Vanessa Potkin

Vanessa Claire Potkin is an American attorney, the director of special litigation at the Innocence Project, and an adjunct professor at Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. Alongside co-founders Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, Potkin helped develop a model of post-conviction DNA litigation that has led to the exoneration of over 200 innocent people. She is believed to have directly contributed, through legal counsel, to more exonerations than any other individual attorney in the United States.
==Early Life==
Potkin was born in 1974 in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Laurel Potkin and Ralph Potkin. Her father, Ralph Potkin, is a pulmonologist in Los Angeles and her mother, Laurel Potkin, founded Pike Place Cinema in Seattle, Washington.Commisso, Erica (April 5, 2018). "For 17 Years, Vanessa Potkin Has Been Exonerating The Wrongly Imprisoned. The Establishment.
Potkin grew up in Seattle, Washington and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 13. She graduated from Beverly Hills High School and earned her B.A. from Columbia University in 1995 and her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Columbia Law School in 2000.
During her time at Columbia University, she was a Lowenstein Fellow and civil rights intern at Cochran, Neufeld & Scheck, where she worked on federal civil rights litigation filed on behalf of victims of police brutality, including Louima v. City of New York."Workshop on Data, Courts, and Systems of Supervision and Justice: Speaker Biosketches". The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine: Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences Education. Retrieved January 5, 2023.
As an undergraduate, Potkin also received a grant to work with Congresswoman Maxine Waters and was exposed to the deep inequities created and exacerbated by the war on drugs. 
==Notable Cases==
In 2002, Marvin Anderson was granted a full pardon after serving 20 years on rape, abduction, sodomy, and robbery charges. Anderson was convicted in December 1982, when he was just 18 years old. In 1994, Anderson contacted the Innocence Project and his case was accepted. In 2001, the Innocence Project obtained DNA from the crime scene that was found in the laboratory notebook of a criminalist who performed conventional serology in 1982. The DNA was tested and ultimately excluded Anderson as the perpetrator. Contributing causes to Anderson’s false conviction included eyewitness misidentification, government misconduct and inadequate defense. 
Six years later, in 2008, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer were both exonerated after spending over a decade in prison for the murders of two young girls in Noxubee, Mississippi. Both Brooks and Brewer were falsely convicted based on faulty bite mark evidence. Brooks received a life sentence in 1992, and Brewer was charged with capital murder and put on death row in 1995. Their exonerations exposed issues with autopsies and forensic oversight in the state of Mississippi and the shortcomings of bite mark comparison evidence. 
In Louisiana, Malcolm Alexander was released from prison and his indictment was dismissed in 2018. Alexander served 38 years in prison for a rape that DNA evidence later proved he did not commit. Alexander was falsely convicted due to an ineffective trial lawyer and flawed eyewitness identification. Anderson’s attorney failed to make an opening statement, did not call on any witness for the defense, failed to adequately cross-examine the state’s witnesses, as well as presented a closing argument that was only four pages of the 87-page transcript. Anderson’s attorney was later disbarred.
In the winter of 2020, Termaine Hicks was exonerated after the Philadelphia Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) joined Potkin and the Innocence Project’s motion to vacate his conviction. Hicks was wrongly convicted of a 2001 rape in a case riddled with police misconduct and corruption. 
On January 27th, 2021, Rosa Jimenez was released on bond after nearly 18 years in prison. Immediately upon her release, Jimenez was taken into custody by ICE. Potkin, her attorney, along with other representatives, contacted ICE and the Mexican consulate and successfully negotiated her release. Jimenez was arrested in 2005 and charged with the murder of a 21-month-old who was in her care at the time. In 2003, the child had choked on paper towels and subsequently died. Jimenez’s conviction was due to false and misleading testimony as well as faulty medical evidence. Upon her conviction, Jimenez, who was pregnant with her second child, was forced to give birth in prison. 
In 2021, Muhammed Aziz and Khalil Islam were exonerated after each spending over 20 years in prison. Aziz and Islam were falsely convicted of the murder of Malcolm X in 1965.
