Vida B. Johnson,  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.

John M. Copacino, Co-Director & Professor of Law

Professor Copacino is Co-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.

Amanda K. Rogers, Professor of Law

Amanda K. Rogers is a Visiting Professor at Georgetown Law School, teaching and supervising in the Criminal Justice Clinics. Previously, Professor Rogers directed and started the Caritas Clemency Clinic at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. She and her students represented incarcerated individuals seeking release from prison through compassionate release. She litigated cases in federal district courts across the country, including Alabama, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas and the Virgin Islands. Prof. Rogers began her criminal defense career with Georgetown Law’s Prettyman fellowship. After the fellowship, Prof. Rogers joined the Public Defender Service as a trial attorney representing both adults and children charged with serious felonies in D.C. Superior Court. By the end of her tenure, she was a supervising attorney and served on PDS’ forensic practice group, which trained and supervised lawyers involved in forensic science litigation.

Lauren VonWiegen, Investigations Supervisor

Lauren is the Investigations Supervisor and Director of the Investigative Internship Program. She received a B.A. in Criminal Justice from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lauren went on to spend nearly seven years working as an Investigative Specialist at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where she investigated both pre-trial serious felony cases and worked as a Defense Victim Outreach Specialist on IRAA cases.

Miriam Thorne, E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow

Miriam Thorne grew up in Washington, DC and received her law degree from New York University Law School (NYU). At NYU, Miriam served as a law clerk in the Federal Defender Clinic and a student attorney in the Juvenile Defense Clinic. During her law school summers, Miriam interned at the Promise of Justice Initiative in New Orleans, where she worked on civil rights cases, and at the Colorado State Public Defender, where she practiced as a student defense attorney. In recognition of her clinical work, Miriam was awarded NYU’s Jim Goldfarb Criminal Defense Award. Prior to law school, Miriam worked as an investigator for five years in DC, first at the Children’s Law Center and then at the Public Defender Service for DC. She received her B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.

Kevin Steward, E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow

Kevin Steward grew up in northern New Jersey and received his law degree from University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, interned at the East Bay Community Law Center in the Decriminalizing Poverty unit and during his 3L year, he was a student in the Death Penalty Clinic. During his law school summers, Kevin was a law clerk at Alameda County Public Defender’s Office and at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. Prior to law school, Kevin worked as the Associate Program Director for the Riverside Hawks Hope Health and Hoops Corporation, a nonprofit in Harlem. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan.