On June 3, 2016, President Barack Obama granted clemency to Everette Bryant Law, a client of Howard University School of Law who was serving a life sentence in prison for violating the drug laws. Mr. Law was one of the 42 prisoners whose sentence was commuted in the president’s June 3rd clemency order. On September 30, 2016, after serving 22 years of his life sentence, Mr. Law walked out of prison.

On October 20, 2016, Mr. Law will walk into the Moot Court Room at Howard University School of Law for a discussion on clemency and sentencing—and to talk about his personal observations and insights.

HUSL Professor Josephine Ross, the supervising attorney of the Legislative Clinic at Howard and formerly the supervising attorney of the Criminal Justice Clinic, will host Mr. Law and several of the former students who worked on his clemency case. The program will include a panel discussion by several civil rights experts who have worked on clemency issues, reparations, human rights, and restoration of voting rights for felons. Professor Ross will moderate the panel.

“We are fortunate that Mr. Law’s probation officer gave him permission to leave the state to come to Howard Law School,” said Professor Ross. “I also thank his wife and I am so glad that four of the five students who worked on his petition, graduates of our class of 2015, will be able to come back and meet him. This will be the first time they actually see Everette in person,” she said.

On Wednesday, October 19, Professor Ross along with Everette’s wife Kim and Ms. Cynthia Roseberry, the head of Clemency Project 2014, will talk about Everette’s story on radio stations WHUR-FM 96.3 and Sirius XM Channel 141 beginning at 7:15pm.

The Thursday, October 20 program, sponsored by the Office of the Dean, the Clinical Law Center, and the Student Bar Association, is expected to be well-attended by alumni and others in the University community.

The program begins at 12:30 and will be held in the Moot Court Room of Houston Hall, Building 355 on the law school campus.

“We will toast Everette Law in a reception following the event,” said Professor Ross. “His is a story that must be told and should be celebrated.” All those who can stay are welcome, she said.

For additional information on the students’ role in Everette’s clemency, see http://www.law.howard.edu/2027.