Alissa Bjerkhoel

Alissa Leanne Bjerkhoel (pronounced byeer-kul) is an American litigation coordinator at the California Innocence Project (CIP). In 2013, Bjerkhoel walked from San Diego to Sacramento to protest the incarceration of twelve inmates she considered innocent, and presented twelve petitions for the convicted to the governor to raise awareness of the issue of the wrongly convicted.

Legal education After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a B.A. degree in history in 2004, Bjerkhoel entered California Western School of Law in 2005. In her second year at CWSL, Bjerkhoel became a clinical intern with the program, continued to work on cases in her third year and, after graduation in 2008, became one of CIP's first full-time staff attorneys. She taught how to conduct direct examination, cross-examination, the opening statement and the closing argument.

After his release on probation, he arranged for a meeting with his accuser, Wanetta Gibson (who had contacted him through Facebook), at which she admitted on video that there had been no rape or kidnapping in 2002, and that their encounter had been completely consensual. The video evidence was not admissible in court, because the video had been made without Gibson's knowledge or consent and was not accompanied by a signed confession from the young woman. However, CIP was instrumental in putting together additional evidence supporting Banks' story, which led the district attorney to dismiss all charges against him and release him from sex-offender status, allowing him to resume his aborted sports career. Bjerkhoel was present in the courtroom with Banks on May 24, 2012, the day that his conviction was finally dismissed.

Banks supports CIP in its efforts on behalf of the wrongly-convicted, including participating in CIP's 2013 Innocence March. He often wears a shirt with the lettering "XONR8" ("exonerate").

Daniel Larsen Based largely on eyewitness identification by two police officers, Daniel Larsen was convicted in 1999 of being in possession of a concealed knife under California's Three Strikes Law. Because he had prior felony convictions, Larsen was sentenced to 28 years to life in prison. The California Innocence Project, which began representing Larsen in 2002, found witnesses, including a former chief of police and the actual owner of the knife, who testified seeing a different man holding the knife. In 2010, a judge ordered Larsen's release, finding that he was "actually innocent" of the crime and that Larsen's constitutional rights were violated, because his attorney was incompetent.

Despite the ruling, Larsen remained in prison for two more years while state attorney general Kamala Harris challenged the judge's ruling because Larsen had missed the appeal deadline. In September 2013, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court ruling and freed Larsen after 14 years in prison.

The Innocence March From April to June 2013, Bjerkhoel, CIP director Justin Brooks and managing attorney Michael Semanchik, along with many California Innocence Project exonerees and supporters, participated in an event they called "The Innocence March." Determined to gain clemency from Governor Jerry Brown for twelve convicted prisoners whom they deemed to be "100 percent innocent," as well as to gain public awareness of the plight of wrongfully convicted prisoners, they walked a 700-mile route from the CIP's offices in San Diego to the Capitol at Sacramento to formally present their petitions on behalf of the twelve to the governor.

The march reached its destination in fifty-one days, four days earlier than the original 55-day schedule. Several of the prisoners named in the petition (including Guy Miles and Kim Long) were subsequently released through CIP's efforts.