for our legal system and feel deeply that when the admin- istration of justice is unjust, there should be a remedy.
The Innocence Project of New Orleans was founded in 2001 to work to free innocent people wrongfully convicted and imprisoned in Louisiana. Nothing can be more unjust than to be incarcerated wrongfully. But even when incarceration is proper, excessive, punitive sentences are not. In 2020, IPNO launched its Unjust Punishment Project to free people serving excessive sen- tences in Louisiana prisons.
A new Louisiana law passed in 2021 called Act 122 per- mitsimprisonedpeopleservingalifesentenceunderthe Habitual Offender Law for Nonviolent Crimes, such
as simple possession of cocaine, eligible for parole. There are over 100 people eligible for parole under this new law, roughly half of whom are immediately eligible.
Representation at a parole hearing is crucial in securing re- lease. In Louisiana, parole is granted 70% of the time when a person is represented by an attorney and just 35% when no attorney is present.
The Gumpert Award will be used to support a new pro- gram under IPNO’s Unjust Punishment Project, the Sec- ond Chance at Life Initiative. This Initiative will provide parole representation to imprisoned people who are eligible for parole for the first time under this new law.
The full potential and benefit of Act 122 cannot be realized without attorney representation. With the Gumpert Award, IPNO has been able to hire an attorney dedicated to rep- resenting individuals eligible for parole under this new law.
Jee Park, the Executive Director of IPNO, graduated from U.C. Berkeley with an LL.M in Clinical Advocacy from Georgetown University Law Center and clerked for the Honorable Emmet Sullivan of the District of Columbia.
From her work as a staff attorney at the Bronx Defenders in New York, serving as Director of the Orleans Public Defenders Special Litigation Division and Deputy Dis- trict Defender, finally joining IPNO in 2017, Jee’s career has focused on representation for the underrepresented and marginalized.
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