More. . .

CJJC: Excessive Sentences Project

The CJJC’s post-conviction work focuses on advocating for individuals serving extreme prison sentences. By filing clemency petitions as well as sentence-reduction and compassionate release motions, the CJJC works to secure second chances for those impacted by unjust sentencing laws and prosecutorial practices or who are facing significant medical issues while imprisoned. Additionally, through supervision termination requests and expungement petitions, the CJJC endeavors to assist individuals in regaining their full freedom. The CJJC also engages in broader law and policy reform in this area, including recently filing a Supreme Court amicus brief about the scope of the federal sentence-reduction statute.

This work is the foundation of Professor Zunkel’s Excessive Sentences Project, which has won the early release of 17 individuals—saving our clients hundreds of years of prison time and reuniting them with their families. Many of our clients were sentenced under harsh mandatory minimum sentencing laws that have since been reformed.

Advocating for “Second Looks”

In addition to representing individual clients pro bono, Professor Zunkel and her students advocate more broadly for the increased use of “second look” mechanisms to reduce excessive sentences in the state and federal systems. This work has taken many forms:

Case Advocacy

  • Merits-stage Supreme Court amicus brief on behalf of clinical professors of law in Carter/Rutherford vs. United States, arguing that the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s policy permitting a sentence reduction for an “unusually long sentence” is working well on the ground and should be permitted to continue. This brief was written in partnership with Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP.
  • Certiorari-stage Supreme Court amicus brief on behalf of clinical professors of law in Carter v. United States and Rutherford v. United States, urging the Supreme Court to resolve the circuit split over whether non-retroactive legal changes can be “extraordinary and compelling” under the federal sentence-reduction statute. This brief was written in partnership with Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Jaden Lessnick ’23.
  • Amicus brief in United States v. Rutherford, urging the Third Circuit to conclude that the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s “unusually long sentence” provision is legally valid. This brief was written in partnership with the Federal Public & Community Defenders, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, FAMM, and NACDL.

Publications and Testimony

Media

Trainings and Presentations

  • Co-Moderator, Federal Second Chances Advocacy: Opportunities and Challenges, FAMM Second Chances Convening, Nov. 2023 (with Daniel Landsman)
  • Co-Presenter, Considerations and Challenges in Litigating Federal Reduction-in-Sentence Motions Under the New “Unusually Long Sentence” Provision, Second Look Network Conference, Washington, DC, Sept. 2023 (with Mary Price, Alison Guernsey, Nat Berry, and Maggie Wells)
  • Panelist, Federal Compassionate Release: The New Legal Landscape, Annual National Seminar on Federal Sentencing, Orlando, FL, May 2023 (with Adeel Bashir, Meredith Esser, Mary Price, and Dwayne White)

Listen to Drugs on the Docket

Season Two of the podcast Drugs on the Docket features two episodes with Clinical Professors Alison Siegler and Erica Zunkel. These episodes examine the origins and impacts of stash house reverse sting operations and highlight their disproportionate targeting of Black men. Siegler and Zunkel discuss the legal strategies and challenges involved in contesting these operations—an effort led by Siegler and the Law School’s Federal Criminal Justice Clinic—and in seeking early release for clients sentenced under these now-discredited tactics.