News

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—The West Virginia University College of Law awarded degrees to 110 graduates on May 13 in a ceremony at the WVU Creative Arts Center.

The Class of 2016 includes the nation’s first LL.M (Master of Laws) graduates in Forensic Science.

Joshua Weishart, who was selected Professor of the Year by the Class of 2016, delivered the commencement address.

“You have proven that you have what it takes not only to be attorneys at law, but, more importantly, persons with empathy, passion, and different conceptions of what justice entails,” he told the graduates.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA — Hampshire County (West Virginia) native Jeremiah Mongold is a free man today after serving 11 years of a 40-year sentence for the death of his stepdaughter. 

Mongold, who has continually maintained his innocence, is a client of the West Virginia Innocence Project (WVIP) at the College of Law.

In 2005, the case against Mongold was built on death by Shaken Baby Syndrome. However, medical experts contacted by the WVIP determined that Mongold’s stepdaughter may have died from vasculitis, a rare illness that causes the body to attack its own blood cells.

Circuit Court Judge Charles Parsons noted “the issue is whether trial counsel was ineffective in failing to discover an alternative cause of death.” 

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA — Anne Marie Lofaso, professor of law at the West Virginia University College of Law, has been named an associate of the Oxford Human Rights Hub (OxHRH) blog.

The OxHRH bring together academics, practitioners, and policy-makers from across the globe to advance the understanding and protection of human rights and equality. It is based at the Faculty of Law (law school) at the University of Oxford in England.

As an associate, Lofaso creates blog series, recruits scholars to write about human rights issues, and edits blogs. Her first major project for the OxHR blog was a review of the human rights legacy of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. She is currently working a project to establish awareness of human rights abuses in Appalachia. 

Lofaso is the Arthur B. Hodges Professor of Law at WVU. Since January, she has been serving as the Keeley Visiting Fellow at Wadham College and as a Senior Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford Faculty of Law. She returns to the WVU College of Law in the fall.