On Friday, March 1, 2024 the Northern California Innocence Project co-hosted Santa Clara Law’s Racial Justice Symposium, along with the Santa Clara Law Review, Center for Social Justice and Public Service, and Heafey Center for Trial & Appellate Advocacy.
Experts, researchers, litigators, and judges covered topics including the importance of historical narratives that have fueled racial disparities, biases, and discriminatory language in our communities, litigation strategies, the impact of implicit biases in our criminal legal system, and the reach of remedies to confront racism in the spirit of the RJA. The founders and staff of the Racial Justice Clinic at the University of San Francisco delivered a lunchtime keynote that inspired confidence that California’s Racial Justice Act will achieve the goals our state legislature and Assembly member Ash Kalra sought to address.
Schedule At-a-Glance
- Light breakfast
- Mateo de Suduiraut (Santa Clara University School of Law)
- Chelsey Jordan (Santa Clara University School of Law)
- Lisa Romo (Office of the State Public Defender)
- Moderator: Margaret Russell (Santa Clara University School of Law)
- Panelist: Maitreya Badami (California State University, Chico)
- Panelist: Kerri J. Malloy (San Jose State University)
- Panelist: Mikah K. Thompson (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)
- Lara Bazelon (University of San Francisco School of Law)
- Derick Morgan (University of San Francisco School of Law)
- Moderator: Linda Starr (Santa Clara University School of Law)
- Panelist: Karina Alvarez (Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office)
- Panelist: Catherine Grosso (Michigan State University College of Law)
- Panelist: Arcelia Hurtado (Prosecutors Alliance of California)
- Panelist: Sujung Kim (San Francisco Public Defender’s Office)
- Panelist: Evan Kuluk (Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office)
- Moderator: Evan Kuluk (Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office)
- Panelist: David Ball (Santa Clara University School of Law)
- Panelist: Elsa Chen (Santa Clara University)
- Panelist: Elizabeth Lashley-Haynes (Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office)
- Panelist: Deepak Premkumar (Public Policy Institute of California)
- Moderator: Judge Ram Fletcher (Santa Clara County)
- Panelist: Judge Shelyna Brown (Santa Clara County, Ret.)
- Panelist: Judge Risë Pichon (Santa Clara County, Ret.)
- Panelist: Judge Benjamin Williams (Santa Clara County)
- Reception with light hors d’oeuvres, wine and beer
