This summer, Northeastern Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Clinic (CRRJ) the Center for Law, Equity and Race (CLEAR) and the Criminal Justice Task Force (CJTF) will welcome 19 intern students from across the country.
From June 5 until August 9, nine students will assist CRRJ in furthering several important projects and case investigations.
Jeanne Renee Gilliard (Temple ‘25) Gianna Grant (UChicago ‘24) and Fiorella Villacrés (NUSL ‘24) will work on CRRJ’s Redressing Racist Executions project.
Gilliard, a rising fourth year political science and sociology student at Temple University, will also be working on the case of John Goss, executed in North Carolina in 1923. Additionally, Gilliard will spend some time investigating a small docket of cases from Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee. She hopes to attend Northeastern University School of Law once she graduates.
“This summer, I’m looking forward to learning more about restorative justice practices, and the ways in which they can deeply impact individuals and communities,” said Gilliard.
I hope to support CRRJ’s goals while strengthening my understanding of the Jim-Crow era racial terror and its prevalence in contemporary society.”
Grant, a rising fourth year at the University of Chicago studying Human Rights and Political Science, will also provide restorative justice support and research several cases from Louisiana and Georgia.
She is interested in pursuing a career in either civil rights or human rights law. During her summer in Boston, Grant said she “hopes to learn more about legal research and how restorative justice practices can be used to address and repair past harms.”
Villacrés, a Northeastern Law LLM student from Ecuador, will also work on CLEAR’s City of Boston Reparations Project, and the center’s Federal Reparations Project.
She said conversations on race are often not as public or prominent as they are in the U.S. “I realize that there is much to change back home, and I am committed to contributing to those changes,” Villacrés said.
During my time here, I hope to contribute as much as I can to the project and to utilize the tools and knowledge, I acquire at Northeastern Law School to make a meaningful impact.”
Halle Snell (Vassar ‘25) is a rising senior studying political science and prison studies at Vassar College, will work on CLEAR’s Federal Reparations Project. Snell is also building files on 18 cases of racially motivated homicides in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia from 1930 to 1960..
“I was drawn to CRRJ’s work because I believe that the gaps in America’s historical narrative concerning racial violence must be rectified,” said Snell. “By contributing to CRRJ’s research, I hope to bring light to the stories of individuals whose lives were taken from them and learn how to facilitate restorative justice in a meaningful way.”
Upon graduating, Snell plans to attend law school and pursue a career as a public defender, civil rights lawyer, or immigration lawyer.
Kaitlyn Dehais (NUSL ‘26) a rising 2L student, will work part-time, researching and reviewing cases for the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive. Dehais is currently the Secretary of the Criminal Law Association, and an Associate Editor of the Northeastern University Law Review.
“I was drawn to work with the CRRJ because of my background in peace studies, and my interest in Civil Rights and Criminal Law,” she said.
About the Archive
The Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive houses case files and documents for more than 1,000 cases of racial homicides in the Jim Crow South. Co-founded by Melissa Nobles, professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Margaret Burnham, CRRJ director and professor of law at Northeastern, these uncovered stories highlight how violence affected lives, defined legal rights and shaped politics between 1930 and 1954.
Dahm Lee (NUSL ‘26) a 2L student from South Korea, will work part-time for CRRJ conducting research regarding intersectional identities in the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive, and providing support for posthumous exonerations work.
Lee believes that her work on posthumous exonerations will help her hone her legal skills and help her achieve her ambitions to become a prosecutor in the international criminal court.
Takiyah Gabby Watson (Vassar ‘27) a rising Political Science and Africana Studies sophomore at Vassar College, will spend the summer researching cases where executions resulted from rape charges. Watson will also investigate killings committed by police officers in Jackson, Missouri, and some cases from Mississippi.
In a recent interview, Watson said,
My hope is to better understand what it means to work in restorative justice, and the different ways that restorative justice can be accomplished.”
Julia Parham (Bates ‘25) a rising senior at Bates College, studying psychology and politics, will support CRRJ’s Racial Redress and Reparations Lab, and research cases from Miami, Florida.
“This summer, I hope to develop an understanding of the legal frameworks, practices and research skills required to work in the field of restorative justice,” said Parham. “Investigating cases from the Jim Crow-era provides me with a different outlook on harm, and the ways researchers can start to repair it through truth-telling,” she said.
Parham hopes her time at CRRJ will provide greater clarity on whether she will pursue a career in law after graduating.
Kayla Scott, a former high school U.S. History Teacher and 2L student at Howard University Law, will work with Sara Merlo, CRRJ’s Education Consultant, preparing documents and lesson plans, based on case information from the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive. It is hoped that this lesson series will bring the archive and the cases therein to History AP classrooms in North Carolina this fall.
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