Word: hvd
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1971-1971
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
WITH this motto gracing last year's annual report, the Harvard Voluntary Defenders (HVD), founded in 1949 "to render free legal service to indigent persons accused of crime," have now moved into their 22nd year of operation. Although some critics may accuse HVD members of too much Raymond Burr and E. G. Marshall at any early age, the group's activities are generally considered a force for good in the Boston community...
More important to HVD and the Harvard Law School, however, is the experience provided for second-and third-year law students. The organization's program is divided into three main functions...
Interviews-Second-year law students (2L's in HVD jargon) go to Charlestown and Billerica jails and the Youth Service Board Detention Center, where they interview inmates to gather information for the Massachusetts Defenders Committee (MDC). The memoranda prepared from these sessions and the results of any other basic pre-trial investigation are used either by MDC attorneys or third-year law students (3L's), who are allowed in court under proper supervision. Between 700 and 1000 such interviews were conducted last year, according to Robert J. Katz, a second-year law student and recently elected President of HVD...
Research and Appeals-Letters from prisoners around the country come to HVD with fragmentary stories of what has happened to them and asking for help. A student writes up a report of what can be found out about the case and if sufficient merit is found, HVD's faculty advisor, Livingston Hall, Pound Professor of Law, contacts local counsel to whom the briefs and papers can be forwarded. When the research discloses no need to pursue the case, Hall writes the prisoner to inform him of HVD's decision...
...deal with out-of-state issues at arm's length," says Katz. He gives two reasons for HVD's current desire to pull back to mostly Massachusetts cases. First, when HVD started, it was virtually the only competent group in the country, and thus felt obligated to accept pleas from far away; however, there are now several such organizations. Secondly, students' activities have been broadened in recent years. They are now allowed to argue for a new trial in the Superior Court or a writ of error in the Supreme Judicial Court. Occasionally they are even asked to file...