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Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Client of Post-Conviction Justice Project reflects on his 41-year fight for release
By Gilien Silsby
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Marvin Mutch, right, meets with PCJP Co-Director Heidi Rummel and Alex Kirkpatrick (JD 2017). |
When it comes to the circumstances of the crime, no case in USC’s Post-Conviction Justice Project is ever the same. But for innocent clients, it is not about the crimes that were not theirs in the first place. It is about the anguish they feel in the face of injustice. And how they hold up in the face of a wrongful conviction. Very often, it is by fighting for release and a life beyond prison.
Find out more about the Post-Conviction Justice Project: Watch “The Trials of Marvin Mutch,” to learn more about the case. |
Mutch was denied parole at 21 hearings. That is, until last year, when the PCJP represented him at his final parole hearing and where he was found suitable for release.
“Our success in convincing the parole board to grant parole must be tempered by the injustice of a man who has served 40 years for a crime he did not commit,” says Heidi Rummel, co-director of the PCJP. “Marvin is one of a kind. As soon as I met him, I understood he was going to be a very interesting client.”
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Mutch visited with PCJP students in fall 2016. |
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