Read the full interview by Kaitlyn Laibe with Zoe on the Law, Societies, & Justice news page. Start reading below…
From occupying student government offices, to contributing to international human rights law development, to representing incarcerated folks, LSJ students at UW have a far-reaching impact. In talking with Zoe Fielden, a 2019 UW graduate, I learned that LSJ alums are no different.
When Zoe Fielden graduated, she had already worked with the Seattle Clemency Project (SCP), a local non-profit dedicated to providing relief for incarcerated individuals who are serving lengthy sentences. During her time at SCP, Zoe was introduced to post-conviction work. She observed how, just like SCP, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was an active participant in many of the re-sentencing and early-release cases Zoe was working on. This provided her a unique view into how both the defense and prosecuting teams collaborated in some early-release cases. While she was familiar with the defense side, it was Zoe’s first look into “the considerations that the prosecuting attorney has to make and their role within the justice system.”
When Zoe accepted a job with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, she would come to learn even more about the prosecutorial role in re-sentencing cases. Shortly after Zoe joined the team, Dan Satterberg’s Sentencing Review Unit (SRU) was established. The purpose of the SRU was to harmonize past practices with a modern approach to justice. In doing so, the unit hoped to address harm experienced by communities most impacted by tough on crime policies. On the day-to-day, this manifested as reviewing Washington state cases where individuals received a lengthy sentence that no longer served the purpose of justice. As a paralegal in the unit, Zoe spends most of her time reviewing requests for pardons, clemency, and re-sentencing. This work involves reviewing trial records, court documents, and post-conviction information, such as an individual’s disciplinary and rehabilitative record in prison. In addition, the unit considers whether the person would have been charged or sentenced differently today, as well as how the person’s age, physical, or mental health may mitigate the risk they would pose to society.
The unit’s work does not stop there…
