Notre Dame exoneration clinic frees its third client

After receiving a six-year sentence for causing a severe crash with a motorcyclist back in 2020, a woman is walking free thanks to the help of the Notre Dame Law School’s Exoneration Justice Clinic.

Her exoneration is the third the clinic has successfully achieved since it was established in 2020.

“Five years into the process, we’re beginning to see the hard work come to fruition with exonerations,” said Jimmy Gurulé, director of the clinic and a law professor at Notre Dame.

Kara Beaty was convicted for her role in the crash in August 2023. Just 18 years old at the time, Beaty had been driving through South Bend when her vehicle collided with a motorcyclist traveling in the opposite direction.

While at the hospital, Beaty submitted to a forensic blood draw, which showed she had marijuana in her system at the time, according to court documents. She was sentenced in October 2023.

At trial, an eyewitness for the prosecution testified that he was driving behind the motorcyclist when the crash occurred, and that the motorcyclist had been traveling about 30 miles per hour at the time.

Based on how far the motorcyclist was thrown upon impact, investigators gave a similar observation, determining the motorcycle was traveling between 37 to 42 miles per hour at the time of the crash.

But according to the Exoneration Justice Clinic, the evidence presented at trial didn’t tell the whole story.

Unseen evidence

According to Beaty’s appeals team, one crucial piece of evidence was not presented in full during the trial.

In the moments leading up to the crash, the motorcyclist had been broadcasting his ride on Facebook Live, court documents stated. An analysis of the landmarks seen in the video determined that the motorcyclist was likely traveling up to 100 miles per hour seconds before the crash.

That detail called into question the very conclusion that resulted in Beaty’s conviction: That the crash was her fault.

While the state introduced a much shorter recording of the video as evidence at trial, the full version was not shown to the jury. Beaty’s appeals team said this error could have been an oversight by Beaty’s attorney at the time, but the state should’ve also introduced the whole video as evidence.

Based on the evidence, the state, through St. Joseph County Prosecutor Ken Cotter, agreed to support the granting of an appeal bond to release Beaty from prison in order to pursue post-conviction relief.

Together with her appeals attorney, members of the clinic successfully litigated for Beaty’s post-conviction relief in March, and in mid-April, a judge dismissed her charges.

To establish a successful post-conviction relief appeal, Gurulé said Beaty’s team worked closely with the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office. Both clients the clinic has exonerated this school year have been with the agreement of prosecutors.

While an exoneration case typically takes a fair amount of time to evaluate and investigate, Beaty’s case moved quicker than most, mainly because her innocence hinged on whether she caused the crash, Gurulé said.

And in her case, evidence to prove her innocence was readily available.

“At the end of the day, we had a video of the motorcyclist from the night of the accident, from the time period leading up to the accident, which we believe was far more important and credible than what any claim an eyewitness would say about what they saw,” said Kevin Murphy, a staff attorney with the clinic.

Exoneration efforts

The Exoneration Justice Clinic receives hundreds of requests for representation from inmates, and the clinic wades carefully through each to determine which are feasible to pursue. While they usually receive letters directly from inmates, in Beaty’s case, the plea for help came from her parents.

When selecting clients to represent, Gurulé is the first to identify which requests show a claim of actual innocence. When actual innocence is presented, the clinic will send inmates a questionnaire to gather more information on their case.

Once approved for intake, the case is sent to Lenora Popken, the staff lawyer in charge of the intake process. Popken works directly with the clinic’s student intake teams, which perform more comprehensive, preliminary investigations of each case using court opinions, transcripts, and other sources of information to develop a recommendation memo on whether to accept the case for legal representation. Students investigate the cases on over a dozen objective factors, including the severity of the crime, the age of the offender, and their eligibility for parole.

The clinic not only provides potential freedom for clients but also crucial experiences for students at Notre Dame Law School. Drew Garden, a member of Beaty’s exoneration team, has worked on several cases before, but experienced a first in successfully exonerating Beaty.

He and other staff members said the experiences gained from the clinic are invaluable to students’ law school educations.

“Law school is very, very academic. I mean, you spend a lot of time reading old cases, you spend a lot of time learning doctrine,” Garden said. “It’s rare that you have any sense of the real human actors in these cases, because a lot of times, especially in your first year, you’re just concerned with abstract legal principles. And the clinic is sort of the counterbalance to that.”

After exonerating a client, the team works closely with the person as they re-enter society. When the team feels that the case is close to exoneration, they’ll give clients a questionnaire to identify their needs beyond the prison walls.

They then connect with community partners to give clients the necessary resources to take their next steps in re-entry.

“Most of our clients have spent literally decades in prison, and so when they’re released from prison, you can’t just pat them on the back and say, ‘Oh, congratulations. We’re so happy that your conviction has been vacated.’ Because what happens next?” Gurulé said.

Right now, Beaty is taking her own steps toward re-entry with the help of Gurulé and the team. While they celebrate her freedom, the clinic acknowledges how her imprisonment affected her.

“This accident happened before she had even graduated high school, and it really stole from her some crucial years of life and development that we all take for granted,” said Popken. “So she’s focused on moving forward and healing, and we know she’s going to have great success in her life, but we think it’s really important to acknowledge that this hurt her.”•