Defending the defenseless

By Winston Yu

In an ironic twist of fate, an admittedly guilty woman who escaped jail time now works to free people in jail for crimes they didn't commit.

As director of the Northern California Innocence Project, or NCIP, Santa Clara law professor Kathleen "Cookie" Ridolfi works to exonerate innocent individuals who have been convicted for crimes they didn't commit.

Ridolfi, who founded the NCIP, ran into trouble with the law 38 years ago. If she had been convicted and had received the maximum sentence of 47 years, Ridolfi would still be in prison.

"I was part of a group called the Catholic Left, which was a movement of largely nuns and priests and other Catholics of conscience," she said. "We took action to bring attention to the war in Vietnam and why it was morally wrong. We broke into a draft board, and I was arrested in August of 1971 for destroying draft files."

During the Vietnam War, draft boards were local branches of the Selective Service and housed offices as well as personnel files.

During her federal trial, in which she represented herself, Ridolfi admitted to the jury that she had committed the crimes.

"In my opening statement, I told them that I did everything the U.S. Attorney would tell them I did. I intended, over the course of the trial, to tell them why I did it and I hoped that by the end they would agree with me that what I did was necessary," she said.

Ridofli's gambit paid off. The jury failed to convict her and she was released.

"The jury in the end acquitted me, which amounts to jury nullification," she said. "Technically, I was guilty, but the jury decided to nullify the law, because under the circumstances, they felt we answered to a higher law."

Now, Ridolfi's NCIP offices are located in Loyola Hall. Although its offices are on campus, the school can only provide limited support for the project.

"The university provides in-kind services, like a work space and some funding," Ridolfi said. "But we are largely dependent on private donations, which is sad because we're doing state work. Innocent people in prison have only us to turn to."

Since the NCIP began nine years ago, it has successfully exonerated eight individuals with the help of student volunteers and its professional legal staff.

"It's a very good success rate," Ridolfi said.

To fight the conviction, Ridolfi and her team must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that their client did not commit the crime he or she is accused of.

Ridolfi has established a career fighting injustice through the legal system.

She has been teaching for 18 years, and was a public defender for eight years. Ridolfi has also worked with the Women's Self-Defense Law Project.

Without her run-in with the law, Ridolfi may never have become who she is today.

As a result of that experience, she began to see the "power of the courtroom as a place for bringing critical social issues to the public" as well as the power of a jury.

The system though, as Ridolfi described it, is very imbalanced.

"It's very frustrating when you know that you have a case where something very unfair happened and you can't right that wrong," she said. "It's very common. But when you can change somebody's life, it makes it all worthwhile."

Ridolfi said, "There's nothing more rewarding than walking an innocent man out of prison after he's spent 20 years in prison."

The NCIP is a local branch of the Innocence Project.

In the end, Ridolfi is extremely proud of the project and the fact that it works right here.

"Santa Clara deserves to have this program and the program deserves to have Santa Clara," she said. "This is social justice in living form, and it's completely consistent with our mission."

Contact Winston Yu at (408) 554-4546 or wyu1@scu.edu.

_opt6.jpg