Fall Semester Start Date ChangesClasses for the Fall 1998 semester will begin on Thursday, August 20. This is a change from the previously scheduled date of August 24.ContentsSchedule of EventsFall Semester Start Date ChangesJohn Marshall Law School Professors Argue Peru Human Rights Violations Before International CommissionFair Housing Center/ClinicCenter for Advocacy and Dispute ResolutionWindows Computer Instruction AvailableFinancial Aid Application Packets AvailableFaculty Activity and PublicationsSchedule of Events
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John Marshall Law School Professors Argue Peru Human Rights Violations Before International CommissionRepresenting two Americans imprisoned in Peru, two professors and a law student from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago offered findings on human rights violations and deplorable prison conditions to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Wednesday, Feb. 25. The findings were given on behalf of Jennifer Davis of Danville, Ill., and Krista Barnes of Redondo Beach, Calif., who have been held in the Santa Monica de Chorrillos Prison in Lima the past 18 months. Professors Ralph Ruebner and Mark Wojcik of The John Marshall Law School are representing the women pro bono. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is part of the Organization of American States. It monitors compliance with the American Convention on Human Rights, a treaty Peru has ratified. "It certainly was not a typical human rights case," Wojcik said. "Two American women were caught red-handed with cocaine in their luggage. They were arrested and thrown in prison in Lima, Peru. "The trouble was that they were never charged with a crime, so that they could not be brought to trial," he noted. Third-year law student Lisa Carroll, in her presentation before the three-member commission, outlined the nature of an individual's rights under the United States-Peru Prison Transfer Treaty. Peru had denied the women their rights under the treaty, Carroll argued, because Peru let the women sit in prison for almost 18 months before filing charges against Jennifer and Krista. "The treaty complements Peruvian law which, for example, provides that individuals who are arrested must be brought before a competent tribunal and formally charged within four months time. That clearly didn't happen," Carroll said. "They couldn't be transferred because they were not sentenced. They couldn't be sentenced until they were charged and tried," Carroll explained. The trial for the American women officially began Feb. 11. Ruebner and Wojcik did not receive reports of the charges against the two. The proceedings conducted by a three-judge panel of the Superior Court of Peru have been sporadic, unlike an American trial which continues each day until its conclusion. Ruebner said the expectation is the trial will conclude this week. Davis and Barnes could be sentenced to as much as 10 years in prison. Once they are sentenced, Professors Ruebner and Wojcik will ask that Davis and Barnes serve their sentence in the United States and be immediately transferred to the U.S. "By letting them sit in jail for a year and a half, Peru not only denied them their rights under the treaty but also subjected them to deplorable prison conditions," Carroll added. Ruebner, who traveled to Peru in 1997 to visit the women, said he was shocked by the prison conditions he found there. "The prison conditions are a nightmare. The women receive minimal food -- sometimes they go for three or four days with only a piece of bread each," he explained. "They receive dirty water and a cup of food that even the prison cooks advise the two not to eat. Rats and cockroaches abound. The cells have no air and there is no running water for toilets or showers." Testifying at the hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was Jennifer's mother, Claire Davis, and her 14-year-old sister, Melissa. Both confirmed that the prison conditions are inhumane and that Jennifer and Krista have suffered because of these conditions. "The girls have lost about 20 pounds each and they each have sore teeth and gums from the malnutrition and disease," Claire Davis testified. She last visited her daughter in February. Denny Davis, Jennifer's father, also gave eyewitness testimony to the commission. Davis, who serves as a captain in the Illinois Prison System, told the panel that as a prison official he "is obligated to provide certain minimal things for the prisoners: food, water, clothing, medical care, dental care and bedding. Peru provides none of these things." "Because I work in a prison every day, I should have been prepared for what I saw (at the Santa Monica de Chorrillos Prison in Lima) but I wasn't," he said. There were no respondents for Peru at the hearing. At the conclusion