Actual Innocence Clinic Receives Clemency for Client

The Institute for Actual Innocence Clinic at Richmond Law is pleased to announce that President Joe Biden has commuted the federal sentence of client Amber Gauch. Gauch, an army veteran and mother of four, served 80 months in federal prison and 20 months on home confinement for non-violent drug offenses in which she was a minor participant. 

"Amber is very dear to us and we are delighted with this decision," said Mary Kelly Tate, director of the clinic and professor of law. "This commutation will allow Amber to fully participate in her community and in the lives and activities of her children.”

This latest commutation represents the third victory received by the clinic in 2024. Last April, the clinic secured a commutation of sentence for Leshay Rhoton, who was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment for possession of cocaine. Her sentence was commuted to 12.5 years. Then, in June, the Virginia Court of Appeals exonerated client Marvin Grimm after 45 years of incarceration in a case that the clinic represented for many years.

Clinic students Liddy Gallagher, Megan Haugh, Sarah Larson, Bailey Ellicott, and Claudia Leonor worked under the direction of Tate to represent Gauch. Law Clinic Administrative Coordinator Anne Wroniewicz also played a significant role in managing the case.

“Once again, the hard work of Professor Tate and her students has quite literally changed the life of their client and her family,” said Dean Wendy Perdue. “Together they have bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice and I am enormously proud of the work they do.”

Read the full White House Fact Sheet: President Biden Announces Clemency for Nearly 1,500 Americans (White House).