Two student attorneys from the Drake Children’s Rights Clinic, Payton Kitterman and Taylor J. Thomas argued a case before the Iowa Supreme Court Thursday, April 11.
Kitterman graduated from Lisbon.
This case centered on a child’s right to meaningful access to expert assistance at State expense when defending against waiver to adult court. Kitterman skillfully argued the Supreme Court should adopt a test for State funding for expert assistance that accounts for both the constitutional rights implicated by expert assistance and the special nature of juvenile proceedings. Supervised by Professor Nickole Miller, Esq., Director of Drake’s Middleton Center for Children’s Rights, Kitterman and Thomas spent a combined 695 hours over the course of three semesters working on this case from the initial Writ of Certiorari petition all the way to argument before the Iowa Supreme Court. There was a large crowd in attendance and Kitterman received a standing ovation at the end of the argument. He ably handled tough questions from the Justices, persuasively rebutted claims by the State, and centered his client throughout. This appeal would not have been possible without the incredible advocacy of Marcos Danielson, LW’23, before the juvenile court when he was a clinic student. A decision is expected to be made within the next few months.
Lawyers argue case at Iowa Supreme Court
April 18, 2024