Newark, N.J. – When the New Jersey Crime Victims’ Law Center decided to submit a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a conviction in a California murder case, it turned to Seton Hall University School of Law’s Center for Social Justice for assistance.

Seton Hall Law students Angela Kopolovich and Natalie Flores, under the direction of Professor Philip Ross, director of the Center’s Pro Bono Program, researched the pertinent case law and uncovered the justification to uphold the conviction.

The case, Carey v. Musladin, has important implications for crime victims, their families and the criminal justice system. Richard Pompelio, director of the New Jersey Crime Victims’ Law Center, explained that the brief also helps to ensure that the “victims of crime are given a voice.”

In 1995, Mathew Musladin was convicted and sentenced to no less than 32 years in prison for the murder of Tom Studer. He appealed that conviction on the grounds that his Sixth Amendment rights to a fair trial were violated when the Studer family appeared in court wearing buttons with a photo of Tom Studer. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his conviction, prompting the State of California to petition the Supreme Court to hear the case. The case is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court on October 12.

The amicus curie brief that Kopolovich and Flores worked on argues that in overturning the conviction, the Ninth Circuit incorrectly relied on its own precedent rather than Supreme Court precedent in interpreting the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. The federal courts in the country are currently split on the interpretation of this question and it is one of the primary reasons the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Additionally, the brief argues that victims play a very important role in the justice system and that the defendant’s rights in this case were not violated when family members of the victim wore buttons to the trial displaying a photograph of the deceased.

“It is very rare that a first-year law student gets the chance to make a difference of this magnitude,” said Kopolovich. “It is both exciting and an important reminder that being an attorney puts you in a position of great power and the way you choose to exercise that power defines you as a person.”
 

The only private law school in New Jersey, Seton Hall University School of Law was founded in 1951, and is located in the city of Newark. Seton Hall Law School offers both day and evening programs leading to the Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Laws (LL.M.) and Master of Science in Jurisprudence (M.S.J.) degrees. For more information on Seton Hall Law School, visit law.shu.edu.