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Guilty Until Proven Innocent |
Guilty Until Proven Innocent After spending three years in state prison, a young Pascagoula man has a clean record thanks to three University of Mississippi law students who successfully brought his case to the Mississippi Court of Appeals. Stephanie Case and Alicia Kutch, who both graduated in May, argued the case based on a brief written the previous year by Frank Hartley (’03) for professor Phillip Broadhead’s class. Much more was at stake than a grade, however. Zacharia Dambrell, now 21, was convicted in August 2001 of attempted armed robbery of a convenience store. But Case, Kutch, and Hartley argued that Dambrell never threatened the store clerk or asked for money when he entered the store in May 2000, just days after turning 17. In fact, he didn’t attempt to rob anyone at all, they said. Instead, court records show he threw down the kitchen knife he was carrying and ran away without ever speaking to the clerk, Broadhead said. The store clerk testified at the Jackson County Circuit Court trial that he didn’t even see the knife on the floor until after Dambrell left. Still, a jury convicted the teen of attempted armed robbery. The trial judge, stating for the record that it appeared Dambrell had not actually committed a crime, sentenced him to the minimum required by statute: six years, three to be served in prison and three under post-release supervision. In spring semester 2003, Frank Hartley, then a third-year law student, wrote a brief on the case for Broadhead’s Criminal Appeals Clinic. Broadhead randomly assigned Hartley the Dambrell case, but Hartley said the facts of the case immediately drew him in. “Our argument centered on what is an attempted armed robbery,” said Hartley, who now works for a law firm in Atlanta. “This did not fit the state’s definition.” Even though appellate briefs are based only on the court record of the case, Hartley met with Dambrell in the East Mississippi State Penitentiary in Meridian, where the teen served his sentence. “We did an interview to get what he remembered about the case, in addition to what is in the record,” Hartley said. “We wanted to get an idea of who he was, to get his story from him in a one-on-one situation.” Based on Hartley’s brief, the Mississippi Court of Appeals granted the case a hearing. On Feb. 18, two of Broadhead’s spring 2004 third-year students, Case and Kutch, argued the case in front of Court of Appeals Judges Leslie D. King, James E. Thomas, and David A. Chandler. Going before the Court of Appeals can intimidate any lawyer, and as students, Case said, she and Kutch were afraid that after only two weeks of preparation, they weren’t ready. “But according to Broadhead, if you’re not scared when you go into court, either you’ve stopped breathing or you’ve stopped caring, so I guess being scared was a normal reaction,” Case said. Case and Kutch argued that since Dambrell did not approach the store clerk, display the knife in a threatening manner, or demand anything from the clerk, he did not use a weapon to attempt to rob the store as defined by the statute. The students asked that the case against Dambrell be reversed and that he be released from prison. Kutch said Judge King threw a curveball their way when he showed the store’s surveillance video, in which the knife Dambrell is carrying is plainly visible. “My only reply to the videotape was that while the knife may have been visible to the camera, the store clerk stated many times at trial that he did not see the weapon until Zach had thrown it down and run out the door,” said Kutch, who plans to practice immigration law and criminal defense. “Having to think, literally, on our feet was great experience and training for future practice.” On May 25, the Court of Appeals announced that the students succeeded: Dambrell’s conviction was reversed and judgment was rendered. But May 19, just days before his conviction was overturned, Dambrell was released from prison and returned home to Pascagoula undersupervision. “Even though we didn’t save him from a day in prison, his conviction is now wiped out. He’s not a felon anymore,” Hartley said. “God forbid, if he ever gets in trouble again, this won’t count against him.” Hartley said working on the Dambrell case was an amazing experience. “Before even starting to practice law, the three of us have won at the appellate level,” Hartley said. “It’s a great accomplishment— something we can all be very proud of.” Professor Broadhead, who coaches students in criminal appeals every year, said the Dambrell case demonstrated that the UM Law School serves the state well. “These students are very bright and dedicated to the cause of their clients with zeal and energy that inspires even an old public defender like me,” Broadhead said. The experience also inspired Case, who now works as a civil defense attorney for Copeland, Cook, Taylor and Bush in Ridgeland. “This was truly a great experience,” she said. “The entire class setting, including the oral argument, gave all of us a bird’s-eye view of what it’s really like to practice law.” Angela Moore is a communications specialist in the UM Office of Media and Public Relations. State Supreme Court