In an unusual move, the federal government is asking the private bar for help in getting inmates out of its prisons. To take advantage of the Obama administration’s offer of executive clemency to qualified federal prisoners, inmates will need legal counsel to prove that they meet a range of requirements for release. It’s a task that will require thousands of pro bono lawyers.
At the administration’s request, lawyers from five legal nonprofits have organized Clemency Project 2014, an unprecedented marshaling of pro bono resources. “My hope for the project that is that a substantial number of individuals that have had excessive mandatory minimum sentences will have a second chance at life,” says Crowell & Moring public service partner Susan Hoffman, who serves on the project’s pro bono committee.
