Diversity in Practice: Intentional Impact – The Three Strikes Project

In the third and final episode of this year’s Fellows subseries, Wetmore Fellow Keniece Gray and SEO Law Fellow Jermel McClure host a discussion with MoFo associate Keiko Rose about the firm’s partnership with The Southern Poverty Law Center to combat the disproportionate impact of “three-strikes laws” on minority offenders.

The 3-part subseries on “Intentional Impact,” is designed to look at the ways in which the firm demonstrates its continued commitment to advocacy for people and communities who would otherwise be shut out from access to justice. Each episode is hosted by a 2021 Wetmore Fellow and/or SEO Law Fellow.

Transcript

Speaker: Welcome to MoFo Perspectives, a podcast by Morrison & Foerster, where we share the perspectives of our clients, colleagues, subject matter experts, and lawyers.

Natalie Kernisant: Welcome to the Diversity in Practice Podcast—a part of MoFo Perspectives. My name is Natalie Kernisant, and I am the chief Diversity and Inclusion officer for Morrison & Foerster. This podcast series is designed to provide a space to discuss a wide variety of issues related to diversity in the law and to introduce you to some of our talented, diverse attorneys, their areas of legal expertise, and the work that they and their MoFo allies do in furtherance of diversity, equity, and inclusion. It’s also our hope that by sharing D&I best practices, wherever possible, we can help make the legal industry a more inclusive place for those who are, in the words of our MoFo former chair, Bob Raven, just a little bit different.

Jermel McClure: Hello, my name is Jermel McClure, and I am an SEO law fellow in Morrison & Foerster’s New York City office. The SEO Law Fellowship Program provides underrepresented law students with the opportunity to gain practical experience working at a prominent law firm the summer before their law school journey begins. The program also supports fellows as they navigate their law school journey. MoFo is a proud partner of SEO Law Fellowship Program.

Keniece Gray: My name is Keniece Gray, and I am a 1L Keith Wetmore Fellow in Morrison & Forester’s Washington, D.C., office. Jermel and I are looking forward to having a great conversation this afternoon with MoFo Associate Keiko Rose to discuss the Three Strikes Project, a nationwide effort, led by the Southern Poverty Law Center, to reduce problematic sentencing practices related to the Three Strikes Laws and rooted in the systemic oppression of African Americans. Before we delve into it, Keiko, we’d love to hear a bit about you, your journey to, and what your practice area entails.

Keiko Rose: Thank you so much, Jermel and Keniece. My name is Keiko Rose, and I’m a senior associate in the Litigation department here at MoFo. I’m originally from Chicago, and then I went to law school in Chicago. I clerked for state and federal courts in Hawaii. And now I’m based in MoFo’s Tokyo office. My practice focuses on U.S. commercial litigation and international arbitration, and I’ve been fortunate to participate in a lot of pro bono matters since I’ve been with MoFo in various areas, including criminal justice, immigration, reproductive rights, gun safety and reform. And I’m very excited to talk about the Strikes Project today.

Jermel McClure: Thank you Keiko. You have such an interesting background and practice here at MoFo. I’d like to begin by providing our listeners with some context on Three Strikes Laws and their problematic historical impacts. Then we’ll jump into questions that will allow us to learn more about MoFo’s involvement and combating the injustice these laws have had in Mississippi. Three Strikes Laws were first implemented in the ’90s as a part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s anti-violence strategy to criminalize habitual law offenders. Originally, the laws required both a severe violent felony and two other previous convictions to serve a mandatory life sentence in prison. These laws were intended to drastically increase the punishment of those convicted of more than two serious crimes, but a decade after Three Strikes Laws swept the U.S., a justice policy Institute study showed that in practice, three strikes laws were far more likely to convict drug offenders rather than the violent criminals they were designed for. Three Strikes Laws also disproportionately affect minority groups. The Criminal Justice Research Alliance found that African American and Native American populations have received the greatest frequency of Three Strike convictions since the laws were codified.

Keniece Gray: Thankfully, although there is much more work to be done in combating these discriminatory laws, there has been some positive reform. In July 2014, changes were implemented to Mississippi parole laws under the parole reform bill, HB 585. As a result of this legislation, nonviolent habitual offenders, also known as little habituals, may now petition the sentencing court for parole eligibility. Before, being sentenced as a little habitual offender meant that you would receive the maximum sentence for your crime without any chance of parole. Now let’s jump into today’s discussion and learn more about MoFo’s efforts with the Three Strikes Project.

Jermel McClure: Keiko, we are so excited to learn more about the wonderful pro bono work that MoFo was able to do with the Southern Poverty Law Center on this project. First, can you tell us more about the Three Strikes Program generally, how MoFo got involved, and why this project matters to the firm?

