FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Media Contacts:
Anthony Owens
(202) 870-9208
anthony.owens@howard.edu

HU Law School Contact:
Josephine Ross
(202) 577-8335
jross.howardlaw@gmail.com

Washington, DC (June 17, 2016) – President Barack Obama granted clemency to Everett Bryant Law, a client of Howard University School of Law, who was serving a life sentence in prison.

Mr. Law was one of 42 prisoners whose sentence was commuted in President Obama’s June 3, 2016 clemency order. Mr. Law will walk out of prison October 1, 2016 after serving 22 years of his life sentence.                                                                    

Josephine Ross, professor of law and the supervising attorney of the Criminal Justice Clinic at Howard Law School, said that when they first received Mr. Law’s name from Clemency Project 2014, there was very little information about his case. “Students had to track down the paperwork and do extensive research just to find out why he received a life sentence,” said Ross. The students found out that the rules governing the federal sentencing system were “draconian.”

The students working with Professor Ross were Janina Crenshaw, Whitnee Goins, Rashida (Davis) Jeremie, Ashley (Futrell) Smith, and Morgan Williams. All have since graduated from the law school. They spent long days and evenings working on Mr. Law’s petition, pointing to changes in federal sentencing guidelines that would lead to a shorter sentence today. They successfully argued that his prior conviction for burglary of a VCR from his friend’s aunt’s house when he was a teenager should not count as a crime of violence. Without that “crime of violence,” Mr. Law would not be considered a “career criminal” who deserved a life sentence.

They first filed an executive summary of his petition to Clemency Project 2014. Then, in the summer of 2015, they filed a petition with the pardon attorney. That petition led to the clemency order granted by President Obama.

“Share this joyous news with the world,” said Mr. Law’s wife, Kim Law, in an email to Professor Ross.  “Other people need to see the awesome work that you and the students put forth to set my husband from going from a life sentence in prison to coming home and being a free man. Everett and I are so blessed to have you and the students in our journey of finally being free. Not only was Everett in prison, but I too was in prison. Our lives will be forever changed. Thank you all again. Words can't explain what we are feeling.”

Clemency Project 2014 was created by several civil rights organizations that gave President Barack Obama a chance to exercise his clemency power to reduce the human cost of the war on drugs. Forty thousand prisoners applied and the project sought lawyers. Howard University School of Law was one of the first law school’s in the country to accept a client through this initiative.

About Howard University School of Law

Howard University School of Law was founded in 1869 and has been accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) since 1931. Since its inception, the School has aimed to equip students with a well-rounded education to become legal ambassadors in their community.  Rich in its long tradition of excellence and service, the School includes among its nearly 6,000 alumni such notable figures as Justice Thurgood Marshall, former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder, the Honorable Judge Damon Keith, former DC mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly, and attorney Vernon Jordan.