Professor Liebman recruited Crowley to the project at the start of her 2L year. She says she had taken his criminal law class but otherwise had not much previous interest in wrongful conviction.
As many of our readers know, it is very easy to get lost in law school, finding oneself without a path to follow. Working on the DeLuna case “totally shaped my experience,” Crowley said, adding that it was very satisfying to start and finish the massive project mostly within the time of her law school experience. (Crowley has remained connected post-graduation, but she has been less involved in the multimedia work, which was mostly done in the past year.)
Crowley said the continuity of the project — outside the normal listen-to-lectures-take-the-final-and-move-the-heck-on experience — was a crucial addition to her time in law school. She also said she feels lucky to have had a mentor in Professor Liebman. Many law students don’t foster personal relationships with their teachers, but Crowley said it was definitely worth the time and effort. Fortunately, not all law professors are like the ones we often criticize here on Above the Law (the professors who can’t write their own final exams or appear to be generally uninterested in their students).
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“People should not be scared of professors at law schools,” she said. Yes, you must have a pretty ridiculous résumé to get a job teaching at a top institution, but there are great, friendly professors waiting to interact with students who reach out to them.
“You don’t have to be a gunner and raise your hand every day,” she said. “Remember, they are people. And they will get you involved in whatever projects they are [working on].”
Speaking for myself, I congratulate the authors of Los Tocayos Carlos. As anyone who has worked with wrongful conviction cases knows (disclosure: I spent a short amount of time in college working with the Medill Innocence Project), these Columbia folks have done some incredibly important, difficult, and time-consuming work. Maybe, just maybe, their labor will save an innocent man’s life down the road.
Los Tocayos Carlos
Yes, America, We Have Executed an Innocent Man [The Atlantic]
A Routine Execution in Texas [New York Times]
The wrong Carlos: how Texas sent an innocent man to his death [Guardian]
Carlos De Luna Execution: Texas Put To Death An Innocent Man, Columbia University Team Says
[Huffington Post]
Questions About Another Texas Execution: Was Wrong Man Condemned? [NPR]