Law Review Symposium: Prisoners' Rights: Protecting Civil Liberties Behind Bars & Beyond
The Roger Williams University Law Review's newest journal, Justice for All, proudly presents a symposium focusing on the importance of advocating for prisoners' rights to build a fair and equally opportunistic system in which all rights are protected. Speakers will discuss incarcerated individuals' access to resources while in prison, constitutional rights violations and the protections against them, and how advocates look to protecting prisoners beyond their incarceration.
Register Here - November 7 - RWU Law Review Symposium
Agenda forthcoming.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS (Speakers will be added when confirmed.)
Representative Cherie L. Cruz
Member, House Judiciary Committee
Member, House Municipal Government and Housing Committee
Member, Joint Commission on Reducing Recidivism of Women
Rep. Cruz was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 2022 and is a 2020 JLUSA LwC Alumni who has transcended three generations of familial incarceration. She is a first-generation college graduate with a Bachelor’s degree cum laude and Master’s from Brown University. Rep. Cruz was named RI ACLU Lay Leader of the Decade in 2019 and has grassroots organizing experience in RI from the Right to Vote, Cannabis Legalization and automatic record clearance and Parent’s Right to Volunteer in their children’s school. Rep. Cruz brings her passion and lived experience to her work as a State Representative and also in her role as a tenant organizer with ReclaimRI empowering tenants to organize their own tenant union to challenge the power imbalance of tenants to landlords. She has also served as a board member of The Reentry Campus Program, The Transcending Through Education Foundation, and the executive board of the RI ACLU, and a Co-Founder of the Formerly Incarcerated Union of Rhode Island. She is currently working on legislation to fully end the practice of prison gerrymandering in RI, expanding the access of the right to vote to eligible incarcerated voters and expanding access to expungement among other criminal legal reform legislation.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER - Tim Gumkowski, Esq. L'06
Senior Staff Attorney, Innocence Project
A graduate of Roger Williams University School of Law, Tim Gumkowski is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Post-Conviction Litigation Department of the Innocence Project in New York City. The Innocence Project is a non-profit organization that works to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone. The work of the Innocence Project is guided by science and grounded in anti-racism. The Innocence Project has helped free more than 250 innocent people from prison. As a Senior Staff Attorney, Tim investigates and litigates cases on behalf of clients across the country. The focus of Tim’s work is on locating biological evidence and subjecting that evidence to modern DNA testing or other scientific advancements that could prove his clients’ innocence. He works closely with a variety of experts and both state and private laboratories. As part of his work, Tim occasionally works with local prosecutors’ offices in re-investigating and litigating these issues. Tim also serves as a seminar instructor and supervising attorney for the Innocence Project Post-Conviction Clinic with NYU Law School. Prior to joining the Innocence Project, Tim spent over six years representing men and women on Texas’s death row in post-conviction proceedings in state and federal court, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Tim began his legal career after graduating from RWUSOL as a staff attorney for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals before becoming a public defender in Brooklyn, NY, where he represented indigent clients facing criminal charges for nearly a decade.
Liz Komar
Sentencing Reform Counsel, The Sentencing Project
Liz Komar advocates for an end to extreme sentencing in the state and federal criminal legal systems by supporting the work of the Sentencing Project’s Campaign to End Life Imprisonment, leading federal advocacy efforts, and managing amicus litigation activities. Her priorities include promoting sentencing second chances, ending life without parole sentences, and capping maximum sentences at 20 years.
Prior to joining the Sentencing Project, Komar was the Director of Strategic Initiatives and a member of the leadership team at Fair and Just Prosecution, where she led FJP’s prosecutorial reform policy work across a wide array of areas. Komar also served as an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County (Brooklyn), NY and as an Attorney Advisor in the US Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review. Komar received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her juris doctorate from Brooklyn Law School.
The Hon. William E. Smith
Senior United States District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island
Judge William E. Smith was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island by President George W. Bush in 2002. He served as Chief Judge from 2013 to 2019 and was the youngest person ever to serve as chief judge in the District of Rhode Island. He assumed senior status in January 2025.
