Daniella Clayborn, COL ’25, Alpharetta, GA
This summer, I had the incredible opportunity of interning with the Innocence Network, a group of Innocence Project organizations with a mission to free and exonerate innocent people who have been wrongfully convicted. My internship was with the California Innocence Project and the Midwest Innocence Project, which required that I live and work in San Diego, California. Being from Alpharetta, Georgia, I was thrilled to get this wonderful opportunity and intellectual experience to explore such a beautiful city.
My internship consisted of case preparation, investigation, and field experience. I had the opportunity to read hand-written letters from imprisoned individuals and process their legal documents to move them forward in the process of receiving assistance from one of the many outstanding lawyers working on this project. I also conversed with and heard the voices of inmates and their family members requesting help and pronouncing their innocence. Working in San Diego gave me the opportunity to practice Spanish by speaking and listening on the phone, and reading and writing letters.
At times, it was an overwhelming experience to hear the cries of people in need, desperate for someone to hear their story and remove them from a prison cell they may have been forced into for decades. It was especially disheartening when an individual didn’t fit the criteria in even such small ways as not filing an appeal or being convicted in an outside state, and the individual had to be rejected. You want to help everyone you can, but it’s also difficult since not everyone is innocent. With the number of cases that we were able to move forward, it was a “win” that felt particularly good to send that person an application with the hope of proving their innocence. I became engaged in reading the words someone in prison wrote, closely following their story, and reviewing their legal documents, totally convinced of their innocence. It’s an experience I’ll never forget! In addition, my fellow interns and I had the opportunity to observe live legal hearings and trials, including innocence cases and active defense cases. We also had the opportunity to help one of the attorneys with his cross-examination questions for a witness in his innocence case. We reviewed recorded interviews and written declarations of testimonies. In addition, I was given several tasks to investigate. These included conducting online investigations of individuals that may be involved in wrongful conviction cases, reviewing the criminal history and legal documents of witnesses that led to a defendant’s conviction, and conducting a deep dive into tips of fraudulent scientific experts involved in possible wrongful convictions.
Lastly, I was able to attend several training sessions that taught me and the other interns’ skills in interviewing, trial practice, forensic science, media handling, and online investigation. I learned so much about the courts system, police reports, and how wrongful convictions happen. This experience was invaluable since it allowed me to converse with the attorneys and current law students who share a passion of mine. To observe the attorneys dedicate their lives to an issue so important was greatly inspiring, confirming my desire to attend law school and one day represent the clients that almost everyone else had given up on. As a Black woman, I am aware of the disproportionate number of black people in prison, and much of this is as a result of the system in place in our country. My hope is to one day help change that system. I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to work at an internship across the country and have experiences that I never would have had without financial assistance to sustain myself in a location so far from home.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2023 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
