Signature Seminar Preview Lecture to Focus on Wrongful Convictions

Photo Submitted

“How do you know someone is innocent?” is a common question asked of Tiffany Murphy, a professor of law who serves as director of the Criminal Practice Clinic at the U of A.

As someone who has investigated numerous wrongful convictions, it’s a question she does not take lightly. “I don’t know,” she says, “I don’t have some divine knowledge; I just know to work the process.”

Murphy will discuss this process—investigating a client’s potential innocence, building their case and creating strategies for post-conviction remedies in her public lecture, “Wrongful Convictions,” which will be offered online via Zoom at 5:15 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 28.

Murphy’s lecture will preview her Fall 2022 Honors College Signature Seminar, Wrongful Convictions. Please fill out this online interest form to gain access to the lecture.

A Massive Puzzle

As technologies involved in legal cases have changed and evolved, more than 2,000 cases have been exonerated or overturned. Murphy has played an active role in this movement, taking on contested cases throughout the region. “It’s like a massive puzzle, and I get to be the investigator,” Murphy says.

Most recently, she represented Karl Fontenot, a 55-year-old Oklahoma man who was wrongfully convicted of robbery, murder and kidnapping in 1984.

Murphy began working on Fontenot's case while head of the Oklahoma Innocence Project and continued this work after coming to the U of A. With Murphy’s help, Fontenot was released in 2020, and in July 2021 the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately vacated his conviction, meaning that Fontenot’s case is out on appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Wrongful convictions hit everybody,” Murphy says. “They hit poor people, economically disadvantaged people and people with learning disabilities disproportionally more, but it can happen to anyone. Often, there might not even be a crime. False confessions and mistreated evidence can lead to mistrials and convictions that, for people like Fontenot, become 35-year-long mistakes. Most people don’t want to admit that they’ve made this radical of a mistake. No one likes to admit when they are wrong.”

Asking the Right Questions

Murphy plans to use case files and transcripts from wrongful conviction cases in her Honors College seminar. She claims that many of these cases start with an examination of the transcript, which is like “watching the trial in slow motion …When you are reading up on a case, you know something is wrong, but you don’t quite know what yet,” she says. “I hope to help us really look into why something is wrong.”

In order to find answers, Murphy attests to the importance of asking the right question. “There’s no such thing as a stupid question,” she says. Her approach, when teaching and advising, is to ask students, investigators and families what questions they have. Exploring answers to questions such as “How do you know?” better allows legal teams to openly and truthfully seek answers for clients. 

The idea of wrongful convictions often conjures up an image of a hotshot Hollywood lawyer, a lone hero conducting research and then wowing a courtroom with a passionate and moving speech. Murphy hopes to show students this is not the case: “It truly does take a village, a whole team,” she emphasizes. “I don’t do this in a vacuum.”

One crucial element of this teamwork comes in the follow-up after a wrongful conviction is overturned. “The exoneration is exciting, but that’s just the first step,” Murphy says. “Trying to get them reacclimated into society after they’ve been in for so long is a whole other story.” 

Murphy hopes to show, through the preview lecture and the corresponding class, that while this work can be deeply fulfilling, it’s also very frustrating. “There are hard days, there are days you need to take a walk…it’s important to remember this is a marathon, not a sprint.”

About Tiffany Murphy

Murphy serves as associate dean for academic affairs and directs the Criminal Practice Clinic at the U of A School of Law, where law students represent clients charged with misdemeanors and felonies in Northwest Arkansas. She continues to represent clients who have been wrongfully convicted. 

Murphy most recently taught at Oklahoma City University School of Law as a clinical professor and served as director of the Oklahoma Innocence Project. She also was a clinical professor and legal director of the Midwestern Innocence Project at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Prior to that, she practiced at the Federal Defender’s Office Capital Habeas Units in Philadelphia and Las Vegas.

Murphy’s research interests focus on the problems in protecting federal constitutional rights and actual innocence while pursuing post-conviction remedies. She holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Signature Seminars Explore Diverse Topics

Wrongful Convictions is one of three Honors College Signature Seminars scheduled for Fall 2022. Other topics to be explored include Climate Change: A Human History, taught by Ben Vining, an assistant professor of anthropology, and Extractions, taught by Toni Jensen, an associate professor in creative writing and indigenous studies.

Deans of each college may nominate professors to participate in this program, and those who are selected to teach will become Dean’s Fellows in the Honors College.

Honors students must apply to participate, and those selected will be designated Dean’s Signature Scholars. The course application is posted online on the Signature Seminars web page. The deadline to apply is Thursday, March 31.

About the Honors College: The University of Arkansas Honors College was established in 2002 and brings together high-achieving undergraduate students and the university’s top professors to share transformative learning experiences. Each year the Honors College awards up to 90 freshman fellowships that provide $72,000 over four years, and more than $1 million in undergraduate research and study abroad grants. The Honors College is nationally recognized for the high caliber of students it admits and graduates. Honors students enjoy small, in-depth classes, and programs are offered in all disciplines, tailored to students’ academic interests, with interdisciplinary collaborations encouraged.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas’ economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the top 3% of U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.