Harvard Law Interns Aiding Death-Row Inmate Detained by Sheriff, Suit Says

Two Harvard law students working as legal interns on behalf of a Texas death-row inmate were stopped by sheriff’s deputies and ticketed for criminal trespassing after they tried to interview a corrections officer at home, a lawsuit alleges.

The students, who were interning with the Texas Defender Service during their winter break, were trying to gather evidence supporting a claim by inmate Willie Pondexter that he deserved clemency because he has been a model inmate, the Associated Press reports.

The civil rights suit (PDF) claims the sheriff and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice harassed Pondexter and tried to interfere with clemency efforts, the AP story says.

The law students were pulled over by Polk County deputies on Jan. 17 and told to drive to the sheriff’s office, according to the suit. After they got there, they were ticketed and warned that if they returned to the property of the corrections officer “there would be a '99 percent chance' that the officers would lock them in jail," the suit says.

After the incident, the suit claims, corrections officers "knowing Mr. Pondexter to be especially concerned about hygiene, removed his sheets, wiped them across the floor and walls and replaced them on his bed."

The suit, filed in federal court in Tyler, Texas, is on appeal after a judge’s ruling that he didn’t have jurisdiction. Pondexter is on death row for the murder of an 85-year-old woman more than 15 years ago.

Pondexter's lawyer, David Dow, told AP that he was surprised by the interns’ treatment.

"It would be a traumatic experience for anybody," Dow told the wire service. "We didn't prepare them for that because that honestly never happened to any of our interns before. We prepare them for a lot of things, but that was not on the list."