December 23, 2009

Mitchell faculty in the news, through Dec. 30

Following is a summary of William Mitchell faculty and programs recently featured in the media.

Professor Sarah Deer was quoted in the article “Despite barriers to justice, Native women preserve,” in the Dec. 30 issue of the Lincoln Journal Star. Deer is a leading scholar on an obscure 1950s federal regulation allowing government agencies, such as Indian Health Services, to avoid testifying in state and tribal courts. "I don’t understand what the resistance is (on IHS’ part)," she said. "I think Native women deserve better."

• Lincoln Journal Star article.

William Mitchell’s Reentry Clinic was featured in an article in the Sunday, Dec. 27th Star Tribune. Student Sara Campbell, director Joanna Woolman, and a client discussed how the clinic helps women leaving the Shakopee prison and provides hands-on experience for students. "I appreciate a holistic approach to the law,” Campbell said. “If you want to make sure someone doesn’t reoffend, you need to help them." The clinic has assisted 73 women since its founding in February 2008; only six have reoffended. While offenders get help, Woolman said that the clinic also is a teaching tool for William Mitchell students, who get hands-on experience with family law issues, appearing in court and filing motions. "Some of them have never had an actual client before, and get a perspective on the criminal justice system and the social justice attached to that that comes from a completely different angle," she said.

• Star Tribune article.

Professor Eileen Scallen was quoted in the Dec. 21 issue of the Star Tribune on the Petters’ verdict. "I think the general public underestimates the amount of stress that jurors go through," she said. "They are far more conscientious than the public thinks. You’re responsible for somebody’s liberty and that really weighs on people."

• Star Tribune article.

Jim Hilbert, executive director of Mitchell’s Center for Negotiation and Justice, was quoted in a Dec. 14 news story by Associated Press writer Greg Risling in Los Angeles on “Clinics help people represent themselves in court,” which mentioned that Mitchell opened a pro se clinic in September. "Pro se parties are now a permanent feature to our legal system and their numbers are growing," Hilbert said. "While it would be great to give them all lawyers, we know it’s not possible." The AP news story was picked up by more than 170 media outlets nationwide, including:

• AirAmerica talk radio network, available on over 50 stations nationwide
• The New York Times
• CBS TV Channel 5, San Francisco
• Fox TV Channel 13, Seattle/Tacoma
• WTOP FM radio, Washington, D.C.
• The Daily Advance newspaper, Elizabeth City, NJ
• Blue Ridge Times-News, Hendersonville, NC
• The Gaea Times, Simple Thoughts blog

Professor Kim Dayton was quoted in the Dec. 9 issue of the Cleveland Plain Dealer in an article on the Administration’s health care plan. "The vast majority of the public doesn’t understand how the health care system works," she said. They think they have paid into the system and are merely drawing down their contributions in retirement, she said, when in fact they have recaptured what they have put in within five or six years.

• Cleveland Plain Dealer article.

Professor Donna Byrne was quoted in a Dec. 4 article in the Pioneer Press on the Minnesota E. coli vicitm filing a $100M lawsuit against Cargill for eating tainted hamburger. Byrne said the $100 million sought in this case dwarfs amounts sought in another major food-borne illness case — involving salmonella found in peanut products from the Peanut Corporation of America — with many more victims. "With the PCA, the peanut debacle, the whole pot was not this big," Byrne said. "With PCA, there was insurance, and the company went bankrupt, so there was nothing beyond the insurance." She’s skeptical the case will go to trial because typically, companies avoid taking such emotion-laden cases to a jury. Maybe especially in this case, where home videos of Stephanie Smith capture her dancer’s spirit. "She’s young 20s and attractive, and lively and cheerful and smiling," Byrne said. "She was a dance instructor, and now she’s paralyzed. ... The prospect of a dancer having to go through life paralyzed is somewhat horrifying."

• Pioneer Press article.

Resident Adjunct Professor Bradford Colbert, director of the Legal Assistance for Minnesota Prisoners (LAMP) clinic at Mitchell, won a case Dec. 3 before the Minnesota Supreme Court. The Court’s ruling that jails must stop charging inmates for room and board prior to their convictions, was widely covered by local and regional media Dec. 4, including the Pioneer Press, Star Tribune, Associated Press, LaCrosse Tribune, Minnesota Public Radion, KSTP-TV, and WCCO-TV. At issue was a state statute commonly referred to as "pay for stay," which allowed counties to bill people convicted of crimes for costs of their confinement preceding and following a crime. Colbert said it was wrong to charge someone before they were convicted because they have to be presumed innocent.

• Associated Press article. 

Professor Ted Sampsell-Jones continues to provide expert media commentary on the Tom Petters case, following the jury’s guilty verdicts Dec. 2. He was quoted in the Dec. 3 Pioneer Press and Star Tribune about the outcome of an appeal. "You have to show there was some mistake that the trial judge made, and that it was important," he told the Pioneer Press. "Given the nature of the evidence in this case, it’ll be difficult to win (an appeal)." He said in the Star Tribune that the Eighth Circuit appeals court has a reputation for being pro-government when it comes to criminal cases, which could affect a Petters appeal.

• Pioneer Press article.
• Star Tribune article.

Professor Afsheen John Radsan was quoted in the November issue of the German magazine Der Spiegel about the Predator program.

Professor Radsan also was quoted in a Dec. 3 MinnPost.com article titled “Strategic snake pit: Experts worried about Obama’s Afghan plan” by Sharon Schmickle. "We are not going to reach a point where we are 100 percent satisfied with the situation in Afghanistan," Radsan predicted. The best the country can expect, he said, is "to reduce the threat to an acceptable level for American security."

• MinnPost.com article.

Professor Jay Erstling and Mitchell student Bob Larson were featured in a Nov. 30 article in the Pioneer Press about an Intellectual Property Clinic project helping the Alliance for Early Childhood Professionals secure permission to translate copyrighted children’s books into the Dakota and Ojibwe languages. "I thought it would be a slam-dunk, but it’s been a more difficult and lengthy process than I imagined," Erstling said. Some publishers don’t understand the nature of the project or recognize the need; Erstling says that’s because few American Indians live in Manhattan, where many publishers are located. "The Indian community here is very important," Erstling said. "We do live pretty much in Indian country."

• Pioneer Press article.