John M. Copacino, Director & Professor of Law

Professor Copacino is Director of the Criminal Justice Clinic and Co-Director of the E. Barrett Prettyman graduate fellowship program in criminal trial practice and advocacy. Prior to joining the Georgetown Law faculty, he was the Director of the Juvenile Law Clinic at the Antioch School of Law. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia Law School and received an LL.M. as a Prettyman Fellow from the Law Center. In the District of Columbia, he continues to serve as trial counsel in numerous criminal and post-conviction cases. He remains active in local criminal justice organizations and regularly participates in local and national training programs for criminal defense lawyers. In 1997, he received the Law Center’s Flegal Award for outstanding teaching.

Vida B. Johnson, Deputy Director

Professor Johnson, prior to joining Georgetown University Law Center, was a supervising attorney in the Trial Division at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS), where she worked for eight years. At PDS Ms. Johnson was assigned to the most serious cases at the “Felony One” level, and her experience included numerous trials in D.C. Superior Court representing indigent clients facing charges including homicide, sexual assault, and armed offenses. Ms. Johnson’s responsibilities at PDS also included supervising other trial attorneys and serving as one of the agency’s two representatives to the D.C. Superior Court Sentencing Guidelines Commission. In 2009, Ms. Johnson was a Visiting Associate Professor in the Juvenile Justice Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center. Before joining PDS, Professor Johnson was an E. Barrett Prettyman fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. As a fellow she represented indigent adults in the D.C. Superior Court and supervised students in the Criminal Justice Clinic. Ms. Johnson earned her law degree from New York University Law School in 2000 and she earned her B.A. in American History from the University of California, Berkeley in 1995.

Seana Holland, Investigations Supervisor

Seana is the Investigations Supervisor and Director of the Investigative Internship Program. She received a B.A. in Criminal Justice and Public Policy from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Seana went on to spend seven years working as a Staff Investigator at the DC Public Defender Service, investigating serious felony cases on behalf of indigent clients. Seana has also worked as an investigator at private law firms in the Washington, DC area and spent two years as the Program Director at Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop, a nonprofit that works with juveniles charged in the adult justice system.

Luna Garzón-Montano, E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow

Luna was born and raised in New York City. She received her J.D. in 2021 from Fordham Law School, where she was a Stein Scholar in Public Interest Law and Ethics and co-president of the student public defense organization. For her involvement in public service while at Fordham, Luna was awarded the Feingold Family Prize in Public Service. Luna spent her law school summers at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Department of Public Defense in Seattle, Washington. For four years prior to law school, Luna worked as a paralegal on capital direct appeals with Federal Defenders of New York, and as a client advocate with the Center for Appellate Litigation. Luna received her B.A. in American Studies from Vassar College in 2014.

Jordan Crunkleton, E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow

Jordan Crunkleton is a fellow in the Criminal Justice Clinic. She received her J.D. from GW Law in 2022, focusing her studies and work experience on indigent criminal defense. At GW Law, Jordan served as a student attorney in the Criminal Defense and Justice Clinic, a screener for the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, and president of GW’s Street Law chapter, where she taught “Know Your Rights” workshops to kids in DC. During law school, Jordan worked as the lead researcher for stop-and-frisk issues at DC Justice Lab, a legal intern at the Office of the Federal Public Defender for DC in the appellate division, and a law clerk at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia in the special litigation and trial divisions.