Clinic News FALL 2023
New Dean Reveals Goals for the Law School When Johanna Bond arrived on campus as the new dean of Rutgers Law School on July 1, she brought with her extensive teaching experience, hands-on administrative expertise, a passion for human rights, and sharp clinical skills. But equally important tools in her kit include an extraordinary appreciation for Rutgers Law, a contagious excitement to reinvigorate the school’s identity as the People’s Electric Law School, and a passion for building on the strength and unique culture of each campus while charting a path forward for the school as a whole. A Multifaceted Career Path Bond began her legal career as a student at the University of Minnesota Law School. Initially attracted to the school’s well-developed human rights program, Bond benefitted from some extraordinary opportunities as a student, including working with the International Women’s Rights Action Watch. As part of this program, she was able to travel to Beijing in 1995 for the Fourth World Conference on Women, and was actively involved in a working group that drafted the meeting’s outcome documents. “It was incredible to do that kind of work as a student,” she says. “Providing students access to experiential learning opportunities during their time in law school is important to me. I’m glad to see that it’s also a central value at Rutgers Law, and one that I’m committed to supporting as dean.”
After graduation, Bond held a series of positions focused on human rights, anticipating a career in practice. But her path shifted when she earned a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship placing her at Georgetown University where, in addition to litigation, she helped design and teach a clinical course. “I hadn’t planned on going into academia, but I realized that I loved teaching,” she says. “At the same time, I was glad to keep one foot in the activist world because it was a clinic doing real work for real clients.”
Rutgers Law School Dean Johanna Bond
After a two-year stint teaching at the University of Wyoming College of Law, Bond was recruited to Washington and Lee University in 2008. During her time as a faculty member, Bond was affiliated with the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies program as well as the Africana Studies program before being tapped in 2012 and again in 2016 to serve as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Her impressive administrative track record included managing the academic program, advising students, expanding the school’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, supervising faculty, managing the budget, ensuring compliance, and more. “I did a little bit of everything in that position because I was part
of a small, three-person leadership team,” Bond says. “I was able to get an up-close look at the operational aspects of running a law school as well as the big picture view of the mission and vision—and I loved all of it.” First Priorities Bond’s excitement for Rutgers Law School is, undeniably, contagious. “Issues around access, affordability, and social justice are central to the mission of the school,” she says, “and these are all issues I care deeply about.” Her first goal is to learn as much as possible about Rutgers by speaking with and listening to as many members of the community as she can. But she’s also ready to hit the ground running with a focus on improving an already Continued on page 11
Judge Vacates Conviction of NJ Innocence Project Client The New Jersey Innocence Project at Rutgers University (NJIP) has helped exonerate a Hudson County man who served 20 years for a crime he did not commit. Dion Miller, now age 54, was released from prison on July 27. He was represented by NJIP Director, Professor Laura Cohen, and Managing Attorney Nyssa Taylor. Mr. Miller was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Romeo Cavero in 2007 and sentenced to a term of 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
Earlier this year, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Conviction Review Unit launched an extensive reinvestigation of the case and concluded that Mr. Miller was innocent of the crime. The Unit joined in the NJIP’s motion for a new trial, which Hudson County Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez granted. The Attorney General’s Office then moved for a dismissal of the indictment with prejudice. Mr. Miller’s exoneration is the second sought by the Unit since its formation in 2019.
Mr. Miller’s conviction was based entirely on three false confessions that detectives obtained after subjecting him to 17 hours of grueling and coercive interrogation. Those statements were inconsistent with each other and inconsistent with the other evidence in the case, and bore many of the known hallmarks of false confessions. Mr. Miller steadfastly pursued every available legal avenue to establish his innocence over two decades, often without the benefit of legal representation.
“Mr. Miller, his family, and the New Jersey Innocence Project at Rutgers University are deeply grateful to Attorney General Platkin, Director Murray, and the entire team of the Conviction Review Unit for their vigorous, thorough, and thoughtful work on this case, and for their determination to correct this grave injustice,” said Professor Cohen. “We hope that the lessons learned from this matter, particularly with regard to the causes and frequency of false confessions, will lead to exonerations of other innocent people and help
Rutgers Duplicating and Mailing Rutgers Law School 123 Washington Street Newark, New Jersey 07102
prevent future wrongful convictions in New Jersey.” Officially launched in 2022 under the aegis of the Rutgers Criminal and Youth Justice Dion Miller Clinic, the NJIP represents factually innocent people in New Jersey in their efforts to vacate their wrongful convictions and obtain their freedom from incarceration. It is the first New Jersey affiliate of the National Innocence Network. Watch video of New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin announcing recent action by the Statewide Conviction Review Unit
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