BEING IN COURT UNLOCKED ANOTHER LEVEL OF LEARNING
The ability to see our futures as lawyers materialize in front of us is a once in a lifetime opportunity as interns.
The California Innocence Project volunteer legal intern program provides a threemonth-long internship. The internship is open to everyone who has graduated from high school. Anyone who has a passion for social justice or is interested in law will benefit greatly from this internship.
The internship is unpaid, but is a great resume-builder and learning opportunity. During their time there, interns work between 15 and 20 hours a week. There is a chance interns will be kept on for two trimesters if they are selected and are interested in continuing.
We both enjoyed our first session immensely and built great connections with our bosses and other interns, so we accepted the offer to stay on for another session.
This internship was an amazing experience because we actively participated in the cases coming through the office. Seeing cases we processed at the initial intake stages turn into cases that resulted in exonerations was really motivating. It felt like the work we were doing was actually important and impactful. Watching cases going through our intake process gave us an inside perspective of how the criminal justice system operates and the faults it has.
Meeting the exonerated people from the California Innocence Project at events like the annual XONR8 Gala or our recent podcast launch humanized the stories we read in intake. We got to speak one on one with them and their families. Their anger and sadness were omnipresent because of the loss they had suffered at the hands of
the legal system. However, these were some of the most grateful and down to earth individuals. They were supportive of everyone at the California Innocence Project, from us as interns to the attorneys who represented them in court. We also got to simply share meals, pass jokes and interact as human beings, which was surreal after hearing their cases. This was an extremely rewarding experience to see the direct effects of our work and meet such wonderful people.
There are so many issues that are prevalent in the justice system that need to be addressed. A lot of them are not surfacelevel issues, or things that the general public is necessarily aware of. Until someone goes through the system and faces a wrongful conviction, the magnitude of the issues often are not noticed. As Justin Brooks, director of the California Innocence Project, always says, “The American criminal system is not a justice system. It is a legal system.” Learning about this has definitely increased our desire to be part of the reform of a justice system. The California Innocence Project not only fights for individuals who have faced injustice, but it actually changes the system. The project has gotten bills passed and policies implemented into California law to make the system more just and equitable.
The California Innocence Project embodies diversity, equity and inclusion. The people in the office are a diverse community that supports one another to the fullest extent. People of different races, legal experiences, ages and genders all work equally and passionately on the mission of freeing the wrongfully convicted. The California Innocence Project exonerates the wrongfully convicted, educates law students and the public about wrongful convictions, and effectuates policy reform to protect the innocent. The work being done at the California Innocence Project can often be heavy or demoralizing, as many of the cases we take on seem hopeless or involve gruesome crimes. But having such a positive, rewarding environment to work in makes all the difference. We both had days when we broke down over the cases we were processing. Instead of feeling like we couldn’t come back the next day, our bosses told us to take the rest of the day off and gave us the support we needed to be able to continue. This environment fosters not only learning, but also motivation and productivity.
Being in the California Western School of Law building, we found ourselves immersed in the law school experience. We had the opportunity to ask the clinical interns, law students working within the clinic, many questions about their law school days and for advice. They were so helpful and really encouraged us to continue working towards law school. We are both studying for the June LSAT and are feeling empowered to start our application process to law school. Additionally, our proximity to attorneys who taught law school courses gave us multiple chances to sit in on lectures on different areas of law, including DUI cases and DNA evidence.
The California Innocence Project gave us plenty of immersive experiences. Our time as interns allowed us to enter court hearings, speak with judges and interact with attorneys working on their cases in real time. The ability to go into a courtroom and see our futures as lawyers materialize in front of us is a once in a lifetime opportunity as undergraduate interns.
Hearing court proceedings and depositions allowed for another level of learning and understanding by bringing to life the legal documents we process at the intake level as interns.