HYBRIDSeeking Justice for Wrongful Convictions

Join us for a stimulating program featuring attorney Lisa M. Kavanaugh, director of the Innocence Program for the Private Counsel Division of the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services, and Sean Ellis, exoneree and criminal justice advocate, who will discuss seeking justice for wrongfully convicted individuals in Massachusetts. Judge Kathe Tuttman, a Temple Emanuel member, will moderate the discussion. Light refreshments will be served.

About our speakers:

In her capacity as director of the Innocence Program, Lisa Kavanaugh evaluates and litigates potentially meritorious Massachusetts innocence claims and provides litigation support and oversight of funding for the investigation and expert resources needed to successfully litigate these claims. She is also actively involved in developing statewide training programs on forensic evidence. In 2013, she formed a working group of criminal justice leaders that is focused on improving access to post-conviction DNA analysis and secured federal funding to support this work. Kavanaugh first joined the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) in 2002 as a staff attorney in the Somerville Superior Court trial unit. From 2007-2009, she worked in the Appeals Unit and litigated numerous felony appeals. She is a 1996 graduate of Yale University and a 2000 graduate of Harvard Law School. From 2000-2002, she served as a Prettyman Clinical Teaching Fellow with the Criminal Justice Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center. A frequent lecturer at Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) and CPCS training programs, she has also served as an adjunct professor with the Innocence Clinic at Boston College Law School and a visiting lecturer on law at Harvard Law School. She presently serves on the Forensic Science Oversight Board and is the co-chair of the Massachusetts Bar Association Task Force on Conviction Integrity. She also serves on the board of the New England Innocence Project.

Sean Ellis was wrongfully convicted for murder at age 19 and imprisoned for nearly 22 years before being fully exonerated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2021. Now he is a motivational speaker and a staunch advocate of criminal justice and prison reform. He is a co-founder of the Exoneree Network, a peer-led program funded by the New England Innocence Project, to support the practical, emotional and spiritual reentry needs of exonerees as they process the trauma of long-term incarceration and work to rebuild their lives in freedom. Sean is frequently invited to speak to help spread awareness about wrongful convictions throughout New England. He spoke at NEIP’s 2020 Voices of the Innocent: Power in Community virtual event and was an exoneree storyteller at the inaugural Voices of the Innocent: Still We Rise in 2019. Sean is a recipient of the 2021 Boston Mountaintop Award for advocacy related to Black innocence within the criminal justice system. Sean’s story is the subject of the Netflix docuseries “Trial 4.”