reverses rape conviction based onbrief Professor Phillip Broadhead and his students scored another victory in May when the Supreme Court of Mississippi reversed a Jackson man’s conviction based on a brief written by a University of Mississippi law student two years ago. In the spring of 2002, Carl D. Gordon (’02) participated in Broadhead’s Criminal Appeals Clinic and wrote a brief challenging the conviction of Freddie Walker, who was accused of the statutory rape of his friend’s 13-year-old daughter. At the circuit court trial, attorneys for the prosecution presented as evidence a towel they said was soiled with Walker’s semen, saved by the girl after one encounter. However, investigators never tested the semen on the towel to prove it was Walker’s. Therefore, the Supreme Court of Mississippi ruled the prosecution’s major piece of evidence was inadmissible. “Because the prosecution failed to connect the semen on the towel to Walker, we find that the towel’s probative value was substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice,” the court ruled. “After 18 months of looking at the case, the court centered on the fact that the towel could have easily been tested for DNA evidence, and it wasn’t,” Broadhead said. “Therefore, it wasn’t relevant.” The court reversed Walker’s conviction, for which he was serving two concurrent life sentences, and remanded the case for a new trial. Carl Gordon, the student responsible for writing the brief, now works as a legal adviser to the County Council in Prince George’s County, Md. Gordon told Broadhead that the legal analysis skills he learned working on the Walker case serve him well in county government. —Angela Moore Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
Martin, Martin & Martin
Kenya, Deshun, and Warren (Jr.) Martin, all 25, plan to stay right where they were born and reared to launch law careers in arguing cases and instructing would-be law students. They’ve got one more test to pass first, of course: the Mississippi Bar Exam. But if their mastery of civil and criminal procedure, torts, and corporations while studying at UM is any indication, that is a mere formality before the sparks start to fly. Kenya plans to join Watkins, Ludlam, Winter & Stennis, PA, the state’s second- largest law firm, as a staff attorney; Warren will clerk for Mississippi Supreme Court Justice James E. Graves Jr. and teach law to undergraduates at Jackson State University; and Deshun is pursuing work as either a plaintiff or defense lawyer. “I want to go to court every day, and I want to learn the law,” says Deshun, the “oldest” of the triplets. “I’m ready for the opportunity to effect change in my community.” Kenya says he is ready to enter the law profession and accept the challenges that lie ahead: “I have been well prepared by the university. I don’t think [my career] will be a test to prove myself. I see it as more of a transitional period.” Jackson lawyer Brad Pigott of Pigott, Reeves, Johnson & Minor, PA, says he knows the Martin triplets are destined to do “great things.” Pigott met the triplets when Deshun clerked for the former U.S. attorney’s firm. “They’re awe-inspiring, enthusiastic, and just want to be good lawyers,” he says of the three, who ranked at the top of their 2001 graduating class at JSU. “There are a lot of us in the Jackson area who are proud of them and what they’ve done. Their enthusiasm, diligence, spark of personality, and good minds are a good combination for practicing law.” The Martin triplets are following the legacy begun by their older brother Precious, a 1997 UM Law School alumnus and partner with Byrd, Gibbs and Martin of Jackson. (Rounding out the family is oldest sibling, Ivan of Jackson, who works in construction.) UM law professor John Bradley, who taught Precious Martin and the triplets, says that having them in his corporations class revealed just how curious and interested students can be. “They’re people with high ideals and high expectations in themselves, not necessarily to prove to others, but to themselves,” he says. “I knew from how they responded in class that they’re going to utilize [their educations] fully. They all are students whom a professor will try to do his best for—they’re worth it.” Used to the attention that triplets ordinarily attract, Deshun, Kenya, and Warren Martin have been featured for their outstanding scholastic achievements and commitment to community service in numerous local, regional, and national publications, including Money magazine, Black Issues in Higher Education, Ebony, and Jet. In print and in person, they speak unabashedly about how faith in God and support from family are largely responsible for their current successes. Inscribed at the bottom of their graduation invitations, which bear all three of their names, is the sentiment “With God All Things Are Possible.” “We’re blessed to be here,” Warren said prior to commencement, where 145 law students received their degrees. “God is using our lives as a testament to some young black boy or girl striving to do a common thing in an uncommon way. Through faith, hard work, and perseverance, anything is possible.” Former Hinds County administrator Eugene McLemore, a member of Gov. Haley Barbour’s team at the Mississippi