of the hearing, the commissioners invited Ruebner and Wojcik to provide the commission a list of preventive measures for immediate implementation. Center for Advocacy and Dispute ResolutionThe Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution sponsored the afternoon session of the 42nd Annual IP Conference. The program, "Perspectives & Expectations: Does Trying An IP Case Have To Be So Trying", was organized by Profs. Kenneth Kandaras and Paula H. Holderman and Judge James F. Holderman. The program panel members included: Judge James F. Holderman, Judge Blanche M. Manning, Roger Dusberger (Senior Trial Counsel, Motorola), Roger May (CEO & Gen. Counsel Ford Global Tech., Inc.), Rosanne Faraci (McDermott Will & Emery), Roy Hofer (Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione), and Prof. Kenneth Kandaras. Faculty Activity and PublicationsProfessor Susan ConnorPublicationsHer article: "The Federal Fair Housing Act, Zoning and Accommodation for Persons With a Disability," was published in 3 Land Use and Zoning 89 (February 1998). Professor Kenneth KandarasActivitiesHe co-organized and moderated a panel discussion at the John Marshall 42nd Annual IP Conference. The program, "Perspectives & Expectations: Does Trying An IP Case Have To Be So Trying," discussed the expectations held by corporate counsel, trial counsel, and the judge in cases involving intellectual property disputes. Professor Timothy J. O'NeillActivitiesOn February 26, he was interviewed on the nationally syndicated Victoria Jones Show concerning the Starr-Clinton controversy. Professor Michael J. PolelleActivitiesHe will host Prof. Federico Mioni of the University of Macerata, Italy during the week of March 16. On Monday, March 16 Prof. Mioni, a Thomas Jefferson and constitutional scholar, will speak in Room 1200 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. on the topic, "Italy at the Crossroads: Constitutional Reform or Not ?" Later that week on Thursday, March 19, he will participate in a seminar with Prof. Polelle, Olken, and Brown on the topic: "Thomas Jefferson: A View from Each Side of the Atlantic." The seminar will take place in Room 1200 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. On February 24 Steve Matthews of Bloomberg News, a financial publication, interviewed him about the first amendment significance of a prosecution brought against Barnes & Noble Bookstore for selling art books featuring pictures of nude children by noted artists. Professor Debra StarkActivitiesShe has been asked to be a visiting professor at Haifa University's Law School. Her visit will take place during the second week of March of this year. While visiting the law school she will lecture about American property law (comparing and contrasting the Israeli land laws to American real property laws) and will deliver a paper about her most recent scholarship in the field of real estate law. Professor Mark E. WojcikActivitiesHe, Professor Ralph Ruebner, and senior law student Lisa Carroll appeared before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Wednesday, February 25, to present legal arguments and testimony on alleged human rights violations in Peru. The pro-bono case involves two American women who were arrested one and a half years earlier but who were neither charged nor brought to trial until a complaint was filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Professors Ruebner and Wojcik co-taught an international human rights law seminar in which students actively worked on the case of the two American women. Professors Wojcik and Ruebner and Lisa Carroll were also interviewed on February 26 by the Voice of America English-language radio service for Latin America, which broadcasts to Peru and other nations in Central and South America. They also met with Senator Richard Durbin and Congressman Tom Ewing, who is a John Marshall Law School graduate. He chaired a session on February 26 at the Chicago Bar Association on domestic violence and hate crime in gay, lesbian, and transgender communities. The speakers were Ellen Meyers from the Cook County States Attorney's Office, Mary S. Trew from Pro-Bono Legal Advocates, and Gerardo Montemayor from the Horizons Community Services Anti-Violence Project. PublicationsHis article, "Drug Policy and Drug Culture: National Experiences from the United States and Micronesia," was published as a chapter in a new book published by the Indian Law Institute of New Delhi, India. The book was edited by D.C. Jayasuria, R.K. Nayak, and A. Wells and includes revisions of papers that were presented at a Global Drugs Law Conference held last year in India. Professor Wojcik attended that event as the guest of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, and he spoke a t a panel chaired by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. |
March 10