Potkin was involved in the reinvestigation of Aziz’s conviction, which uncovered compelling evidence that proved Aziz’s innocence that had been known to the FBI and NYPD but had been hidden from the defense at trial.
On April 25th, 2022, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued Melissa Lucio a stay of execution and ordered the 138th Judicial District Court to consider new evidence regarding her 2008 death-row conviction. In 2007, Lucio’s daughter, Mariah, accidentally fell down a flight of stairs. Two days later, she was unable to wake up from a nap and was later pronounced dead. Only two hours after her death, Lucio was brought into custody for a five-hour long interrogation. After hours of interrogation and coercion, combined with the shock and stress Lucio was under, she said, “I guess I did it.” The prosecution took this statement as a confession to murder. Lucio’s case was founded upon a coerced confession and false scientific evidence that framed Mariah’s death as a murder. Potkin will represent Lucio in a new trial to show that Lucio’s initial conviction was based on faulty evidence and police coercion.
==Media Presence==
In April 2001, Potkin was interviewed by Time magazine regarding James Harvey’s case. In the interview, Potkin discussed how Harvey’s case was the first time a federal court recognized the constitutional right to access DNA even post-conviction. “If this were a pre-conviction trial, it would be obvious to everyone that the defendant has the right to his own DNA testing and materials. So shouldn't it be common sense that we should extend that right to a post-conviction scenario? How can it not be helpful to correct the mistake of imprisoning an innocent person?” Potkin was quoted saying.Reaves, Jessica (April 17, 2001) "A Decision on DNA Evidence Set to Change Legal Landscape" Time. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
Potkin participated in a podcast produced by Jason Flom in 2016 titled Wrongful Conviction. Alongside Barry Scheck, Potkin explored the case of Barry Gibbs, who was framed for the murder a NYPD officer had committed. Mr. Gibbs’ case exposed a string of murders by certain members of the NYPD — otherwise referred to as “The Mafia Cops” — on behalf of an organized crime family.
Potkin was an executive producer, along with Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, of ABC’s documentary series The Last Defense. The Last Defense examines flaws within the United States criminal legal system through the cases of Darlie Routier and Julius Jones, who, at the time, were on death row.
In 2020, Potkin was featured in the Netflix documentary series, The Innocence Files, as counsel for Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer in Mississippi. The Innocence Files is a true crime miniseries based on the work of the Innocence Project.
In November 2021, Potkin was featured in a New York Times article titled, Exoneration Is “Bittersweet” for Men Cleared in Malcolm X’s Murder, covering the exoneration of Muhammed A. Aziz and his co-defendant, Khalil Islam, on which Potkin served as co-counsel to Barry Scheck. In it, Potkin was quoted saying, “We still have a system that works to oppress some and protects others. What would the world be if this assassination had not taken place? What would Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam’s lives have been if the last 55 years had not been robbed from them or their families?”Bromwich, Jonah E., Southall, Ashley, and Closson, Troy (November 21, 2021). "Exoneration Is ‘Bittersweet’ for Men Cleared in Malcolm X’s Murder" The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
==Recognition==
In 2002, Potkin was a finalist for the Trial of The Year award, recognizing attorneys working on behalf of individuals who have suffered injustice. "Trial Lawyers Doing Public Justice" Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
In 2007, Potkin was recognized for her Outstanding Contribution to the Bar and Community by the New York State Bar Association."Criminal Justice Selection Awards" New York State Bar Association. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
In 2008, Potkin received the Thurgood Marshall Award on behalf of the New York City Bar Association. The award recognizes outstanding criminal practitioners dedicated to civil rights.
In 2021, Potkin was an honoree of the Southern Justice Award, which recognized her transformative work for criminal legal reform in the South. Kayembe, Astrid (November 19, 2021) "Southern Justice Summit Awards Ceremony honors Ben Crump and Vanessa Potkin" Memphis Commercial Appeal. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
Category:1974 births
Category:People from Chicago, Illinois
Category:American people
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:Attorneys
Category:Adjunct professor