The DEI Podcast, Episode 4: Advocating for the Innocent

“Innocent people should not be in prison.” – Anna McGinn ’22 J.D.

Exoneration justice is the tireless effort to free innocent people imprisoned after being wrongfully convicted of crimes, and to provide them with rehabilitative services. Jessa Webber and Anna McGinn, Notre Dame Law School’s Bank of America Foundation Fellows from the Class of 2022, have dedicated their legal careers to this work.

This episode of the DEI Podcast with Max Gaston is part one of a three-part series on public interest law. We talk with Jessa and Anna to explore the systemic problems that have led to a backlog of wrongful convictions disproportionately of people of color and members of the LGBTQ community, what anti-racist efforts look like to reduce the frequency of wrongful convictions on the front end, and how exoneration justice is helping create a fair and equitable justice system for everyone. Jessa and Anna also discuss the public interest path in law school, and how the Bank of America Foundation Fellowship is making public interest work after law school possible.

Click here to read about one of Anna’s clients who was recently freed from prison after spending nearly 25 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

Find the full list of DEI Podcast episodes at rss.com/podcasts/deipod and wherever you listen to podcasts.