Michael Laurence ’85 Prevails in Representation of Death Row Inmate
Michael Laurence '85 served as lead attorney for death row inmate Ernest D. Jones, whose sentence was vacated on July 16. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney wrote that California's death penalty is unconstitutional because lengthy and unpredictable delays have resulted in an arbitrary and unfair capital punishment system.
Laurence is executive director of the Habeas Corpus Resource Center. In law school, he was Editor-in-Chief of the UC Davis Law Review. Under his editorship, the Law Review produced a 615-page symposium issue on capital punishment.