CDPL is excited to welcome our new legal fellow, Peris Munene, who will share her talents with us full-time for the next year. She is a recent graduate of University of Notre Dame Law School. While there, she worked with the school’s Exoneration Justice Clinic and interned with the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. Her commitment to justice and equity made her a perfect fit.
At CDPL, Peris will assist attorneys with cases at the trial, appellate and post-conviction levels. She will also devote a significant chunk of her time to our public education efforts, helping spread the word that the death penalty is racist and unjust, in both its origins and its modern-day outcomes. She plans to host a dozen public events over the next year, as well as helping CDPL grow its social media footprint.
Here’s Peris in her own words:
My legal education and work experiences have been guided by a commitment to racial justice, with a strong focus on human rights. The death penalty is an affront to the criminal justice system and is recognized by other countries as a violation of human rights. My experience with the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic opened my eyes to the injustices wrongfully convicted individuals face at the hands of prosecutors, police officers, and other government officials. Whether innocent or guilty, every individual has human dignity and the right to life and no state or government has the right to take it.
My interest in joining The Center for Death Penalty Litigation stems from a shared commitment in advancing equity and challenging systemic barriers. I am excited by the fellowship position’s focus on litigation, providing ways to challenge the death penalty and hopefully eradicate the practice one case at a time. It is critical to also get involved in policy advocacy and CDPL has been instrumental on that front with their film Racist Roots. Sister Helen Prejean once said that increasing public education is essential because people cannot challenge a system they do not understand. I am privileged to have the opportunity through CDPL to host public education events and inform the community about the death penalty’s origins. Hopefully, together we can end capital punishment in North Carolina.