green hall news
Sarah Shebek
Justice delayed
By Alyssa Boone, 3L
Wrongfully convicted civil rights activist cleared by Project for Innocence returns from exile, reinforces career ideals for KU Law student
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aw professors are fond of telling their students not to “lose sight of the forest for the trees.” However, often as a law student, my here and now seems like little more than a string of reading assignments that teach me the divergent tax treatment of support, property and alimony, or how to navigate an endless maze of statutes. While I know there are greater goals for my career in the long term, I have a hard time feeling like I’m accomplishing it in the day to day. The greater goals that brought many of us to law school are things
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like justice, equality and opportunity. Justice is a big concept, but it’s alive and well in the crowded offices at the Innocence Project. Technically, we’re the Paul E. Wilson Project for Innocence and Post-Conviction Remedies. I started the Project this semester, and one of my first assignments was Rev. Frederick Umoja’s case. I knew that he was wrongfully convicted, along with several other people, in Kansas about 40 years ago. He fled to Africa and has been there since, even though his daughter is in the U.S. and hasn’t seen
him that entire time. After the Project helped him wipe his record clean, he enlisted the Project to help him find a way back. I’d hardly started working on his case when Beth, my supervisor, caught me outside the law school and said, “You know Mr. Umoja’s case?” I started to explain that I finally had a chance to start working on it as she said, “He’ll be in class tomorrow, so apparently he’s worked some of it out on his own.” I was a little dumbstruck. His case had seemed so complicated and