Casey Atkins

Using the Law as a Tool for Social Change

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:35:58 +0000

Bob and Ann Seidman have been working at BU Law since 1976 and teaching in the law since long before that. Throughout their careers they worked in over 30 different countries always concentrating on the same goal: using the law to bring about democratic social change.

Examining Occupy Boston

admin — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:56:09 +0000

On a drizzly October morning, approximately 50 LL.M. students trudged through a maze of rain-soaked tarps and cardboard signs in a makeshift camp nestled in the middle of the financial district in downtown Boston… Read more

The Salvati Case

admin — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 04:43:54 +0000

Framed for a murder he didn’t commit, Joseph Salvati spent 30 years behind bars. Two BU Law School graduates, Victor Garo and Dan Rea, teamed up and worked for years on the case trying to prove Mr. Salvati’s innocence and secure his release.

“I thought it was an interesting conjunction of my training as a lawyer and my practice as a journalist which came together,” said Rea, who covered the story on WBZ TV but also helped to discover new evidence.

Garo, who took on the case pro bono, estimates he’s invested well over 30,000 hours of his free time. “I’ve never charged a penny for it because it was something that I believed in,” he said.

- video by Hawkes Media Group
- news clips courtesy of WBZTV
- music by Kevin Macleod
- photos and production by Casey Atkins

Haiti Sings

admin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:23:47 +0000

During the summer of 2010, three BU Law students, Valerie Kua, Mark Goracke and Julia Gregoire, interned with a non-profit called Internet Bar Organization to work on a project called Haiti Sings. The project’s goal was to teach Haitian musicians about their legal rights while helping them to showcase their talent over the internet. The students helped prepare training packages for the musicians and Gregoire traveled with the team to Haiti to teach a legal workshop and help with French translation.

“I was just really excited about the project and the idea of actually doing something,” said Gregoire. “In as little as one to two weeks we had found all these people, auditioned 60 people, recorded 20, taught them marketing skills and legal rights, met their extended families, videotaped biographies of them and then put them on the internet and shared them with the world.”

for more information go to www.peacetones.org

- photos and video by Ruha Devanesan and Valerie Schenkman
- music by Bill Nathan, Mackyr, Ester Robuste, Wanito and Leon Eddy
- interviews and production by Casey Atkins

Actual Innocence

admin — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 04:53:48 +0000

We tend to think that if someone has been convicted of a crime it means they’re guilty, but in recent years DNA testing has proven that their are more innocent people in prison than previously thought. The Innocence Project, an organization which helps to exonerate wrongfully convicted prisoners, estimates there to be more than 20,000 innocent people in the U.S. who are currently in jail. The problem is, once someone has been convicted of a crime it’s very difficult to have that conviction overturned.

The New England Innocence Project (modeled after the original Innocence Project in New York) works with law school students to try and help those who have been wrongfully convicted. The students, under the supervision of their professors, read through the prisoners’ applications for legal assistance as well as many other documents to try and determine whether the case can be taken on by the organization.

“It’s great way for students to really make an impact. It’s something that you don’t have to have passed the bar to do,” says Arielle Kristan (‘09), a BU Law School student who worked with the organization during the spring semester of her 3L year. “They may have studied criminal law and criminal procedure and professional responsibility and trial advocacy,” says Prof. Stanley Fisher, who supervises the BU students who work with the project, “But the value of working on a particular case is that they get to see every aspect of a case from the beginning to end. So, they are reading the police reports, they’re reading the transcript of a probable cause hearing, they’re reading the transcript of motions to suppress and the trial transcripts.” Prof. Fisher says he believes that despite the educational value, the most important part for students is really just the idea of trying to help someone.

Common Cathedral

admin — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 03:15:01 +0000

Common Cathedral is a church service held every Sunday on the Boston Common rain or shine. The service is geared towards homeless people, providing them with a free lunch, but is open to anyone who wants to attend. Volunteers help to pass out sandwiches and juice beforehand and during the service anyone who wants to can get up and speak.

21.03.10 – Volunteers from the United Methodist Church in Westford, MA distribute sandwiches to people in line at the Common Cathedral.

21.03.10 – Dennis Pryor stands in line along with many other homelss people to receive a free lunch from volunteers for the Ecclesia Ministries Common Cathedral.

21.03.10 – Volunteers and join in on the church service during the Common Cathedral.

21.03.10 – During the Common Cathedral service, members of the congregation are encouraged to stand in the middle of the circle and speak to the group about their problems.

