SARAH A. MOURER University of Miami School of Law

Transcription

1 EXPERIENCE SARAH A. MOURER University of Miami School of Law P.O. Box , Coral Gables, Florida (305) , Home Address: 37 NE 97 Street, Miami Shores, FL Assistant Professor Clinical Legal Education Director: Miami Law Innocence Project University of Miami School of Law, Coral Gables, FL June 2010 present. The Miami Innocence Project is dedicated to identifying and rectifying wrongful convictions. The workshop is committed to exonerating innocent individuals and combating injustice. Students reexamine cases in their entirety and provide post-conviction representation to defendants with compelling claims to innocence. Students contribute to the project through fact investigation, interviewing defendants and witnesses, and legal research and analysis. Students may also have the opportunity to research, draft, and file motions for post-conviction relief, and appear in court on behalf of those wrongfully convicted. Director: Miami Law Capital Defense Project with the Florida Capital Resource Center University of Miami School of Law, Coral Gables, FL August present This clinic provides students with first class skills training, exposure to criminal courts and practice, opportunities to provide community service, and exposure to the realities of the death penalty. Professor Sarah Mourer directs the clinic in conjunction with Terence Lenamon (founder of the non-profit organization, the Florida Capital Resource Center). Professor Mourer, Mr. Lenamon and local leading attorneys in the field supervise clinic students on death penalty cases. Students are placed with an attorney in the community currently litigating a capital case. Once placed, students will have the opportunity to participate in the capital case through (but not limited to) client and witness interviews, plea negotiations, legal research, motion writing, motion hearings, fact finding, pretrial investigation, mitigation reports, pre-trial negotiations, mental health evaluations, social services workups, watching jury trial, motions for new trial, sentencing preparation, and sentencing hearings. The Capital Defense Project further may provide capital attorneys and students the opportunity to litigate

2 death cases with Professor Mourer, either as co-counsel or consultant. In its first semester, two Miami Law students participating in the Capital Defense Project assisted Professor Mourer and capital attorneys in avoiding a death sentence for a client convicted of a particularly shocking and brutal murder. The Capital Defense Project at Miami Law is the only program to allow law students to work so closely with clients and capital defense attorneys, to provide students the opportunity to actually litigate death cases and have their voices heard in a real courtroom. The Capital Defense Project provides students with once in a lifetime experiences. Interim Director Litigation Skills Program University of Miami School of Law, Coral Gables, Florida June 2009 May Direct large trial and pre-trial advocacy program. Assistant Professor of Clinical Legal Education University of Miami School of Law, Coral Gables, Florida, August 2004 Present. Supervise and direct large scale clinical externship program, teach classroom component, teach Substantive Criminal Law, direct Innocence Project, and coach Mock Trial Team. Adjunct Professor, Lawyering Skills and Values, III and IV Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad Law Center Fort Lauderdale, Florida, August 2002 May Taught large lecture class of second year students in basic civil pretrial and trial skills. Class involved several simulated trial and pre-trial exercises, and a final mock trial performed by the students. Training Attorney, Felony Division Dade County Public Defender, Miami, Florida, January 2002 July 2002 Trained and supervised felony attorneys in the felony division in pre-trial and trial skills. Duties included training felony attorneys on deposition practice, interviewing, motion practice, research writing, courtroom demeanor, and all trial and courtroom skills. Responsibilities included conducting first series of jury trials with all new felony attorneys to provide mentoring, feedback, and instruction on improvement. Trial Attorney Dade County Public Defender, Miami, Florida, August 1993 January 2002

3 Extensive trial practice, motion practice, and litigation. Number of cases tried is in excess of 75. Range of cases includes death cases, all levels of homicides, misdemeanors, sanity cases, competency cases, traffic cases, and all levels of felonies. Trial preparation from arrest to sentencing. Divisions include juvenile, traffic, misdemeanor, and felony. Appeared before the majority of judges in Dade County criminal court. TEACHING Professor, Litigation Skills, University of Miami School of Law, fall 2009 present. Lecture class of 150 students on trial and pretrial advocacy skills ranging from direct and cross examination, to depositions and pleadings. Professor, Clinical Placement and Theory Seminar, University of Miami School of Law, fall present. The primary goals of the seminar include: helping the students grow professionally through reflective analysis and critical thinking regarding their experiences in the Clinical Placement Program, and improving students litigation skills through advanced skills training. Supervisor, Director, Clinical Placement Program, University of Miami School of Law, fall 2000 present. Supervision of students who work as legal externs at numerous government agencies throughout the community, the nation and internationally. Evaluation, supervision and training of attorneys in the field who supervise students in the program. Professor, Substantive Criminal Law, University of Miami School of Law, spring 2008, spring 2009, and fall This is a survey course designed to introduce students to substantive criminal law from both theoretical and practical viewpoints. The course is an overview of the principles that underlie the criminal justice system and analyzes what conduct may properly be defined as criminal. We consider issues such as: theories of punishment, culpability, causation, homicide, rape, and defenses to crimes. Class routinely has enrollment of 144 students. Advisor, Wrongful Convictions Project, University of Miami, 2006 present. In my role as faculty supervisor, I instituted formal procedures, criteria, and operational rules. I have written and

