A conversation with a NYC Innocence Project Exoneree, US Attorneys & the UK Criminal Bar.
About this Event
Join MTYBA for a further event in the Black Lives Matter Series. There will be a panel discussion on Thursday 24 September 2020 at 7.30pm addressing the issues of racial profiling, injustices within the Criminal Justice System in the US & the UK, and concerns surrounding the privatisation of prisons.
The panel will feature the New York Innocence Project Attorney Susan Friedman and the exoneree Huwe Burton. As well as lawyer Jonathan Moore who represented the Harlem 5 following their exoneration regarding the controversial Central Park Jogger case. We also have UK barristers Dr Courtenay Griffiths QC & Leon-Nathan Lynch both criminal barristers and members of 25 Bedford Row Chambers.
Susan Friedman – Innocence Project (US): Susan Friedman is a staff attorney at the Innocence Project and litigates post-conviction DNA cases throughout the country. She also supervises students through the Innocence Project clinic at Cardozo Law School. Ms. Friedman graduated from The George Washington University Law School in 2011. She also holds an M.S. in Biomedical Sciences from Mount Sinai School of Medicine Graduate School of Biology.
Huwe Burton – Exoneree (US): In the early evening hours of January 3, 1989, Huwe Burton came home to discover his mother Keziah Burton stabbed to death. Burton, who had been in school during the day, had no criminal history and a close-knit relationship with his parents and extended family and was convicted of murder. Burton’s conviction was based largely on a confession he made to three detectives from the 47th Precinct who used psychologically coercive techniques that were standard practice at the time. On the 24 January 2019 the Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett vacated the 1991 murder conviction of Huwe Burton.
Jonathan Moore – Lawyer – Central Park Jogger Case (US): Jonathan C. Moore is an attorney practicing in New York and provides legal services covering Civil Rights. Jonathan was one of the lawyers involved in the litigation that challenged the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk tactic. He also helped to represent the five men whose convictions were ultimately overturned in the 1989 Central Park jogger case, a lawsuit that was settled for $41 million. Mr Moore was selected to Super Lawyers for 2014 - 2020. This peer designation is awarded only to a select number of accomplished attorneys in each state.
Courtenay Griffiths QC – 25 Bedford Row Chambers (UK): Courtenay Griffiths QC, is a barrister at 25 Bedford Row. He has a wide-ranging practice in domestic and International Criminal Law, providing representation in trials of genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes. His criminal defence work emphasis is on terrorism and murder, some of the most note worthy cases being; The PC Blakelock murder trial, The Harrods Bombing, The Risley Riot, and The Damilola Taylor murder trial.
Leon-Nathan Lynch – 25 Bedford Row Chambers (UK): Practising at 25 Bedford Row Chambers the leading set for criminal and regulatory law, Leon specialises in serious crime and white-collar defence. He has particular expertise in fraud and financial crime, business crime and regulatory enforcement. Leon is instructed privately as junior trial counsel for individuals prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office.