SCU Professor of Law Jerry Uelmen Named Executive Director of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice

Jerry Uelmen, Santa Clara University School of Law professor and former dean was recently named Executive Director of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice by Commission Chair, John Van de Kamp.

The commission was created in 2004 to examine flaws in the criminal justice system that might lead to wrongful convictions and suggest ways to prevent such convictions.  It has until the end of 2007 to report back to the legislature.

The composition of the Commission was recently expanded, and now includes Sheriff Lee Baca of Los Angeles County; Chief William Bratton of the Los Angeles Police Department, represented by Gerald Chaleff of Los Angeles; Attorney Kimiko Burton of San Francisco; Rabbi Allen Freehling of Los Angeles; District Attorney Jim Fox of San Mateo County; Glen Craig, former Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol, of Sacramento; California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, represented by Deputy Attorney General Dane Gillette of San Francisco; California State Public Defender Michael Hersek of San Francsico; Professor Bill Hing of the University of California at Davis; Public Defender Michael P. Judge of Los Angeles; District Attorney George Kennedy of Santa Clara County; Michael Laurence, the Director of the California Habeas Corpus Resource Center in San Francisco; Attorney Alejandro Mayorkas of Los Angeles; Judge John Moulds of Sacramento; Cookie Ridolfi, the Director of the Northern California Innocence Project at Santa Clara University; Douglas Ring of San Francisco; Nina Salerno Ashford of Crime Victims United of California; District Attorney Greg Totten of Ventura County; and Attorney John Streeter of San Francisco.

The Commission held its first public hearing in San Francisco on March 15, concerning mistaken eyewitness identifications.  Future meetings and hearings will focus on the widely identified causes of wrongful conviction, including false confessions, testimony by jail snitches, mishandling of forensic evidence, withholding of exculpatory evidence, and incompetence of defense counsel.  The Commission will also consider problems in the administration of California‘s death penalty law.

The statewide office for the Commission has been established close to Santa Clara‘s campus, at 900 Lafayette St., Suite 608 in Santa Clara.  Chris Boscia, a part time Santa Clara law student, has been hired to serve as full time Executive Assistant for the Commission.  The Commission will meet on Santa Clara‘s campus on May 19.  A website has also been launched for the Commission at www.ccfaj.org.