4 implemented guidelines for screening applications for the wrongful conviction project. I have conducted trainings to educate students in the area of motions and wrongful convictions. I am proud that the project is now a fully operational Wrongful Convictions Project. The Project is engaged in screening cases and is capable of accepting and advancing cases of potentially innocent persons. Lecturer, National Institute for Trial Advocacy, Teacher Certified, San Francisco, CA November My work for NITA includes teaching several intensive trial training programs for both Legal Services and The Department of Homeland Security. NITA training includes rigorous simulated training in trial skills. Instruction includes videotaping and detailed feedback and critiques of the students performances. NITA students are generally experienced trial attorneys. My experience as NITA faculty also includes several presentations and lectures for large groups of NITA students on closing argument, expert witnesses, case analysis, and case reflections. I am pleased to have participated in NITA s pilot program to contract with the Department of Homeland Security to train all of the nation s DHS attorneys in improving their level of trial practice. I continued to participate in the resulting trial training for DHS which represents the largest scale trial training NITA has ever done. TRIAL ADVOCACY TRAINING AND TEACHING Instructor, National Institute for Trial Advocacy and American Bar Association Section of Litigation, Critical Trial Skills for Legal Services Attorneys Training, Miami, FL, May Instructor, National Institute for Trial Advocacy, DHS/ICE Trial Training Pilot Program, Miami, FL, June Instructor, National Institute for Trial Advocacy, DHS/ICE Trial Training Program, Louiseville, CO, August 18 20, Instructor, National Institute for Trial Advocacy, DHS/ICE Trial Training Program, Louiseville, CO, August 20 22, Instructor, National Institute for Trial Advocacy, Deposition Training for Legal Services Attorneys Training, Orlando, FL, December 2008.

5 Faculty, LSU Trial Advocacy Training Program, Louisiana State University, August 2009 SCHOLARSHIP Sarah Anne Mourer, Gateway to Justice: Constitutional Claims to Actual Innocence, 64 U. Miami L. Rev (July 2010). Sarah Anne Mourer, Reforming Eyewitness Identification Procedures under the Fourth Amendment, 3 Duke J. Const. L. & Pub. Pol y 49 (2008). Sarah A. Mourer, The Role of the Classroom in the Clinical Externship, work in progress. Sarah A. Mourer, The Clinical Externship s Role in Value Clarification, work in progress. Sarah A. Mourer, Prophylactic Guidelines for Florida Eyewitness Identifications: Trial Techniques and Misidentification, reworking for the Florida Bar Journal. PRESENTATIONS / LECTURES Presenter/Lecturer, Principles of Closing Argument, National Institute for Trial Advocacy, DHS/ICE Trial Training Program, Louiseville, CO, August 22, Presenter/Lecturer, Examination of Experts, National Institute for Trial Advocacy, DHS/ICE Trial Training Pilot Program, Miami, FL, June Speaker, Reforming Eyewitness Identification Procedures under the Fourth Amendment, Training, Dade County Public Defender s Office, February 12, Speaker, Wrongful Convictions and What You Can Do to Prevent Them, University of Miami School of Law, October Speaker, Motions for Post-Conviction Relief: A Screening Training, University of Miami School of Law, November Presenter, Concurrent Session, The Clinical Externship s Role in Value Clarification, 2007 AALS Workshop on Clinical Legal Education.

6 Presenter, Poster Presentation, The Role of the Classroom in the Clinical Externship, 2007 AALS Workshop on Clinical Legal Education. Bar Review Lecture, Criminal Law and Procedure, University of Miami School of Law, May Presenter, The Clinical Externship s Role in Balanced Lawyering, XXXIst International Congress on Law and Mental Health, New York University School of Law, July Presenter, Collaboration in Progress: Facilitating a productive critical dialogue among clinical peers in Rounds discussion, 2009 AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Cleveland, Ohio, May Panelist, Ethical Issues in Criminal Defense, Center for Ethics and Public Service and The Lewis B. Freeman & Partners Leadership and Luncheon Series, September 15, Speaker, A Discussion with Freddie Lee Pitts with comments from Professor Donald Jones and Professor Sarah Mourer, University of Miami Wrongful Convictions Project, fall SERVICE Faculty Coach, University of Miami Mock Trial Team, Spring 2009 present Faculty Coach, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Trial Competition, Boston MA, October 2006 Faculty Coach, Fifteenth Annual Weschler First Amendment Moot Court Competition, 2008 Judge, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Trial Competition, Key West FL, October Admissions Committee, fall 2007 present, Dean s Selection Group for Public Interest Awards,

7 PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS National Institute of Trial Advocacy: Trainer, Faculty, and Lecturer American Bar Association Litigation Section National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Clinical Legal Education Association Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers American Civil Liberties Union EDUCATION The University of Miami School of Law, Coral Gables, Florida. August 1990 May 1993, Juris Doctor, Cum Laude Ewald Scholar, awarded for skill and high ethical standards in trial advocacy. Student Honors Program, Law and the Homeless National Mock Trial Competition The University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. August 1986 May 1990 Bachelor of Science in Psychology Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi