Document Type
Expert Report or Declaration
Publication Date
2021
Abstract
The Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse (“VC3”) was a yearlong ten-credit legal clinic at Washington and Lee University School of Law. Professor William Geimer created VC3 to assist in the defense of Virginia defendants who were facing the death penalty in the state’s trial courts. In 2017, recognizing both the waning need for capital defense support in Virginia and the almost total lack of legal representation for parole-eligible Virginia prisoners, VC3’s then-director, David Bruck, added the Parole Representation Project to VC3’s mission. Each year since then, VC3 students have represented at least sixteen prisoners in proceedings before the Virginia Parole Board (“VPB” and “Board”). Following the 2021 repeal of Virginia’s death penalty, Washington and Lee reallocated the funding on which VC3 has depended for the past 32 years. Accordingly, VC3 has now permanently ceased operations. To our knowledge, no other law school clinic, defender office, or non-profit agency will be providing representation to parole-eligible prisoners from now on.
VC3 hopes, through this final report, to make one last contribution to criminal justice reform in Virginia. In this report, we reflect on our experience and observations before the VPB over the last four years, and propose legislative and administrative changes to improve the transparency and reliability of Virginia’s parole process.
Recommended Citation
David I. Bruck, Bernadette M. Donovan & Matthew L. Engle, Parole in Virginia, 2021: The Final Report of the Washington and Lee Law Parole Representation Project, Va. Cap. Case Clearinghouse, Wash. & Lee Univ. Sch. of Law (2021).