Griffith College Dublin

 ...

Lawrence Hellman addresses the Law Faculty

...

On Thursday 13^th October, the Law Faculty were privileged to be addressed by the Lawrence Hellman, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law, from the School of law at Oklahoma City University. The subject of his talk was the OCU Innocence Project which is an integral credit bearing part of their law degree. The talk addressed the work of this project in particular and its relevance to students' legal studies, but also made reference to some real innovations nationwide in the US in looking at cases where an individual is asserting factual innocence. One example he gave was the commitment given by the state prosecutor in Texas who has taken it upon himself to review findings of guilt made by the former incumbents of his office which has resulted in the successful review of twenty or more cases just recently.

 Another interesting facet of the work of the Oklahoma Project is that his project has set up a Commission for Justice which deals with how the criminal justice system can be overhauled going forward to prevent miscarriages of justice in the future. Interestingly it is chaired by a former state prosecutor who is a proponent of the death penalty! The commission itself is composed of representatives from the police department, sheriff's office and lawyers among others, who are providing their services voluntarily.

 It is to be hoped that the Faculty can cement some practical links with this project and the innovative way in which it approaches its tasks. Dean Hellmann also stressed the utility of the project in developing students' clinical legal skills when pursuing courses in law.

Posted on by