open menu

Online Exclusives

An Innocent’s Gift

The tale of exoneree Bobby Joe Leaster and the Muse family is a story of justice's rewards.

       

Over several decades, Bobby Joe Leaster (right) spoke to BC Law students and faculty, telling the story of his wrongful conviction and nearly 16-year imprisonment. How he dealt with that injustice had an impact on many people, including Rita Muse ’15, who, as a law student more than 30 years later, would help to free another innocent man.

In a remembrance of Leaster, Muse traces the connection between that long-ago case and the one she worked on in the BC Innocence clinic in the mid-2000s. That connection has everything to with her grandfather and uncle (a longtime adjunct professor at BC Law) and the family friendship that grew from the generous heart of Bobby Joe Leaster.

Read the story in BC Law Impact.

Photo: Bobby Joe Leaster, right, with Robert Muse, left, and Christopher Muse, at a Judicial Youth Corps class at Suffolk Superior Court, where he was convicted.