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IU SCHOOL OF LAW-INDIANAPOLIS STUDENTS HELP FREE INMATE THROUGH DNA TESTING

INDIANAPOLIS - Through the efforts of IU School of Law-Indianapolis law Professor Fran Hardy and students in her Criminal Defense Clinic course at IUPUI, Larry Mayes is a free man after 21 years in prison.

State Public Defender Susan Carpenter appointed Professor Hardy as pro bono counsel for Mayes. Hardy worked on the case with the help of four students, Todd Ess, Edward Queen, Alicia Corder and Darlene Seymour.

Mayes, who had been convicted of several acts, including rape, was released on Dec. 21, 2001. Hardy and her students filed the petition for post-conviction relief that requested DNA testing in Mayes' case. In their petition, they cited I.C. 35-38-7, the Indiana law that went into effect last July and strengthened Indiana inmates' rights to DNA testing and analysis. After DNA testing exonerated Mayes, Judge Richard Maroc of Lake Superior Court signed the court papers ordering his release.

"The students just did a great job," said Professor Hardy.

The class was part of a national program, The Innocence Network, an offshoot of The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law located in New York City. The project's mission is to assist prisoners who can be exonerated through DNA testing of crime scene evidence. Law faculty and students at Cardozo School of Law referred the Mayes case to the Indianapolis law school which participates in The Innocence Network.

Mayes is the third Indiana man to be released as a result of DNA testing, according to records compiled by The Innocence Project.

"The real-world experience that our students acquire in clinical education is even more significant when their efforts establish the innocence of an imprisoned person. I am very proud of the work of Professor Hardy and our students," said Norman Lefstein, dean of the IU School of Law-Indianapolis.

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