As a kid, Emily Strongwater “loved and looked up to” Leeza Cherniak, a renowned and respected criminal defense attorney who, before her untimely passing in 2007 at age 43, practiced with Strongwater’s father, Jay.

Now in her second year at John Marshall Law School, Strongwater still thinks of her mother, Betsy Edelman, and Cherniak when defining “strong women.” How fitting that, after a serendipitous summer internship at the Georgia Innocence Project, the young woman has been named one of three recipients of the Leeza Cherniak Memorial Scholarship.

“The whole goal here at the [Georgia Innocence Project] is to make the legal system better, and Emily’s very much committed to that,” Aimee Maxwell, GIP executive director, said. “It’s that same spirit that Leeza had in her practice: Giving the very best you can to your clients in the most professional way that you can.

“I see those same qualities in Emily and the way she approaches her cases.”

An abolitionist stance toward the death penalty inspired by the words of Gandhi and study of Mishpatim (a Torah portion from the Book of Exodus) and superior work ethic have brought Strongwater to this point. Such values spurred her to obtain undergraduate degrees in sociology and minority studies at the University of Vermont and then pursue her law degree back in her hometown.

This past summer, Strongwater applied for only one internship, knowing it to be the one for her. As part of the Georgia Innocence Project team, she worked to uncover the oft-elusive DNA evidence that might save the wrongfully convicted in Georgia and Alabama from death.

She noted the narrow selection of cases in which they might help defendants: only those post-conviction and with entirely exhausted appeals. She told of the difficulty of dealing with open records laws and frequent non-compliance: If it’s tough in Georgia, it’s even tougher at small-town courthouses Alabama.

She remembered a co-worker’s tale of having to crawl into a court clerk’s attic to hunt down the necessary information. Having done plenty of her own legwork in her months at GIP, Strongwater evokes the Talmudic idea that to “preserve a single soul…[is] as though he had preserved a complete world.”

“It can take years to find this evidence,” she said, having done much difficult legwork in her months at GIP. “It takes a lot of perseverance and a lot of disappointment, but you have to go through it; you know it could all be worth it if you keep trying.”

Since its founding in August 2002, the Georgia Innocence Project – based on the model of New York’s Innocence Project – has successfully lobbied for a law allowing post-conviction DNA testing and accepted 28 clients. The GIP has helped to exonerate Clarence Harrison, Robert Clark, Willie O. “Pete” Williams, John Jerome White and Michael Marshall, men who served approximately 90 combined years incarcerated for crimes they did not commit.

Today, though, they are thankfully free due to the determination and belief of people like Strongwater, fellow 2011 Cherniak Memorial Scholarship recipients Brooke Ray and Katie Gianne, GIP’s four-person full-time staff and the many others who give their time to the non-profit.

“It’s hard to do something every day and not necessarily see results, but this scholarship showed me that what I’m doing is appreciated, whether or not I’ve made a difference yet,” Strongwater said humbly. “This just furthers my conviction that this work is something I need to be doing.”

Someday soon, Strongwater hopes to effect change in the legal system, following in the footsteps of a childhood hero.

Click here if you'd like to learn more about the Cherniak Memorial Scholarship.