By Kaitlyn Novoa
Every Wednesday from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., students are invited to come to Jimenez Hall to read through cases and draft documents.
Youth for Innocence at the University of Maryland was established last fall semester. The club had its first meeting this past February and is a recognized chapter of the Youth For Innocence nonprofit organization. According to its website, Youth for Innocence is a “nonprofit empowering youth to help overturn wrongful convictions through non-lawyer advocacy.”
The club’s mission is to discover and dispute wrongful convictions to further advance their strive for justice. This mission is fulfilled through numerous tasks, ranging from reviewing case files to organizing records.
Even with the subject’s sensitive nature due to the case files they review and compile, the club does not have strict requirements for membership. Everyone, undergraduate or graduate, regardless of major, is welcome to join the club.
Akiva Nelson, the club founder and president, described the club as a professional environment due to the severity of the work. Nelson, a junior criminology and criminal justice major, also emphasized the need for its members to have a clear mind and to be kind, caring and empathetic.
The club is designed to provide its members with hands-on legal experience. Although there aren’t any requirements to join, Youth for Innocence offers additional training on its website if members want to engage beyond the club’s scope. The training covers the basics of law and practices the tools the nonprofit uses.
The club was founded out of Nelson’s desire to make an impact and support others, as he explained that many people lack understanding of the legal system and that those involved in it often can’t afford quality legal representation.
Hannah Derr, a junior double majoring in psychology and criminology, shares this desire. Derr is the club’s director of social media.
“I want to represent the underrepresented,” Derr said. “More of my focus later on in my education will be towards juveniles who are wrongfully convicted and they don’t know the criminal justice system as well as others.”
David Mitchell, a professor who teaches criminology and criminal justice courses, UMPD police chief and the Youth for Innocence at UMD advisor, is also passionate about the club and its purpose.
“I believe it,” he said when asked why he became the club’s advisor. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to review cases and have another set of fresh eyes that can help someone who was wrongfully convicted of a crime regain their freedom.”
Youth for Innocence at UMD is open to all and is seeking more members. When asked what they would tell people to get them to join the club, both Nelson and Derr shared similar insight.
“You should join if you want to gain legal experience, help people who are in dire need of help and to be able to support the legal system we have here in the U.S.,” Nelson said, an opinion Derr also shared.
To them, seeing these qualities in college kids was especially special.
“I think that anything that we can do to review cases, to be sure, as sure as we can be, and to allow those who have been accused and convicted a voice, and for people to hear them. I think it’s wonderful,” Mitchell said.
Featured Image: Youth for Innocence at UMD president and founder, Akiva Nelson (left), and director of socials, Hannah Derr (right). Photo by By Kaitlyn Novoa.