This summer, Fordham Law students Camille Campbell ’25 and Matthew Winter ’25 visited an upstate New York maximum security prison to meet with a client who was convicted of murder. They, along with Kevin Jones ’25, have been fighting on the client’s behalf for clemency and commutation since early March 2024, spending their entire summer as research assistants to advocate for him.
Derrick Brown has been incarcerated for the last 31 years, since the age of 17, and is serving a 35-years-to-life sentence. He has been a client of the Law School’s Criminal Defense Clinic since 2018 and has worked with several Fordham Law student teams beginning under the supervision of now-retired Professor Martha Rayner and Social Work Supervisor and Adjunct Professor Kaela Economos.
An earlier team of Fordham Law students submitted an extensive clemency application on Brown’s behalf in August 2023, which is still under review by New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s office. Seeing an opportunity to bolster the case for clemency, the trio of Campbell, Jones, and Winter was determined to continue working toward a favorable outcome for Brown.
Camille Campbell ’25
“We began picking up steam towards the end of the semester and the three of us decided to stay on the case through the summer, so that we could keep the momentum going,” said Campell, explaining how she and her team have been gathering letters of support and are helping Brown draft a personalized re-entry plan following his incarceration. “Being a part of the clinic and this case has made me more aware of the clemency process as well as the broader issues and long-term effects of the ‘superpredator’ era.”
Through the efforts of Campbell, Jones, and Winter—and the guidance of Professors Leonard Noisette and Economos, the supervising attorney and social worker of the clinic—Brown hopes his sentence will be commuted by Hochul. If commuted, he may be immediately eligible to go in front of the parole board rather than in 2028 at the age of 53.
When asked about his first 17 years of life before incarceration, Brown stated, “I did not feel loved in my home but rather in the streets.” Brown’s formative years were marred with financial and housing instability, neglect, and both physical and mental abuse, which affected many of his life choices and outcomes. After being kicked out of the overcrowded apartment his family was doubled up in, at the age of 16, he found shelter with a man who led him into a series of robberies using a firearm Brown had taken from his father’s home. In the days leading up to and following New Year’s Day 1993, Brown and his older co-defendant committed three armed robberies during which the co-defendant shot and killed two people and injured three others with the firearm. Despite it being the co-defendant who fatally shot and injured the victims, Brown was charged with murder, to which he pled guilty.
When asked about his role in these events, Brown previously stated, “Though I had not pulled the trigger in any of the incidents, I am nevertheless, equally to blame because I provided the weapon used. My life purpose now is to make atonement for what I have done by becoming a productive member of humanity.”
While incarcerated, Brown has earned his GED, obtained certifications in occupational training programs, and completed nearly all programming available to him at the prison. Along with participating in religious activities and various health seminars, his volunteer work includes planning community programs with organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Brown was also recently accepted into the Bard Prison Initiative, where he will take a full course load that culminates in a degree from Bard College.
According to Jones, Brown’s case highlights larger issues within the criminal justice system.
Kevin Jones ’25
“Camille, Matthew, and I had Professor Bennett Capers for Criminal Law, and one thing I remember him always saying was, ‘What is the purpose of the law and the criminal justice system? Are we just helping people and making them better, or are we just punishing and forgetting about them?’” Jones said. “Mr. Brown’s case, I think, answers the pinnacle of those questions, because this is someone who has lived more of his life behind bars than outside as a free man.”
To date, Hochul has granted clemency to 72 people since she first took office in 2021. However, there is no data in terms of how many clemency applications are being received or reviewed by the governor’s office, or transparency as to why or when clemency will be granted next by Hochul, according to Economos.
“Of the approximately 33,000 incarcerated individuals in New York State prisons, we have nearly 10,000 serving long-term life sentences, many of whom were convicted of crimes at a very young age,” Economos said. “We need to decarcerate people, especially people who are low risk, and look at the big picture, because we know the extreme expense of incarcerating people each year.” New York spent nearly $115,000 per year to incarcerate one person in state prisons, according to a 2022 report by the Vera Institute of Justice.
Winter said he has learned valuable lessons, legal and otherwise, “This case has taught me that there’s no reason to stop advocating when you’re given a loss by the legal system, such as a motion getting denied or a clemency application inquiry not being followed up. It’s been a great exercise in creativity and asking, ‘What other avenue can we explore and how do we do that?’ Not all of the attempts work, but there’s no stopping us, because we’re still going to see what we can do, no matter what, for Mr. Brown. It’s been a really fulfilling experience.”
A new team of students will take up Brown’s case during the fall 2024 semester, according to Noisette, “We are grateful for the efforts of the students over the past several months. We look forward to a new team continuing to advocate for a just outcome that recognizes Mr. Brown has been punished enough and should have the opportunity to demonstrate to the Parole Board he deserves to be released.”
To learn more about the Criminal Defense Clinic and Mr. Brown’s case, contact the clinic.
