Exploring the personal motivation and strong commitment of an individual to tackle societal issues through criminal defense law, particularly concerning high incarceration rates and supporting marginalized communities.
When Karen Bethea-Shields was in college, she heard a judge say, “No way in the world a Black woman can get raped.” A few years later, in 1975, she helped successfully defend Joan Little—a Black woman—who became the first woman in the U.S. to be found not guilty of murder using the defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault.
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