Development Authority, says the Martins’ values are worth emulating. “They have been really inspirational young men,” says McLemore, a UM alumnus who has known the brothers for several years. “I hope they continue their humanitarian spirit. They’re going to be a credit to all of us who’ve been touched by their lives.” The Martins’ deep-rooted religious beliefs will help fuel even more extraordinary accomplishments in the future, they say. “Putting God first” was instilled in them by their mother, Elinder Martin, a retired 27-year teacher of English and reading in the Hinds County public school system. Mrs. Martin reared her five sons alone after their father, Warren Martin Sr. died unexpectedly of a massive heart attack in 1989. “In raising them, I started out in the church,” says Mrs. Martin, who serves as a member of the board of directors of Jackson’s Not Here Foundation, where she counsels youth about drug abuse when she is not traveling or spending time with her four grandchildren. “I never had to get one after school or out of jail,” she says. “They went all the way through, and I never had to tell them to do their homework. When I was going through the process of raising them, it was hard. I found myself teaching school with runs in my stockings and with no money in my purse, but I could see the big picture, and look at them now.” Jackson State University President Ronald Mason Jr. got a sample of what it may be like to face the Martins in court when JSU student leaders interviewed him for the top administrative position in 1999. The brothers sat in different sections of the auditorium and asked “very pointed questions,” he says. “At first I thought it was the same bright student jumping from seat to seat. I was impressed with their intelligence and tenaciousness,” says Mason, a Columbia University law school graduate who has served as senior vice president and general counsel at Tulane University. “I think they have been exactly what they have wanted to be and done exactly what they have wanted to do. I expect the future will be no different. When we last spoke, they wanted to start a firm. I assume it will be Martin, Martin and Martin and will eventually be the best firm in the South.” While at JSU, Kenya and Warren were the class valedictorians with a 4.0 grade-point average, and Deshun graduated with high honors with a 3.9 grade-point average. And during their tenure at UM, the Martins earned a slew of scholarships among them. Forest attorney and community activist Constance Slaughter-Harvey, UM Law School’s first African-American female graduate, commended the Martins on their aptitude. She taught Precious at Tougaloo College, where she has been on the faculty since 1970. “In order for the legal profession’s image to improve, it’s going to have to reflect these honest and competent brothers,” says Slaughter-Harvey, a 2001 recipient of the UM Law School’s Public Service Award. “They represent beacons and reflect the investments from their rich legacy. It makes me feel three times as good to see three lawyers who have a full appreciation of the challenges ahead. I’m thoroughly delighted to see them continue their family’s tradition of excellence.” They have been candid about sharing what it means to be black law students at a predominantly white university, including expressing frustration over a “lack of more African-American faculty.” But they convey gratitude for what they perceive as UM’s increased efforts at creating diversity. “The leadership here is to be commended. They have made great strides in ensuring the diversity of The University of Mississippi as a ‘great public university,’” says Warren Jr., paraphrasing UM’s trademarked slogan. When the Martin brothers reflect on how their time at UM has influenced their lives, they laud faculty for giving them unparalleled support and imparting them with a broad knowledge of law. Warren says of UM law professor Robert Weems: “He’s a ‘nuts and bolts’ professor. He prepares his students to take and pass the bar.” Deshun praised UM law professor Debbie Bell as the “Mother of Law” and says “I learned more about law in her class than in any other.” And the brothers pledge not to forget the University in general. Deshun says he plans to be a generous alumnus: “Ole Miss has been so good to me. I will be a very giving alumnus. I’m not going to be a ‘lip alumnus,’ but a ‘pocket-giving’ alumnus.” And Kenya calls Ole Miss “a friend for life.” The three also pledged upon graduating from UM to give $1 million back to JSU within the next seven years. While the Martins say they don’t spend as much time together since graduation because of various commitments, including Deshun’s recent marriage to the former Tommie Sander of Raymond, they know that any Martin is a phone call away. “It’s galvanized the reality that we are individuals even though we’re triplets,” Warren says. “We’ve finished law school together. Even though we share a strong bond, we are three different individuals.” Deidra Jackson is a communications specialist in the UM Office of Media and Public Relations. Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
Dancing as Fast as She Can
