News Releases
Valpariaso Law students help defendants in New Orleans
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
A group of 17 Valparaiso University law students are assisting the public defender’s office in New Orleans this week, the third time law students have visited the city since Hurricane Katrina to help ease a backlog of court cases that has left minor offenders sitting in jail for months before their first hearing.
Derrick Carter, associate professor of law; Dr. Paul Brietzke, professor of law; and students are working in New Orleans March 2 to 8, assisting public defenders in New Orleans with bond hearings, client visits, indigency determinations, legal research, motions and other activities.
Carter, a public defender in Michigan before joining Valparaiso’s law faculty, said the public defender’s office in New Orleans is poorly funded and that many arrests for minor offenses have resulted in high bonds being set.
“That means prisoners have ended up waiting in jail for months before their first probable cause hearing,” he said. “It was a problem before Hurricane Katrina, but it’s become much worse since then.”
Even more concerning, Carter said, is the fact that many of the cases against these minor offenders are weak and prosecutors drop the charges before a trial begins.
“Minor offenders are getting released after they’ve already spent months in jail, so the time they were in jail was for nothing,” he said. “The students want to help these people get fair treatment from the criminal justice system.”
Contingents of Valparaiso law students also traveled to New Orleans in March and May of last year to provide legal assistance. Students pay for all of their travel, hotel and food expenses, and work 10 hours a day or more for the public defender’s office.
“While the city is much improved from our first visit, the public defender’s office is still in great need of legal research and other assistance,” Carter said. “Our law students learn a tremendous amount about criminal defense work from this experience. It has been a real eye opener for students to see how the public defender’s office in New Orleans is dealing with these issues.”
The Valparaiso University law students participating this year include:
- Anthony Nwaneiri
- Heather Looby
- Amanda Hires
- Uzma Sutti
- Dominic Buttitta
- Jeff Lehrman
- Jeff Cartwright
- Laura Brackey
- Justin Staublin
- Ronald Pearson
- Patrick Samuelson
- J.P. Roman-Loganis
- Matt Talbert
- Nicole Knowlton
- Uzoma Anyanetu
- Mohammed Alotaibi
- Rich Foreman
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