If you read the Aug. 22, 2012, Willamette Week story, “Barred: A top Lewis & Clark law student committed a sex crime involving a 13-year-old boy. Now he wants the school to take him back,” you might find the following Gallagher Blogs post apropos.
Law schools and bar associations do on occasion accept and license law students and lawyers (respectively) who have criminal records. (I have blogged before about “redemption,” and you can find other stories in the news.)
“Clemency Clinics: A Blueprint for Justice,” by Ken Strutin, LLRX, June 17, 2012
Excerpt: “Clemency (mercy), pardon (absolution), commutation (substitution), amnesty (forgetting), and reprieve (suspension) are drawn from the language of compassion. And today, they operate in a scheme of constitutional rights that overarches and subsumes notions of mercy and leniency. Thus, it is the constitutional architecture of clemency that provides the basis of relief for the wrongly convicted as well as the rehabilitated.” And yet, there is no right to counsel or institutional representation for the convicted seeking pardons and commutations, generally speaking. Pro bono attorneys, independently run projects, and law school clinics have from time to time filed clemency petitions for those unable to afford counsel. But in the absence of a right to appointed counsel in all cases, clemency petitioners are left to their devices and can only hope for assistance from the outside world….” [Link to full LLRX article.]
(The section on STARTING A CLINIC starts about 1/3 down the page.)
One could fill a library with stories about redemption (in fact, most libraries ARE filled with stories about redemption, fictional and real), but the following came to mind recently when I spoke with a couple of young law library patrons about past transgressions and future promise:
1) Oregon case In re Beers, 339 Or 215, about a law student with a past.
2) Parade magazine, June 27, 2010, article about Richard Dyer: Judging the Value of Redemption, by Linda Himelstein.
From the Washington County (Oregon) Law Librarian:
How does one request a pardon? I wish I could say, “let me count the ways.” But I can’t and highly recommend you talk to your lawyer, if you have one, or that you call the Oregon State Bar (OSB) to find a lawyer who can advise you (or read this How to Find a Lawyer in Oregon guide, which also links to the OSB).
And here’s what else I’ve learned about Oregon pardons (for crimes committed under Oregon state law). There may be more in future posts and you can also let me know if you have anything to add:
Oregon Legal Research Blog