“I do not want to study law, because everyone is already doing that”, declared alumna Merel Pontier before starting her studies. Nevertheless, she hesitantly started studying law at Erasmus School of Law. It turned out to be bull’s-eye. “From day one, I knew I wanted to choose the Criminal Law Master’s”, she looks back. But Merel’s journey did not stop there. With her Master’s Criminal Law in her pocket, she left for Texas, the United States, to achieve her ultimate goal: getting Clinton Young off death row.
Merel’s interest in the US criminal justice system was sparked by the CSI programmes she watched at a young age. During her Bachelor’s, this interest led to an internship with a criminal lawyer in New York. “I loved that”, Merel says. “It was a small office, so I was allowed to go everywhere all the time. It was the first contact with the US criminal justice system, and it tasted like more.”
The case of Clinton Young
After returning to the Netherlands, Merel remained fascinated by the US criminal justice system. In 2014, she stumbled across a documentary about Clinton Young, a man on death row in Texas. “That is pretty serious, I thought at the time”, Merel says. “An 18-year-old boy with no money who seems to have an unfair trial and has been sentenced to death. That is irreversible.” Merel could not stop thinking about Clinton’s case. She decided to write him a letter. This contact led to a pen-pal relationship between Merel and Clinton, eventually becoming a professional collaboration. “Pen pals are a huge support for prisoners”, the alumna explains. “The power of pen pals is often underestimated and, wrongly, seen as something odd. That is a shame because it greatly benefits both the prisoner and the pen pal. It has incredibly enriched my life in many ways!”
From Erasmus to Texas School of Law
After completing her studies, the injustice in Clinton's case continued to attract Merel, especially when he was almost executed in 2017. "That is when I realised how serious it was, Merel emphasises. "If you do nothing, someone will be executed. And then you can never do anything again." Therefore, Merel decided to do everything she could to become a criminal defence attorney in America to help Clinton. And so it happened. After a master's degree at the University of Texas School of Law and passing her bar exam – a "horror" according to Merel – she finally became one of Clinton's lawyers at the end of October 2020.
After nearly 20 years on death row, Clinton is now free and is in the process of getting his life back together. Despite Clinton’s release, Merel will remain in Texas. “My help is needed most here, and there is plenty of work for the next few decades”, Merel explains. “I have no intention of stopping doing that in a while.”
"The most difficult moment is leaving prison."
Merel Pontier
A legal labyrinth
Within the Clinton Young Foundation, Merel works on various capital murder cases. The foundation, founded by Clinton and Merel herself, focuses on reviewing legal cases in the hope of reopening those that have been unfairly decided. “For example, if you want to file a review based on innocence, you will have to come up with new evidence”, Merel explains. “This is evidence that was not yet available at the time of the conviction and could not have been found, even with the conduct of a reasonable investigation. These criteria set the bar very high.” The review process involves not only gathering new evidence but also navigating a legal labyrinth of federal and state law.
Merel’s work brings emotional challenges as well as legal ones. “The most difficult moment of my job is leaving the prison”, Merel says. “I walk towards freedom while my client is left behind in hell. All my clients have either been sentenced to death or life in prison. If it is up to the legal system, they will never get out of that prison again. I feel the weight of that reality and the enormous responsibility I bear in that regard weighing on me when I leave the prison. I will never be able to get used to that.”
Inspiration for law students
Merel’s story is a testimony of her courage and perseverance and an inspiration for the next generation of law students. “I want to show what you can do with a Dutch Master’s degree”, Merel explains. “After all, you are not limited to the Netherlands or other national borders. Without my Master’s at Erasmus School of Law, I would never have been able to study at the University of Texas.”
