2007 EXCEPTIONAL PRO BONO AWARD RECIPIENT
Jena Parker, CP, Fort Worth, winner of
this year’s Paralegal Division
Exceptional Pro Bono Award, is a most
deserving paralegal volunteer for the
Paralegal Division of the State Bar of
Texas.
Jena, and her attorney, Michael Ware,
work as volunteers in conjunction with the
Texas Innocence Project based out of
Houston. Mr. Ware is the director of the
North Texas Innocence Project. In some
cases, death row inmates have exhausted
all appeals, but still claim they are innocent.
Since technology has improved over
time, such as DNA analysis, one can learn
information about crimes that would have
been unknowable 15-years ago.
Inmates will send requests for help to
the Texas Innocence Project. In a case
where an inmate might be able to prove
his innocence, his case is assigned to an
Innocence Project (“IP”) at a law school in
Houston, Lubbock, Austin or in Fort
Worth, at Texas Wesleyan Law School.
There are several law schools working on
the Innocence Project. They are (i)
University of Houston, (ii) St. Thomas,
(iii) University of Texas at Austin and at
Arlington, (iv) Texas Tech, (v) University
of North Texas, and (vi) Texas Wesleyan.
Jena’s attorney is an adjunct professor at
Texas Wesleyan Law School, and directs
the Innocence Project law students in
investigating the inmates’ claims.
Recently, they had a client who spent
18-years in prison for sexual assault, based
on eyewitness identification. The victim
spent 6-hours with the perpetrator, but
still identified the IP as the rapist. He was
proven innocent after a DNA test confirmed
that he was not the rapist.
Most of the Innocence Project cases
that Jena and her attorney look into are for
murders or sexual assault, but they will be
including arson convictions in the near
future. As per protocol, when they receive
a letter from an inmate who claims actual
innocence, they will write the inmate to let
them know they received the letter and
have forwarded his letter to Texas Tech for
the initial screening process. Jena and her
attorney have processed approximately 300
letters from their office alone. The Texas
Tech Innocence Project will send a questionnaire
to the inmate to be returned to
Texas Tech. After the completed questionnaire
is received, it is determined whether
DNA testing can be conducted and/or
whether the prisoner was convicted based
on an eye-witness identification.
Cases needing more investigation will
be sent to Jena’s office for further attention
if it is in the Dallas/Fort Worth area
and/or surrounding counties. Jena will log
these cases in and she will take the basic
information to Weslayan Innocence
Project (“WIP”) for further research and
investigation. WIP usually are set up in 4
teams of students. WIP currently has
approximately 30 students involved in the
Innocence Project. One or two cases are
assigned to each team.
Jena will show a team how to find the
trial court cause number, the court it is in,
county, appeals court number, etc. for the
purpose of locating the court record.
Most of these cases are from 10 to 25 years
old and are in storage at the courts. Once
Jena receives the information, Jena will call
the appeals court and order the transcript
of the trial and the clerk’s record. Jena will
then also call the original trial court to
order the clerk’s record from them since
some of the information is not in the
appeal’s record. Sometimes Jena has a
very hard time getting the record as these
cases are so old the courts have a hard
time locating them.
After receiving the
transcript and record, Jena and Mr. Ware
will give these documents to the team so
they can begin reviewing the transcript.
Jena and Mr. Ware will meet with each
team 4-times a week. They discuss what
has been found in the record, i.e., witnesses
and/or any DNA. The cases without
any DNA are much more difficult to prove
their innocence.
After investigation by the students, it is
decided whether the IP can continue pursuing
the case. Some of the questions
asked are: (i) any witnesses that can be
interviewed, (ii) any DNA that can be tested,
and (iii) can the evidence used at trial
be located? If witnesses or inmates need to
be located and interviewed, Jena will show
the students how to locate them. This is
not an easy task as sometimes there is not
much information to go on especially if
they do not have a date of birth, and also
some of these cases are so old that witnesses
are no longer alive. If an inmate needs
to be interviewed, Jena will show the students
how to find where an inmate is
located. Then Jena will send the appropriate
paperwork to the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice (“TDCJ”)—Access to
Courts for approval so that the students
can visit the inmate. Once Jena receives
the approval from TDCJ, Jena then contacts
the prisons and get the students
approved for visitation at the prison.
When a new exoneree is released especially
out of Dallas County (of which there
have been 13 so far), Jena coordinates with
Barry Scheck, Innocence Project in New
York, to make sure we have as many
exonerees present as we can when the new
exoneree is released. If she needs to pick
them up or make arrangements so that
they can be picked up, Jena will arrange
this. Jena also makes lunch arrangements
for the exoneree and their families, attorneys,
and law students to celebrate their
release.
Jena will also try to help the exonerees
find jobs as most of them have no luck in
finding jobs. Even though they are innocent,
employers are still not hiring them.
Jena admits that when Mr. Ware started
this effort pro bono, she thought that she
had a lot of work to do already and she
didn’t know where she’d find the time for
a lot of extra work. Jena conservatively
estimates that she has spent in excess of
700-hours in 2006 working on the
Innocence Project. Jena says that to see
the look of an exoneree makes what she
does all worth it. Jena is amazed at how
many people are still in prison that actually
could be innocent. Greg Wallis who
spent 19-years in prison said to Jena when
he got out that his mother always knew he
was innocent, but she died before it was
actually proven. Jena thinks of her children
and the children of these innocent
men who went into the penitentiary when
their children were young, and are now
getting out when their children are adults.
They missed their children’s entire lives.
Whatever Jena does for the Innocence
Project, she just wishes she could do more.
Jena was also the coordinator for 2006
between Texas Law Schools and the Texas
Defense Lawyers Association for the First
Annual Innocence Project Coference held
in Austin, Texas.
Jena also coordinated the
appearance of some of the exonerees at
this conference.
Jena also is a Red Cross volunteer. She
is on-call once a month usually for a 24-
hour period. When a family has a fire in
the county area, the team leader for the
Red Cross will call Jena to meet her at the
fire location. It can be at an apartment
where several families are displaced or at a
home. The Red Cross makes sure these
individuals have their basic needs which
are shoes, clothes and shelter. Jena will go
through the burned area after the fireman
in charge gives his OK. Jena will check to
see if the food, clothes, and bedding are
ruined. If they are, then the Red Cross
gives the family an allotment for that. If it
is an apartment fire that has affected several
families, it could take several hours for
Jena to complete all her necessary duties,
including paperwork, etc.
Jena is a member of Fort Worth
Paralegal Association (“FWPA”), where
she has served as President, President
Elect/Education, First Vice
President/Programs, and Parliamentarian.
Jena is a member of the Paralegal Division,
where she currently serves as the Chair of
Ad-Hoc Committee on College of the
State Bar Paralegal Application Review for
CLE. Jena is also a member of the College
of the State Bar of Texas—Paralegal
Division.
Some publications to Jena’s credit
include West’s Paralegal Today “Questions
Answered by a Criminal Law paralegal”, to
be published in 2007, and Lessons from the
Top Paralegal Experts: The 15 Most
Successful Paralegals in America and What
You Can Learn From Them —“Questions”
by a Criminal Law Paralegal to be featured
in the Compendium to be released in July
2007.
Jena is a NALA Certified Paralegal and
works in Fort Worth, Texas, as a paralegal
for the Law Offices of Michael Ware.
|
