Criminal Justice Advocacy Clinic

Our clinic is one of a small, growing number across the country that has developed a partnership with social workers in order to better represent clients. We work with two social work consultants, both former UB Master of Social Work student interns with the clinic. These two social workers have years of experience between them and provide crucial expertise for the work of the clinic. They have developed a robust model of reentry planning for parole applicants and of support and preparation assistance for clients working through the parole and resentencing process. 

Clinic students represent individuals seeking resentencing under the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA). This 2019 law allows survivors of domestic violence to seek a reduced sentence if the abuse they suffered was a significant contributing factor to the crime for which they are convicted.  Student attorneys work closely with their clients to develop evidence and draft resentencing applications, prepare for DVSJA hearings, and litigate appeals from denials of resentencing. Where other relief is not possible, students have also helped clients submit petitions for executive clemency to the governor.

With aid from an initial two-year grant from the American College of Trial Lawyers Foundation, the clinic has seen early successes in its DVSJA cases. The clinic has represented two of the small number of people who have been resentenced under the DVSJA. In the clinic’s first DVSJA case, People v. S.M., the client, who had already served her full term of incarceration, was seeking to reduce her period of post-release supervision, something that might not have been encompassed by an unduly narrow reading of the statute. The court’s decision, which adopts the clinic’s reasoning for a broader interpretation of the DVSJA, offers a powerful analysis of the burdens of post-release supervision and the ways in which it can mimic the coercion of abusive relationships. The decision recognizes the importance to domestic violence survivors in being free not only from unduly harsh periods of incarceration, but also from lengthy—and sometimes lifetime—periods of supervision, with all the attendant challenges and risks for incarceration. The decision has been cited by the appellate courts multiple times in analyzing the parameters of the DVSJA. In another case, People v. K.B., the court granted resentencing to a client who had served six years of a ten-year sentence for manslaughter. Despite opposition from the prosecution to reliance on family’s and friends’ corroboration of abuse and despite claims that the abuse was not substantial, the court recognized the role of domestic violence in the client’s actions against her abuser and granted resentencing. The client was released from prison shortly after the court’s decision and has been reunited with her young daughter.