Paul Heer, an attorney in the firm’s Investment Management group, and Microsoft pro bono volunteers Dan Connolly, Brianna Hinojosa-Smith and Matt Walker successfully represented a pro bono client before Washington’s Indeterminate Sentencing Review Board (ISRB), a quasi-judicial board of the Department of Corrections.
Their client had been incarcerated for 21 years – from the age of 17 – when the Seattle Clemency Project was made aware of his compelling plea for release. After nine months of intensive work, this team successfully advocated for their client’s release, consistent with U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence that treats children as constitutionally different from adults for sentencing.
The ISRB, in a unanimous 5-0 decision, agreed, finding their client should be released, 20 years earlier than the original sentence release date. Their client will soon be released to a large and loving family that has been by his side every day for these last 21 years, and their client explained he looks forward to “getting to work at my new job, continuing my education and building happy memories with my family – maybe even starting my own.”
Paul Heer, Associate in Foster Garvey's Investment Management group, serves as a Board Member and President-elect of the Seattle Clemency Project. He also currently serves as Co-Chair of Foster Garvey’s Opportunity and Progress Council, the firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiative.
