Karen
Daniel, senior staff attorney at Northwestern University School
of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions, has devoted her legal career
to representing the indigent and powerless.
As a student at Harvard Law School she served on the Board of Directors of the student-run Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, and also interned with the United Farm Workers Union in California.
Upon her graduation in 1981, Ms. Daniel joined the Office of the State Appellate Defender, where she represented hundreds of indigent criminal defendants on appeal and supervised the representation of hundreds more. One of her long-time clients was Willie Rainge, a member of the Ford Heights Four, whose exoneration played a large part in focusing public attention on the plight of the wrongly convicted.
In 1997, Ms. Daniel entered private practice but continued her representation of indigent defendants through court appointments. She joined the Center on Wrongful Convictions in 2000. During her tenure at the Center, Ms. Daniel has successfully represented Michael Evans, who was exonerated by DNA testing after serving 27 years in prison; Dana Holland, who was proven innocent of two separate crimes after a decade of incarceration; and former death-row inmate Randy Steidl, who was released after 17 years of wrongful imprisonment.
