Fall 2024

Dear Alumni and Friends, 

This is the season when we ask you to contribute to the Death Penalty Clinic Fund, which is supported entirely by your donations. The fund makes it possible for us to amplify our teaching and advocacy with three attorneys and a paralegal in the clinic. 

We are, of course, well aware that we are asking for your financial help at a time of deep uncertainty and fear both in this country and around the world. We believe that we can do so because you understand — profoundly — the multiplier effects of poverty, bigotry, and inequality that lead to death sentences in the United States. We hope that the clinic’s work this year will inspire you, as it does us, to recommit to achieving justice for our clients and pushing forward to transformative change in the criminal legal system. 

You can click here to make an online donation at any time. If you would prefer to send a check, please make your check payable to “UC Berkeley Foundation/Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic Fund,” and mail it to: Berkeley Law c/o UC Berkeley, Donor Gift Services, 1995 University Avenue, Suite 400, Berkeley, CA 94704-1070. 

We thank you for your steadfast support. We extend our best wishes to you and your family for health, safety, and resilience in the coming year.

Sincerely,

Elisabeth Semel, co-director

Ty Alper, co-director

Mridula Raman, deputy director

Clinic Work and News

Advocacy for Toforest Johnson continues to grow 

Earwitness, the serial-length podcast about Toforest Johnson, was recently named one of the 30 best true crime podcasts of all time by Entertainment Weekly. The clinic had no official role in creating the podcast, but it tells the story of how Mr. Johnson — long represented by the clinic, the Southern Center for Human Rights, and DPC alum Kathryn Miller ‘07 — was convicted and sentenced to death despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence. Clinic students this year and last have traveled to Alabama multiple times to investigate and develop further claims in support of litigation pending in both state and federal court.

Clinic litigates in state court on behalf of Mark Jenkins 

Clinic students and faculty continue to litigate in St. Clair County, Alabama on behalf of longtime client Mark Jenkins. The clinic recently filed additional pleadings arguing both that Mr. Jenkins is entitled to a hearing on his claim of intellectual disability and that his death sentence is unconstitutional because his jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on the penalty. Clinic students also continue to work on creative forms of advocacy, including developing a video and a website to support Mr. Jenkins’s clemency efforts.

Kansas Report/Testimony

In 2022, Clinic students contributed to a report on discrimination in the exercise of peremptory challenges in Kansas, as part of a challenge to that state’s death penalty brought in Sedgwick County. Relying on an updated report, Lis testified this year as an expert witness at a hearing on a new capital punishment challenge pending in Wyandotte County.

Report on jury diversity published

This year, the Clinic published “Guess Who’s Coming to Jury Duty?: How the Failure to Collect Juror Demographic Data Contributes to Whitewashing the Jury Box.” The study follows the Clinic’s 2020 report on peremptory challenges by cataloging the states that gather prospective jurors’ self-identified race and ethnicity and those that do not. It examines what courts do with the information, including whether it is provided to the court and counsel for use during jury selection, and the structural consequences of these choices in furthering or obstructing jury diversity.

Mridula Raman promoted to Deputy Director

We are thrilled to share the news with you that Mridula Raman has been promoted to Deputy Director of the Death Penalty Clinic! Those of you who graduated within the last five years have been fortunate to work with Mridula and you know that she is both a tireless advocate for her clients and completely devoted to the education and personal/professional growth of her students. We are so fortunate that Mridula has taken on this new role and appreciate this opportunity to celebrate her as a teacher, practitioner, clinician, and scholar.

DPC student wins Outstanding Clinical Student Award

Grace Erger ’24, now a post-bar graduate law clerk at the Contra Costa County public defender’s office, was the 2024 awardee of the Clinical Legal Education Association Outstanding Clinical Student Award. In the DPC, Grace demonstrated excellence across many areas and through many projects—including organizing and leading a massive, multi-trip investigation for an Alabama client and helping write a cert petition on a tight turnaround. Grace’s teammates shared that she is “the gravitational center of public defense work at Berkeley Law” and that “working with Grace is generative, efficient, and rewarding.”

Clinical Program releases 2023-2024 annual report

Last year, 225 students enrolled in the Clinical Program's 14 clinics, collaborating with faculty, staff, and clients to advance justice in the East Bay, nationally, and globally. Please take a look at the Clinical Program’s annual report to learn more.