EDITORS NOTE: This article is reprinted from the Spring 2009 edition of The Mercerian. To review the entire publication, visit http://www.mercer.edu/Mercerian/spring2009/
By Nancy Godson
The decision on June 30, 2008, was unanimous, which is somewhat rare for the Georgia Supreme Court. Yet when representatives of Mercer’s Habeas Project appealed the malice murder conviction of Tavaris Smith, all seven justices agreed that the trial judge had construed his defense as an insanity plea. Such a plea implies intent, and Smith’s lawyers had insisted that their client was asleep when he shot his wife in 2003 and couldn’t know what he was doing. Smith was granted a new trial and the State of Georgia gained a new legal precedent: “The Sleepwalker Defense.”
Sarah Gerwig-Moore, assistant professor at Mercer’s Walter F. George School of Law and adviser to the Habeas Project, remembers telling Smith the good news.
“It was a beautiful moment,” she said. “I said, ‘Tavaris, we won! We won! It was unanimous!’ We both cried.”
Smith v. The State was one of several recent cases handled through Mercer’s Law and Public Service Program, a University-wide initiative in which undergraduates from any of Mercer’s schools and colleges can serve as interns and work with law students and faculty on actual cases for academic credit.
Professor Tim Floyd, program director, and Gerwig-Moore steer the program, which includes a public defender clinic, classes in poverty law, a public interest practicum, summer and judicial externships, and the Habeas Project.
Habeas corpus, which in Latin means ‘you have the body,’ is a legal petition filed with the court that challenges the right of a prison or court to hold a person. Habeas Corpus petitions are usually presented on the grounds that a prisoner’s constitutional rights were compromised.
The Habeas Project distinguishes Mercer as the first and, so far, only program in Georgia to handle non-capital, post-conviction cases on a strictly pro bono basis. To people who are wrongfully imprisoned, it represents a legal lifeline that could lead to a new trial.
In Georgia, those who are found guilty at trial are guaranteed a public defender to present a direct appeal on their behalf, but if they lose at court, they also lose their right to counsel on subsequent appeals. It is at this point that Mercer’s Habeas Project steps in.
“Persons serving prison sentences often lack the knowledge and resources to push their cases further without legal assistance,” Gerwig-Moore said. “The Habeas Project bridges a legal gap and serves as a resource to prisoners whose legal rights are going unmet.”
As one can imagine, the project receives crushing amounts of mail from Georgia prisoners begging for legal help.
To make the project manageable, Professor Gerwig-Moore closely monitors the Supreme Court docket, filtering cases through her understanding of trends in statewide and national law before choosing those to present to Mercer students for consideration.
“I always try to select cases that I think we have a strong chance of winning,” she said. “I also look for compelling facts in a case, or a very compelling client.”
Tavaris Smith’s sleepwalking defense was just such a case. So, too, is Kayla Wright, a 23-year-old Cordele mother convicted in 2006 of murdering her newborn. The jury deliberated just two hours before judging Wright guilty on four counts, including malice murder and concealment of a death. Although medical evidence suggests that her baby was stillborn, Wright’s request for a new trail was denied.
Enter Mercer’s Habeas Project team, which in February entered a direct appeal and argued before the Georgia Supreme Court that the jury heard improper and prejudicial evidence from an expert witness during Wright’s trial. The team, led by Gerwig-Moore, also argued that Wright’s constitutional rights were at issue since much of the trial was based on an involuntary confession that was unreliable. A Supreme Court decision will be handed down this spring.
“We don’t win every case, but we win most of them,” Gerwig-Moore said. The Habeas Project has handled 22 cases in nearly three years, has so far won 10 of them, and eight are ongoing.
Another distinction of the Habeas Project is that Mercer undergraduates participate as interns and work alongside second- and third-year law students on real-life cases. According to Gerwig-Moore, no other law class offers such an opportunity to university underclassmen.
“Law practice is collaborative,” she said. “With so many resources available within Mercer’s schools and colleges, it makes sense for us to work together and learn from one another.”
Prior to joining the Habeas Project as an intern, junior sociology major Cari Hipp was convinced that anyone sitting in prison probably had good reason for being there.
“Then I learned about the inconsistencies in Kayla’s case and how everyone rushed to call her a killer, and I began to understand that she was a client who needed help, not a dangerous murderer,” she said.
Hipp especially enjoyed participating in the brainstorming sessions with Gerwig-Moore and the law students.
“Every detail is examined and discussed, because it could be the life-changing point that convinces the court to accept a habeas corpus petition,” she said.
Hipp applied to the Habeas Project to satisfy the internship requirements for her criminal justice minor, but she’s now considering a law career.
Nadia Osman, a senior sociology major and future epidemiologist, wasn’t sure what the benefit would be to participating in the Habeas Project, but is happy that she followed the recommendation of her adviser, Dr. Leona Kanter, associate professor and chair of sociology.
“I was intimidated at first, but I ended up feeling like I’d participated in something important and pretty amazing,” Osman said.
“We throw a lot of work at the interns, but they’re bright and handle it really well,” Gerwig-Moore said. “They’re a real asset to the program.”
Undergraduates contribute to the team by conducting legal research, writing sample briefs and editing legal documents. They also make great sounding boards.
“Our law students enjoy practicing their oral arguments with the interns because they aren’t familiar with the legal system and offer a fresh perspective and good advice,” Gerwig-Moore said. “It’s great training for the courtroom.”
Third-year law student Emily Griffin says that working with the Habeas Project has opened her eyes to the important role she’ll soon take on as a lawyer. The ‘I can do it myself’ law school mentality has no place in the courtroom, she says.
“Kayla’s case taught me that if I have the slightest doubt about something, then I need to seek advice from someone with more experience so that my actions don’t detrimentally affect the public, or the life of an innocent person,” Griffiin said.
“At the end of the day, I get to go home,” she said. “Whether or not my client gets to do the same depends on my advocacy.”
It takes three years or more for post-conviction cases to process through the legal system, so a single case will cycle through several Habeas Corpus teams of students. Rarely, if ever, will a student work a case from opening appeal to final decision. Nadia Osman likens it to a jigsaw puzzle.
“I know I’ll never see the fruits of my labor,” she said. “Still, I added a piece to the puzzle, and the next person after me will add his piece, until one day the picture will be complete.
“That’s what’s great about the Habeas Project,” Osman said. “No one person can take full credit for winning a case, because no one worked alone. We each played a part.” |
