Mary Kelly Tate
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Profile
Professor Mary Kelly Tate serves as Director of the School of Law's Institute for Actual Innocence, which works to identify and exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals in Virginia by pursuing writs of actual innocence and related post-conviction relief, and also teaches a wrongful convictions seminar. 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.
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Presentations
"Participated in a workshop at Yale regarding new federal clemency petition guidelines," (crack/powder sentencing disparities)., ( )
panel member, "Unshackled: Stories of Redemption and Hope in Post-Conviction Work in Parole & Clemency Cases," AALS 2024 Annual Meeting, AALS (January 2024)
"Emerging Coalitions: Challenging the Structures of Inequality," niversity of Tennessee College of Law ( 2015)
"University of Richmond School of Law and its Clinical Technology Initiative," AALS 38th Annual Conference on Clinical Legal Education (May 2015) (with Julie McConnell), ( 2015)
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Professional Experience
Director of the Institute for Actual Innocence, Associate Clinical Professor of Law (2005 - present)
University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, VAPublic Defender (1999 - 2001)
City of Richmond Public Defenders Office, Richmond, VAAttorney (1995 - 1999)
(Solo Practitioner), Richmond, VAAssociate; Law & Employment/ERISA Team (1993 - 1995)
Hunton & Williams, Richmond, VALaw Clerk to the Honorable Robert R. Merhige, Jr. (1991 - 1992)
Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond, VA
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Presentations
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Publications
Books
Criminal Law and Procedure: An Overview (West 4th) (with Ron Bacigal) (2015).
Journal ArticlesPersonal Reflections on the Honorable Robert R. Merhige, Jr.: A Judge, Mentor, and Friend, 52 University of Richmond Law Review 17 (2017).
2015 Symposium: Wrongful Convictions: Science, Experience & the Law: Keynote Panel Discussion, 19 Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest 171 (with Shawn Armburst et al.) (2016).
America Is Slowly Awakening to the Structural Unfairness in Our Criminal Justice System, 19 Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest 243 (2016).
Temporal Arbitrariness: A Back to the Future Look at a Twenty-Five-Year-Old Death Penalty Trial, 49 University of Richmond Law Review 939 (2015).
Book ReviewsReview, Chokehold: Policing Black Men, (Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books) (January 2019).
Grave Injustice: Unearthing Wrongful Executions, The Champion (August 2013).
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In the News
On This Day: 18-year-old girl found murdered, leading to trial of the Norfolk Four (NBC 12)
Thu., Jul. 8, 2021University of Richmond faculty featured in Netflix documentary series (NBC12)
Wed., Apr. 15, 2020For German diplomat's son jailed in 1985 double murder, a powerful new advocate (Washington Post)
Fri., Oct. 27, 2017Law professor calls on governor to pardon Soering (WVTF)
Fri., Oct. 27, 2017The cost of incarceration (WRIC)
Thu., Feb. 2, 2017UR Law School students help win presidential commutation of life sentence (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Sun., Jan. 29, 2017Guilty, Then Proven Innocent (The Atlantic)
Mon., Feb. 9, 2015Tate: In defense of Wendy Davis' political biography (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Tue., Jan. 28, 2014Faith on Values: Years After Infant Son Dies, Grief Remains (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Sat., Feb. 23, 2013Reforms of 'actual innocence' process advancing in Assembly (Virginia Lawyers Weekly)
Wed., Jan. 23, 2013Cuccinelli: Va. law should help clear names of wrongly convicted (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Fri., May. 4, 2012Huguely case: Different charges, different legal strategies (The Daily Progress)
Sat., Feb. 11, 2012 - Links