Law Students Interview Death Row Inmates

(Pictured L to R)
Kiya Jones, Cliff Johnson (Director/Professor), Wilson Skomal, Heather Horn, Jake Howard (Adjunct Professor), and Nicole Jones (courtesy of UM School of Law)

On March 19, Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm, death row inmates in Unit 29 received visits from the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Clinic law students and its director, professor Cliff Johnson.

Adjunct professor Jake Howard, a new addition to the clinic this year, also attended the cell-side interviews between the students and the death row inmates. Such interviews are part of the inmates’ litigation challenging their prison conditions.

Johnson said, “Very few lawyers have seen death row from the ‘inside,’ so this was a significant experience for all involved. I could not have been prouder of our students. They worked hard to prepare for the interviews. They acted professionally at all times, and they treated those they interviewed with respect and kindness.”

Johnson is the first director of the clinic since he joined the law school faculty last year. The clinic is one of the more recent addition to the clinical programs at the law school. The clinic is a public interest law firm focusing on human rights and social justice. Its goal is to bring meaningful, humane change to Mississippi with litigation of cases involving inmate access to health and mental care, prosecutorial misconduct and discrimination in the criminal justice system.

The MacArthur Justice Center at University of Mississippi will collaborate with MacArthur Justice Center offices in New Orleans and at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago.

To learn more about the clinic and see its projects visit its website.

Callie Daniels is a staff writer for HottyToddy.com. She can be reached at callie.daniels@hottytoddy.com.