Justice For Cause Project
We assist in examining and analyzing claims of innocence, claims for wrongful conviction, and cases of extreme injustice. We provide expert analysis, jury research, witness research, strategic appellate advice and research, and trial level advice and research, often on a pro bono basis. We work with attorneys representing people who have been wrongfully convicted or suffered extreme injustice to provide research, support, and analysis. We also advocate for criminal justice reforms that seek to make the justice system more accurate, more fair, and more just.
Jim’s Cases include:
State vs Alan Gell
Acting as pro bono counsel, Jim led a team that secured a new trial for Alan Gell after discovering substantial evidence of Alan’s innocence that had not been disclosed by the State. In response to a Motion for Appropriate Relief detailing this evidence, and for the the first time in North Carolina history, a Superior Court set aside a murder conviction and sentence of death without an evidentiary hearing. Jim then served as co-counsel in Alan’s retrial. During the trial, he presented first of its kind expert evidence in the fields of forensic anthropology, reverse interior environmental engineering, and forensic entomology. A Jury then acquitted Alan Gell. Alan because the 113th person in the United States who was exonerated after being tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.
State vs Reade Seligmann
Reade Seligmann was one of the wrongfully accused players in the now-infamous “Duke Lacrosse Cases.” Working with a team of lawyers representing the other accused players, Jim helped to expose prosecutorial misconduct by the District Attorney. The misconduct led to the disbarment and removal of the District Attorney, a dismissal of all charges against the wrongfully-charged players, and a declaration of their innocence by the Attorney-General of North Carolina.
State vs Daryl Howard
Acting as pro bono counsel with the New York-based Innocence Project, Jim worked alongside Barry Scheck and Seema Saifee to free Darryl Howard from prison 20 years after his wrongful conviction based on new DNA analysis. The new DNA analysis, when combined with the forensic evidence at the scene, and admissions by a convicted felon who was a “cold hit” on the CODIS analysis from the new DNA, freed Darryl from prison and led to a Pardon of Innocence from the Governor of North Carolina for Darryl.
In re Greg Newman
In 2021, Jim was appointed by Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin as Independent Counsel for the purposes of conducting a Removal Proceeding of the District Attorney for Judicial District 29B. Jim led a team that presented the evidence to the Court which demonstrated that the District Attorney committed numerous willful violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct, violations that resulted in his removal from office. This was only the third time in the history of North Carolina that a District Attorney had been removed from office at such a proceeding.c..