This piece was written in honor of “Be Kind to Lawyers Day,” April 14, 2015, by Hera Hub member Melody Kramer, Founder of Legal Greenhouse and 20+ year veteran trial lawyer with a vision of creating fundamental change in the legal profession.
There are days when I’m embarrassed to be a lawyer, days when it seems that every lawyer is deceitful and mean, but there are other days when I am beyond grateful for the existence of dedicated, hard working lawyers who have made profound positive contributions to the world, sometimes making a difference for one person at a time. Today, in honor of the 8th annual “Be Kind to Lawyers Day,” I am sharing one such story.
I was a freshman in college in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1985 when 68-year-old Helen Wilson was killed in her apartment in nearby Beatrice. Little did I know at the time how my life would intersect with that event. Four years later, six people were charged with the crime. Five confessed after intense interrogation by police. Only one, Joseph White, went to trial. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. It appeared to the public that justice had been done. I gave no further thought to the case.
More than 10 years later, I had graduated law school and was starting my criminal law practice in Lincoln when I got a letter of inquiry for representation on a post-conviction matter from an inmate. The inmate? Joseph White. I was intrigued.
I went to the Nebraska Penitentiary to meet him. As I walked into the visitor’s room and saw him for the first time I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that this man had not killed another human being.
I did my best to put together a successful post-conviction motion to overturn his conviction, but I was young and inexperienced and unable to get the assistance of the expertise I needed to assist me to get the job done. One of my great regrets had been unable to find a way to overturn his conviction.
Years passed and I moved on to other areas of legal practice in California. Then one day in 2011 I received an email from a lawyer in Nebraska, a lawyer for Joseph White. “I don’t know if you are aware, but Joe and the other 5 who were convicted, were exonerated regarding the death of Helen Wilson.”
I sat at my desk stunned, relieved, grateful to his new lawyers that had done what I could not do, exonerate Joseph White. In 2008, after a battle all the way up to the Nebraska Supreme Court to access evidence for DNA testing, DNA testing was done that excluded all six of the Beatrice Six from the evidence at the crime scene (and also identified the real perpetrator). Joseph White had been imprisoned for 19 ½ years for a crime he did not commit; he and the other five accused were wrongfully imprisoned for a total of over 76 years. The Beatrice Six were the first people exonerated by DNA evidence in Nebraska history, and the largest number of defendants in one case exonerated by DNA testing in the United States. If it hadn’t been for lawyers, dedicated, hardworking lawyers, insistent on finding the truth, all six innocent people would still be in prison today.
Say what you will about lawyers, but they actually do good in the world, more often than you might realize. For this one day of the year, extend some kindness back to lawyers, for what they have done, or what they might be inspired to do to positively impact the world.
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Melody A. Kramer is a veteran trial attorney and advocate for meaningful change in the legal profession. Melody is Founder of Legal Greenhouse, a think tank for innovative legal solutions. Melody has a passion for writing, authoring such thought-provoking articles as “The Tweet-Up Virgin Has An Epiphany,” “Confessions of an Adrenaline Addict and Trial Lawyer,” and “Quantity vs. Quality: The Billable Hour Mousetrap.” She is currently completing book entitled “Why Lawyers Suck and What You Can Do About It.”
