2019 Annual Report (5)

Counsel)
Relationship: Stephanie and Kim
The Tennessee Innocence Project (TIP) was founded in 2019 to prevent and correct wrongful convictions throughout the
State of Tennessee. TIP litigates wrongful conviction cases for those in TN prisons to obtain exonerations, trains law
students and attorneys about how to litigate these cases and prevent future wrongful convictions, and effectuates changes
that facilitates the discovery of wrongful convictions and remedies the wrongfully convicted.
Tennessee?s criminal justice system poses a unique set of issues, as the state has seen only 21 exonerations. Lack of
funding for attorneys litigating wrongful convictions have made it nearly impossible for an inmate in Tennessee to prove
their innocence with the necessary resources. After many years as a volunteer-based group with rooted partnerships with
Tennessee universities and law programs, the Tennessee Innocence Project debuted in 2019 as a stand-alone 501(c)3
nonprofit. The Schooner Foundation provided $1 million in seed funding over five years ($200,000 per year) and
Stephanie serves on the Board. Tennessee Innocence Project just held a very successful inaugural fundraising dinner with
author John Grisham.
Yale Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic | New Haven, CT
Current Grant Commitment: $100,000 per year for 3 years, 2018-2020, $300,000 total
Total Granted to Date: $200,000 SF Grantee Since: 2018
Faculty Leaders: Michael Wishnie, Muneer Ahmad, Marisol Orihuela, & Reena Parikh Relationship: Vin and Carla
In 2018, Schooner Foundation granted a gift of $100,000. SF is providing continued support that allows WIRAC to acquire
the necessary resources needed to reshape the public debate around the DACA program and persuade one of the five
conservative Supreme Court justices to swing the other way. They receive soft funding from the Yale Law School.
Students working in the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic (WIRAC) represent immigrants, low-wage workers,
and their organizations in labor, immigration, criminal justice, civil rights, and other matters. The clinic aims to create the
next generation of leaders who take what they learned from their unique experience at the law school and carry that out to
create real world change.
The Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic has anywhere between 30 and 40 students working at a time along
with the three co-founding faculty and one teaching fellow. The curriculum of WIRAC encourages students to take their
experience and knowledge out into the world and in doing so, the clinic has produced several prolific leaders. A large
portion of their success can be attributed to WIRAC?s incredibly diverse student body; it is comprised of students who are
or come from immigrant backgrounds, were dreamers and now are students, and who are people of color.
Impact and Successes
- In 2019, WIRAC took one of their cases to the Supreme Court, Batalla Vidal v. McAleenan; this case was the first
case to protest against the DACA termination and is one of three that the Supreme Court decided to hear that
challenges the discontinuance of the DACA program for Dreamers.
- The year of 2018 brought about a whole host of successes in areas including family separation litigation, family
detention, DREAMer advocacy, immigration detention, the Muslim Ban, and deportation defense.
- WIRAC won the first lawsuit in the country brought on behalf of the children, rather than the parents, forcibly
separated under the ?zero tolerance? policy in the cases of J.S.R. v. Sessions & V.F.B. v. Sessions.
- Students in the clinic successfully appealed the termination of DACA and are working to argue against the
government?s appeal of the injunction in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
- Continued its representation of United We Dream (the largest organization advocating for immigrant justice in the
US), helping advocate for and draft the most progressive DREAM Act to be introduced in Congress.
- WIRAC has also defended and prevented the deportation of two individual clients.
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