OUR HISTORY

Background

In Washington State, actions taken over the past 35 years have caused our prison population to grow significantly, starting with the abolishment of parole in 1984. This was further compounded by the 1993 “Three Strikes” law, which resulted in overly harsh sentencing. In 1997, Washington enacted a weapons enhancement law that increased mandatory sentences and enhancements for crimes that involved the use of a weapon (regardless of whether anyone was actually injured). Finally, a concerning practice of sending juveniles to adult prison for life and long sentences also took hold in the early 1990s. All of these policy and legal changes have contributed to what we know as “mass incarceration.”

2016 Coffee Shop Encounter

SCP was started in 2016 by Jon Zulauf and Jennifer Smith, criminal defense attorneys with more than 50 years of experience combined. Jon was in a coffee shop mulling over a stack of letters that had been passed to him by the King County Prosecutor. They were letters from people serving life sentences who had exhausted all their appeals. They were last ditch pleas to the prosecutor’s office asking for some sort of help to not be forgotten in prison. Since, as a prosecutor, he couldn’t directly correspond with petitioners, he asked a defense lawyer, Jon Zulauf, to see if there was any solution. Jennifer, a colleague of Jon’s, walked into the coffee shop while Jon was reviewing the letters. This started a discussion and an idea was born.

Beginnings

Jon and Jen believed that the lack of legal representation to seek early release through clemency compounded the racial, economic and other inequities many face in the criminal justice system. They believed Washington’s legal community could create greater access to relief through clemency if they were willing serve as pro bono counsel on clemency cases. They weren’t sure how the legal community would respond to their call for volunteer lawyers, but they wanted to try and the Seattle Clemency Project was born. Fortunately, over 200 volunteer lawyers in Washington have engaged in SCP’s work.

Expansion

In 2018, in tandem with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), SCP expanded its work to include post-conviction relief for individuals facing deportation due to decades-old criminal convictions. That same year, SCP also expanded its pro bono legal support for individuals who were sentenced to life and long sentences when they were juveniles and are seeking early release through the juvenile board process.

In 2019, we created a Reentry & Mentoring Program to support our clients in their transition back to the community and to walk alongside them as they rebuild their lives.