From left, law student Bridget Duffus, Professor Gregory Sisk and law student Katherine Koehler at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco.

In Death Row Inmate's Appeal, U.S. Court of Appeals Judges Call Out Quality of Briefs by St. Thomas Law Students

The Appellate Clinic at the University of St. Thomas School of Law—with third-year students Bridget Duffus and Katherine Koehler, and supervised by Professor Gregory Sisk—worked this year on a continuing challenge by a death row inmate in Arizona to the prison’s policy of skimming the contents of letters prisoners write to their lawyers. The clinic’s case was submitted with oral argument to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco on January 11.

At the end of the argument, the judges commended the University of St. Thomas on the quality of the briefs filed on the pro bono appeal, with one of the judges saying they were “better briefs than a whole lot of briefs we get from people being paid for it.”

Watch the entire oral argument below.