Judge Smith is active in federal judicial administration and education, serving on the Judicial Conference Committees on Judicial Resources, Information Technology, and Financial Disclosure; as chair of the Federal Judicial Center’s Committee on District Judge education; and as a mentor for newly appointed and mid-career judges. He serves on numerous community boards and is the past chair of the board of the Roger Williams University School of Law in Bristol, Rhode Island, where he has taught as an Adjunct Professor for fifteen years.
Before his appointment to the bench, Judge Smith was a partner at Edwards & Angell in Providence, Rhode Island, the firm he joined after graduating from law school. His practice focused primarily in labor and employment law and representation of state and municipal agencies, colleges and universities, non-profits, and private employers. His private law practice years were interrupted by his service as Staff Director of the Rhode Island Office of U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee.
Judge Smith was born in Boise, Idaho; he received B.A. and J.D. (cum laude) degrees from Georgetown University. While studying at Georgetown, he worked as an aid in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (chaired by Senator Frank Church of Idaho), and he then worked on Senator Church’s 1980 re-election campaign. In 2014, Judge Smith received the Citizen of the Year Award from the Rhode Island Association for Justice. In 2019, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Bryant University and was awarded the Chief Justice Joseph R. Weisberger Judicial Excellence Award from the Rhode Island Bar Association for “exemplifying and encouraging the highest level of competence, integrity, judicial temperament, ethical conduct and professionalism.” In 2023, he received the Neil J. Houston, Jr. Memorial Award for “dedicated service and citizen contribution toward the justice profession and the public interest” from Rhode Island Justice Assistance. In 2024, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Roger Williams University School of Law and the Olin Thompson Justice Award from the Bench and Bar of the U.S. District Court.
Magistrate Judge Patricia A. Sullivan
United States District Court, Rhode Island
Magistrate Patricia A. Sullivan has served as a Magistrate Judge in the District of Rhode Island since October 1, 2012. Judge Sullivan graduated from Wellesley College with honors in 1973, and Georgetown University Law Center magna cum laude in 1978. Prior to her appointment to the federal bench, Judge Sullivan was a private litigator at Edwards & Angell, LLP for 34 years,
Judge Sullivan played an integral role in the success of the District’s HOPE (Helping Offenders Prepare for reEntry) Court, an alternative supervision reentry court program focused on supporting individuals returning to the community after incarceration. She has served as the Presiding Judicial Officer for the HOPE Court since 2014. Her dedication to HOPE Court reflects her deep belief in the potential for rehabilitation and second chances. Her efforts have changed lives across the District.
Therese Zink, MD, MPH
Professor, Department of Family Medicine/Warren Alpert Medical School and the School of Public Health at Brown University
Therese Zink, MD, MPH is a family physician and professor in the Department of Family Medicine /Warren Alpert Medical School and the School of Public Health at Brown University.
Zink has volunteered with Providence Books Through Bars for six plus years and is incharge of sorting through the 300+ book requests we receive from prisoners each month.
Prov BTB is a 501c3 organization that was founded over 20 years ago with the mission to use donated books to provide free reading material for incarcerated people nationwide. We believe reading is a basic human right.
Additional details regarding the Roger Williams University Law Review may be found here.
REGISTRATION
- General Admission: $50 per person
- Non-Profit/Government: $25 per person
- RWU Law New Alumni (Classes of 2020-2025): $25 per person
- Student: $15 per person
- Member of the Judiciary: Complimentary *Code Required
- RWU Law Student: Complimentary *Student Code Required
- RWU Faculty/Staff: Complimentary *Code Required
Register Here - November 7 - RWU Law Review Symposium
RHODE ISLAND MCLE CREDIT
This program is anticipated to receive Rhode Island MCLE Credits.
CANCELLATION & REFUND POLICY
Symposium cancellations received by Thursday, October 30, 2025, are eligible to receive a full refund less a $10 administrative fee. Cancellations received after the stated deadline will not be eligible for a refund. Cancellations are accepted via email at lawevents@rwu.edu.
SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS
Persons who, because of a special need or condition, would like to request an accommodation for an event should contact the Office of Programs & Initiatives, as soon as possible, but no later than 72 hours before the event, so that appropriate arrangements may be made. lawevents@rwu.edu
Questions | lawreview@g.rwu.edu