Post-Conviction Clinic

SLN #: 21341
Course Prefix: LAW-791
Course Section: 006
Credit Hours: 6
Instructor(s): Popko
Course Books: View List of Books

Course Description:
Students in the Post-Conviction Clinic work to exonerate wrongfully convicted defendants and correct other manifest injustices such as convictions involving ineffective assistance of counsel and disproportionate sentencing. The Clinic may also review cases once actual innocence has been proven in an effort to understand how the wrongful convictions were reached, and to suggest ways to avoid the risk of such convictions in the future. The Clinic will focus on claims of factual innocence in murder, other non-negligent homicides, and forcible rape convictions where DNA evidence has the potential to exonerate an inmate. While doing so, the Clinic will work closely with the Arizona Justice Project, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, and the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission in implementing a million-dollar federal Department of Justice DNA Testing Assistance Grant. Thus, students will have the opportunity to work collaboratively with inmates, defense lawyers, prosecutors, law enforcement, and investigators to exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals.

For more information about the course, see the Clinic’s webpage at https://law.asu.edu/clinics

This course fulfills the professional skills requirement for graduation.

Additional Information:
Credit Hours: 6
Grading Option: Numeric Grade or Letter Grade Only
Graduation Writing Requirement: No
Flexible/Upper-Level Writing Requirement: No
Skills Requirement: Yes
Simulation Course: No
Experiential Learning: No
Seminar: No
Special Withdrawal Course: Yes. Because of administrative considerations and professional obligations to courts and clients, no student pre-registered for a clinical offering shall be allowed to drop the clinic later than one month preceding the first day of classes, or to add the clinic, unless approval is obtained from the Director of the Clinical Program.
Limited Enrollment Number: 6
Final Exam Given: No
Paper Or In-Class Presentation: Class presentations
Attendance Policy: Per Statement Of Student Policies

* The law school has a policy that is used to calculate credit hours. Please see the Statement of Student Policies.