Keiko Rose: The Three Strikes Program is an initiative by the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, to file a petition seeking parole eligibility for every eligible person serving a habitual sentence in Mississippi. We, as a firm, got involved in January 2020. The project actually started out of our Tokyo office. Me and several other Tokyo associates began writing petitions on behalf of individuals who are currently incarcerated in Mississippi. And we were assisting SPLC in preparing and filing those petitions in Mississippi courts. After the Tokyo office filed about a dozen of those petitions, the project spread across MoFo offices. So, we had associates all across California and all the way to the New York and D.C. offices writing these petitions on behalf of individuals who are eligible to file these petitions. And an exciting thing that happened last summer was that drafting these petitions was a large part of our Summer Associate Program.

Keiko Rose: So we had dozens of summer associates who were paired with MoFo associates and partners who, during the course of their summer programs, drafted these petitions, dug into the case files to try to come up with the most compelling narrative, and went through the editing process internally within MoFo, and then were able to submit them to the SPLC for filing. The project is important to the firm because a big part of MoFo’s culture is a commitment to pro bono and to doing what we can to ensure equal access to justice. Something that I think is very cool is that Alexander Morrison himself was a founding member of the Legal Aid Society of San Francisco in 1917. So our pro bono counsel seeks out pro bono projects in which the firm’s attorneys and resources can make a difference. And there’s so much reform that’s needed in the criminal justice system. And this SPLC project—this Three Strikes Program is one example of that.

Keiko Rose: There are many individuals serving habitual sentences for non-violent crimes in Mississippi and around the country. And given our size and willingness to put resources towards this project, we’re able to help the small and dedicated team at SPLC file as many petitions as possible. We’ve even gotten some of our clients involved. We’ve worked with in-house teams of lawyers who want to participate in a pro bono matter involving criminal justice and worked with them to draft these petitions and send them to SPLC for filing.

Jermel McClure: Thanks, Keiko. What stands out to me about MoFo’s involvement is the fact that the attorneys at MoFo were so dedicated to this project, that clients who are committed to social justice were invited to collaborate on this initiative. That for me is a signifier of the fact that pro bono work is truly a part of MoFo culture, both internally and externally. I’m interested in understanding what some of the greatest challenges faced working on a project like this during a pandemic were. We’d also like to know how are you able to overcome some of these challenges?

Keiko Rose: By far, the biggest challenge that we faced in writing these petitions asking for parole eligibility is not having access to the individuals whose petitions we were writing. The individuals who are incarcerated in Mississippi, at least at the time, we didn’t have a good way of connecting with them directly. We don’t have an office in Mississippi and so it would be difficult to go visit them where they’re staying currently. And given the policies at the time, we couldn’t just easily call them. There wasn’t a designated time in which we could contact the people whose petitions we were writing. The only way that we could actually set up a call would be is if we sent a letter using snail mail to the individual and then ask them can you be available next week, this day, at this time? And then just hope that they receive the letter and hope that they’re available at that time.

Keiko Rose: And we would just be waiting for a phone call to see if it worked. So that wasn’t really a way forward in terms of connecting with those people. And obviously given last year travel restrictions because of the pandemic, visiting in person wasn’t feasible even more so than it is normally. So having access to the individual and really learning about them is extremely important in writing the petitions because we need to understand their story, what kind of person they are, their background—because in the petitions we need to impress upon the judge that these are people who have families who love them and miss them, and who are part of communities who support them. What we did to overcome this challenge was that we reached out to friends and family members of the individuals to obtain letters of support. What that means is, we would reach out to moms, dads, children, friends by phone, and speak to them and say, what has happened in your life since your son or daughter has been in prison?

Keiko Rose: How has that impacted you? What are some stories that you want to share with the judge about your son or daughter, or friend, or mom or dad that we should include? And then we would work with them to come up with some really powerful things to say about the individuals whose petitions we were writing and help them draft a letter to the judge that we would both weave into the narrative of the petition and attach to the petition itself so that the judge could read these people’s words themselves. So hearing these stories from the friends and family members was extremely moving, but more importantly, it was helpful in crafting a compelling narrative in the petition, and hopefully impressing upon the judge that these were people who deserved to have parole granted.

Jermel McClure: It is truly inspiring to hear about how you and the other attorneys involved went above and beyond to ensure that you have the information needed to humanize the victims of these unjust Three Strikes Laws. Keniece and I are particularly passionate about this work, and we’d love for our listeners to gain some insight as to how this project aligns with your personal passions and how you plan to continue to contribute to this work.

