For most people, New Year’s Day simply marks the beginning of a new calendar year. But this year, January 1 meant something very different for Tony H., as a law came into effect in California that led him to USC Gould School of Law’s Post-Conviction Justice Project (PCJP) and to newfound freedom.
“AB 600 gives judges discretion to resentence incarcerated people, such that the ‘interests of justice’ may be served by reducing inequitable, disparate sentences,” says Danielle Wilkins (JD 2022), PCJP’s clinical legal fellow. “Judge Daniel J. Lowenthal received a letter from Tony on January 2nd, the day after the law went into effect. [His] rehabilitation and accomplishments impressed the court, so he scheduled the case for a hearing and contacted PCJP.”
Led by Co-Directors Heidi Rummel and Michael Parente (JD 2012), PCJP is a clinical program at USC Gould that trains law students to advocate for their clients at parole hearings, post-conviction habeas and resentencing petitions, and parole readiness workshops in prisons. Wilkins has spent the past two years working with the clinic as a fellow, expanding PCJP’s in-prison workshop offerings and supporting students representing clients.
For his case, PCJP had two weeks to present mitigation evidence and witnesses at a resentencing hearing, so Wilkins teamed up with 3L Shelby Enman, one of PCJP’s advanced students.
“I am interested in post-conviction work and so this case was really incredible to work on,” Enman says. “The client was amazing to work with and it was fascinating to learn the nuts and bolts of judge-initiated resentencings.”
Enman, who will be working in the Los Angeles Public Defender’s office post-graduation, says her experience working with the client’s resentencing and her two years with PCJP has been influential in her aim to pursue public interest work.
“The criminal justice legal system moves so slowly and it’s a long process working with parole clients,” she says. “But it was only a few weeks between when we started working on the resentencing hearing and when we met the client as he walked out of the prison gates. It was life-changing for him and exciting for me to see the court and the District Attorney’s Office recognize his hard work to rehabilitate.”
Although the new law grants judges broad discretion to consider resentencing, Wilkins says challenges remain for those who are waiting for an opportunity to present their case to a court.
“By doing this work, PCJP is filling a need for indigent representation that exists right now in L.A. County and beyond,” Wilkins says. “It is affirming when new opportunities to advocate for justice arise. Our ability to take advantage of them, and help achieve freedom for our clients, is a credit to Professor Heidi Rummel, who prepares and supports student lawyers to take on the challenge.”
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