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Notre Dame Law School’s Exoneration Justice Clinic received a $3 million grant from Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to defend Mexican nationals in criminal cases in the United States.
The grant is the largest the clinic has ever received, according to an announcement from the school.
The focus of the grant is to help overturn wrongful convictions, Dean G. Marcus Cole said in a statement.
Professor Jimmy Gurulé, founder and faculty director of the Exoneration Justice Clinic, said in a statement the clinic will work with the 53 Mexican consulate offices around the country. The grant-funded program will also give law students the chance to gain experience in litigating wrongful conviction cases.
The three-year pilot program has two components.
First, the clinic will review claims of actual innocence, which will be referred from Mexican consulate offices. The claims will go through an initial screening process before being sent to the clinic to evaluate for legal representation.
Second, law students will assist with pretrial proceedings, plea bargaining and trial litigation under a licensed attorney.
The grant will also fund the hiring of two staff lawyers — one who will work on post-conviction cases and one who will work on pre-trial cases — as well as an investigator and legal assistant.
“This grant will further provide our students with an opportunity to make a positive impact on reforming the criminal justice system and correcting the miscarriage of justice,” Gurulé said. “This is very exciting and is consistent with Notre Dame’s mission to be a force for good.”
The exoneration clinic launched in 2020 and helped secure an exoneration for an Elkhart man with a mental disability after a judge determined his initial murder trial was tainted by false evidence and coercive investigative techniques.
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