Mary Kelly Tate

Professor Mary Kelly Tate, the founding Director of the School of Law's Institute for Actual Innocence, focuses on identifying and exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals in Virginia. Through her work with students, she pursues writs of actual innocence and related post-conviction relief. In addition, she teaches a seminar on wrongful convictions. Alongside her clinical team, she also represents federally incarcerated individuals seeking presidential commutations. Her scholarship focuses on post-conviction issues, and she has been invited to speak at national symposiums on innocence commissions and the problem of wrongful convictions. Students working with Professor Tate through the Institute for Actual Innocence receive a rich academic and clinical education experience that involves case review and reinvestigation, as well as partnership with legal, scientific, and policy leaders in the field. Professor Tate and her students also work in the area of public policy reform. Professor Tate has served as an Assistant Public Defender in the Richmond Public Defender's Office and represented individuals in post-conviction capital and criminal litigation as an attorney in private practice. She and her clinical students have successful obtained two presidential commutations for clients, and represented two Virginians who were formerly exonerated through DNA testing.