Former Loreto student Sophie Higham, who left us in 2016 to study Law at Cardiff University, is undertaking an internship in the most dramatic of circumstances: working for the charity Amicus with death row inmates in Atlanta, Georgia. Sophie is on a three-month placement in Atlanta, where she has been meeting clients in jails and helping overworked attorneys prepare appeals. Sophie takes up the story:

My work on death row has been invaluable; it has taught me so many life lessons about forgiveness, mercy and second chances. I have been visiting clients and helping attorneys on appeals to try to get clients off death row. I have also been working on cases that are ‘death-eligible’ and awaiting trial. I am learning from the most passionate people. My role here is to assist the attorneys working to save the client’s life. I hope to take everything I have learnt here back home to the UK and fight for justice in my future career.

 

Since 1973, more than 160 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence; Sophie is playing her part in seeing this salutary figure rise further.

Sophie has accepted an invitation to come back to Loreto and will soon be sharing some of her fascinating experiences with our Theology and Ethics students.