That is the advocate I have always strived to be.  It is the advocate I teach my students to become at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where we represent indigent clients and advocate for racial justice by taking on longer-term impact projects.  For almost two years, we litigated a wrongful conviction case in Louisiana. Our client, Yutico Briley, Jr. was freed on March 18, 2021.

 The USF Racial Justice Clinic also has an unprecedented partnership with the San Francisco DA’s Office. In the Fall of 2020, DA Chesa Boudin launched a 6-member Innocence Commission, an independent advisory group tasked with investigating credible claims of wrongful conviction. I chair the Commission. The students help the Innocence Commission with its work and help the Post Conviction Unit examine and litigate cases involving excessive sentences.

My role as a law professor is to teach my students how to be trial lawyers--skills I learned during my seven years as a federal public defender.  I brought those skills to the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent, which I directed from 2012-2015.  In 2013, the Project freed Kash Delano Register, who spent 34 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.  To read more about Kash Register's case and Yutico Briley’s case, click on the articles posted below.

Witness' Sister Helps Free Man Convicted in 1979 Killing

Kash Delano Register will be released after being convicted of the killing mainly on the testimony of a witness who has been discredited.
NOV 7th 2013

I Write About the Law. But Could I Really Help Free a Prisoner?

For years as a journalist, I’ve covered attempts to exonerate incarcerated people. But a letter from Yutico Briley led to a different kind of story.