Keiko Rose: Pro bono generally has always been really important to me ever since I had an interest in law school and learned what pro bono was. I think that every attorney has a responsibility to do pro bono work as part of their practice. To me, being an attorney is a privilege and attorneys should work to improve the legal system and all those who are involved in it. Particularly with respect to criminal justice, I’ve found it extremely disturbing how the current system disproportionately impacts people of color and minority communities. And at the very least, people who enter the criminal justice system should have the ability to seek all avenues of relief available to them, regardless of their financial means. So with organizations like SPLC, which are absolutely outstanding, I hope to continue working with SPLC in similar organizations on this and other projects to hopefully make at least a small dent in improving access to justice to people who are involved in the criminal justice system.

Jermel McClure: Thanks, Keiko. I admire your dedication to pro bono work and look forward to providing access to justice to people involved within the criminal justice system throughout my career. This summer, I’ve had the opportunity to experience MoFo’s dedication to pro bono work firsthand by contributing to a number of projects with similar justice-seeking spirit. Can you provide an example of the impact that you and the firm have been able to have as a result of the work done on this project specifically?

Keiko Rose: So we’ve been able to draft over a hundred petitions. Each one of those petitions was drafted by an associate or a summer associate in connection with an associate. And each of those petitions was reviewed and edited by a partner and submitted to SPLC with all of the necessary filing documents. Thankfully, we’ve had a team of very dedicated paralegals to make sure that with each petition, we have the necessary court documents. We have the exhibits ready and redacted as necessary. And so we really have been able to provide SPLC with the full package of materials that they can then hopefully take to their client, the person who is currently incarcerated, make sure that everything in the petition looks okay, see if there’s any additional details that can be added, and then smoothly file that and hope for a good result. The great thing is that this project and other pro bono projects reinforces the culture that MoFo prides itself on and that I touched on a little bit earlier. It really is a part of what we care about at MoFo and it’s something, pro bono generally, but also this project, is something that’s talked about regularly within the firm. And I think is applauded, which just reinforces the importance of this pro bono project and future pro bono projects.

Keniece Gray: Thanks so much, Keiko, this is very impressive work and like Jermel, I’ve also had the opportunity to participate in some very impactful pro bono projects that directly impact underrepresented communities and consequently impact our society at large. And I’ve seen, just through my time here at the summer, whether it’s helping draft petitions or just helping be a part of a project, doing detailed research and filling out charts and getting that information to organizations. I think what has stood out to me the most with my pro bono work is the influence and justice-seeking spirit of this project and other pro bono projects MoFo is working on and the effort they make to extend the information to all of us attorneys and not just the attorneys assigned to a particular pro bono assignment. So that culture you talk about is apparent, and it definitely is influential to the summer associates and others who interact with the firm.

Keniece Gray: Now back to the Three Strikes Project. This is very important work. Data from various studies reveal that in Mississippi, life sentences are not reversed for some of the most serious violations of the law. Seventy-eight people are serving 50 or more years in prison for drug crimes and 21 people have been sentenced to die in prison for drug possession as a result of habitual law. Unfortunately, this data from this study is not particular or unique to Mississippi. This is a pervasive nationwide issue and MoFo’s efforts to combat problematic sentencing are a part of what will continue to be a great effort. As legal professionals, we should strive to follow this example of private and public collaboration and positively contribute to the systemic changes required to create a more equitable society. I know projects like this will continue to affirm my desire to be a part of the change the world needs to see. Keiko, is there anything else you’d like to add before we close?

Keiko Rose: I’m really happy to hear that both you and Jermel were able to participate in pro bono projects during your Summer Associate Program. And I really hope that you both find meaningful pro bono opportunities during the rest of your law school and throughout your legal careers. And I just wanted to thank you for inviting me to your podcast and bringing more attention to this very important project.

Keniece Gray: Yes, we appreciate you and we thank you as well. And thank you for the encouragement. In addition to thanking Keiko and the Southern Poverty Law Center, we would also like to extend a thanks to our teammates who helped prepare today’s content, other Wetmore Fellows, Tiffany Allen, Susana Herrera, Maryam Asenuga, Hanna Balcha, Priscila Coronado, and Afi Blackshear, and James Treyfitz. I want to encourage all of our listeners to visit our website, mofo.com for more information about the firm and the pro bono projects they’re working on. Thanks for joining.

Speaker: Please make sure to subscribe to the MoFo Perspectives podcast so you don’t miss an episode. If you have any questions about what you heard today, or would like more information on this topic, please visit mofo.com/podcasts. Again, that’s MoFo, M-O-F-O.com/podcasts.