21.03.10 – After the service, people attending the Common Cathedral on the Boston Common shake hands and hug saying "Peace be with you."

21.03.10 – Rev. Steven Maki distributes bread to those wishing to take communion during the Common Cathedral church service on Boston Common.

21.03.10 – TJ Tetzlaff (left), an intern with the Ecclesia Ministries, distrbutes communion to Eddie Hoit ( right) and others attending the Common Cathedral on Boston Common.

21.03.10 – Bill Meehan (center with banjo) leads people in song at various points throughout the Common Cathedral church service on Boston Common.

21.03.10 – Kevin Howard (left) and Frankie Hampshire (right) hold hands along with others in large circle formed by participants of the Common Cathedral on Boston Common. Howard says he has been attending for the past ten years.

21.03.10 – Frankie Hampshire (center) helps to clean up after the Common Cathedral church service on Boston Common by taking down the cross.

Women in the Rabbinate

admin — Sun, 23 May 2010 19:14:21 +0000

The roles of women in religion have changed dramatically throughout the 20th century. In many religions today it has become much more widely accepted for women to take on a pastoral role than it was even 50 years ago. The first female rabbi in America was ordained in 1972 and today, in some movements of Judaism, female rabbinical students make up the majority of their classes. This piece takes a look at the changing roles of women in Judaism and what impact this will have on the future of the religion

Boston University Army ROTC

admin — Sun, 23 May 2010 18:15:05 +0000

In the spring of their junior year, cadets in Boston University’s ROTC program participate in a weekend-long field training exercise at Fort Devens, Mass. The juniors lead the lower ranking cadets in through a series of scenarios designed to evaluate their leadership skills.

17.04.10 – Tyler Mallon (center) secures a possible enemy combatant during an ROTC field training weekend at Fort Devens, MA. Over the course of the weekend the cadets are put through a number of different scenarios, some of which deal with tactics and some of which require the cadets to respond to various problems.

04.17.10 – Tyler Mallon (left) gives instructions to other cadets during an ROTC field training weekend at Fort Devens, MA. As a junior, Mallon is required to lead his squad through one of the scenarios as part of his evaluation.

17.04.10 – An instructor observes cadets during an ROTC field training weekend at Fort Devens, MA. The cadets take turns leading their squad through a number of different scenarios while instructors watch and evalute them on their technique and leadership skills.

18.04.10 – During an ROTC field training weekend at Fort Devens, MA, cadets wake up at 4:00 AM after going to bed at midnight or later. This night they had lucked out and were able to sleep in baracks. The previous night all of them slept out in the middle of a field in the rain.

18.04.10 – Tyler Mallon (left) and Sean Rabe (right) wolf down their breakfast as the fog lifts around them on their third day at an ROTC field training weekend at Fort Devens, MA. A hot meal is a welcome treat as the cadets are often eating packaged ready to eat meals called MREs.

18.04.10 – Tyler Mallon (right) consults with Sean Rabe (left) on the mission they have been assigned to carry out during an ROTC field training weekend at Fort Devens, MA.

18.04.10 – During an ROTC field training weekend at Fort Devens, MA, cadets hit the ground as an instructor sets off a small explosion meant to simulate a bomb. Over the course of the weekend the cadets are required to carry out many tactical scenarios, but after giving them their orders, instructors usually have a few more surprised planned along the way.

18.04.10 – Tyler Mallon, a junior at Boston University studying advertising, contracted into the army ROTC program before he even got to BU. He comes from a military family and is considering staying in the army longer than the four years required for his contract.

18.04.10 – Tyler Mallon catches a few minutes of sleep on the van ride after an ROTC training weekend at Fort Devens, MA. Going sometimes on less than 3 hours of sleep a night, Mallon and other cadets might spend up to 12 hours a day running through rain soaked woods carrying out tactical scenarios.

18.04.10 – Tyler Mallon (left) and other cadets spend hours cleaning rifles after an ROTC field training weekend at Fort Devens, MA. The weapons get dirty from being fired over the course of the weekend and have to be disassebled, cleaned meticulously and then approved by an instructor. One year they cadets stayed to clean weapons until 2:00 AM.

Scooter Dude

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:43:01 +0000

Richard Coit is 56 years old and on windy days he goes down to the area around the John Hancock tower in Boston, and using a scooter and a makeshift sail he allows the wind to propel him through the streets.

In Achord

admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:33:24 +0000