Juvenile Life Without Parole (JLWOP) Mitigation Project Kicks Off at Drexel Law

On Friday, September 23, 2016, YSRP and our partners at the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation (ACCR) trained students from Drexel, Temple, Widener, Villanova, and Penn law schools, as well as social work students and other volunteers, as part of our response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Montgomery v. Louisiana. Nearly 48 students were trained in sentencing mitigation and reentry planning to provide support to individuals who were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole as children. Students are matched with pro bono or court-appointed defense attorneys representing individual juvenile lifers. Each volunteer team is supervised by experienced mitigation staff at YSRP and/or ACCR, and each volunteer has committed between 5-10 hours per week to this work this school-year. We are grateful to the Vital Projects Fund, and to Rashida West at Drexel Law School for making this and several upcoming trainings possible.