It was June at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and Daya Hampton was in awe of the great dancers who had preceded her there. But they would have good reason to be in awe of her, as well. Not many people who are talented enough to perform at the Kennedy Center are also about to graduate from law school. Although Hampton, 26, hopes eventually to use her law degree to protect children’s rights, she’ll be moving to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a professional dancer when she graduates from the UM School of Law in December. “Dancing is my life,” the Memphis native says. “It’s what I have to do.” Hampton stepped out on the road to the Kennedy Center in January 2004. She was one of six UM students handpicked by choreographer Dwight Rhoden of New York City’s Complexions Dance Company to perform his original dance highlighting the past, present, and future of UM race relations during Black History Month on campus. In February, Hampton performed in the UM debut of Rhoden’s dance, “Before Now and After Then,” which employs dramatic movement and provocative symbols—black dancers in white face, white dancers in black face, all clad in military fatigues—to evoke the University’s tumultuous past and promising future. The 12-minute dance was one of three winners at the Southeastern regional competition of the National American College Dance Festival Association in March at Emory University, which earned it a spot on the Kennedy Center program. “This is an amazing honor,” says Hampton, who has been dancing since the third grade. “I wanted to participate in this dance because it reflects unity. There is too much hatred and until that changes, we cannot grow—we remain at a standstill.” Hampton always knew that she wanted both to be a dancer and to work with children. By the time she graduated from Central High School in Memphis, she was working as a professional dancer, chosen in 1995 by the Universal Dance Association to be a member of a traveling dance troupe that led summer camps for high school dance squads. Then in 1996, with the encouragement of her parents, Ethridge and Linda, Hampton enrolled at UM to pursue a teaching career. By May 2000, she had earned a bachelor’s degree in education, and one year later she received a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from her new alma mater. After a one-year stint as a teacher and head girls’ track coach at Lanier Middle School in Memphis, Hampton enrolled in the UM School of Law with the goal of becoming an advocate for children’s rights, but she never left her dancing far behind. UM Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Jennifer Mizenko describes Hampton as fearless. “In everything she does, from dancing to track to academics, she goes for the ultimate performance,” says Mizenko. UM track coach Joseph Walker agrees: “Daya takes risks, and she’s a great competitor, in every good sense of the word. She always gives her all to everything she does.” In fact, the night before Hampton was scheduled to receive her bachelor’s degree, she was in Louisiana at an SEC track meet where she qualified eighth in heptathlon (a contest in which each athlete competes in seven events). She still holds Ole Miss’s fourth highest all-time heptathlon record. In addition to being a member of the UM track team, Hampton was named Ole Miss Athlete of the Week and was a member of Golden Key and Phi Kappa Phi academic honor societies. “My mom tends to think I’ll overextend myself, but I always tell her I’m not great at everything, but I’m pretty good at a lot of things,” Hampton says. “Perfection doesn’t exist, but you never give up, you keep striving to do your best.” Hampton’s mother, Linda, says she still worries about her oldest daughter, but she also says, “I’ve long since decided Daya is at her best when she stays busy. I can’t remember a time when Daya wasn’t involved in several activities at one time. In raising her, I taught her to know she can do anything and I’d support her as long as the activity was positive, and I guess she took me at my word.” As Hampton prepares to move to New York next year with her one-year-old German shepherd, Sadie, she is happy with the journey she has taken while studying law. She credits her favorite law professor, the late Thomas Mason (see story on Page 31), with influencing her decision to continue studying at UM. “This is my third go-round in Oxford, and people always ask me why I continue to attend Ole Miss,” Hampton says. “It is the faculty and people like Tom Mason. In a class with more than 80 students, he knew my name—he made a point of knowing everyone’s name—and that has stuck with me throughout my studies. You’re treated like family at Ole Miss.” Deborah Purnell is a communications specialist in the UM Office of Media and Public Relations. |
Three brothers, triplets actually, who collected their law diplomas at commencement this spring have the potential to set the world on fire, say their mentors and former professors. When they do, Mississippi will have a ringside seat.
In the auditorium where presidents have honored the most brilliant stars in the performing arts, on the stage that has seen the likes of Mikhail Baryshnikov, Savion Glover, and Tommy Tune, a young dancer stood waiting for the lights to go down and the curtain to go up.