Megan Barnes.

The Cornell Death Penalty Project of Cornell Law School and Justice 360, based in Columbia, South Carolina, have selected Megan Barnes as the inaugural recipient of the Craig N. Yankwitt Capital Punishment Fellowship. Barnes received a J.D. from Harvard Law School this spring and a B.A. from Rhodes College in 2016. A native of Dallas, Texas, she interned with the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs in Austin, Texas, and the Prison Legal Assistance Project in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As the Yankwitt Fellow, Barnes will spend the next two years in South Carolina, working with Justice 360 and the Cornell Death Penalty Project representing individuals facing the death penalty.

The Craig N. Yankwitt Fellowship was created in 2018 by his family to honor and preserve his memory. Craig, a member of the Cornell Law School Class of 2002, died in 2016. While a student, he participated for several semesters in the Capital Punishment and Capital Appeals Clinics and worked closely with Professors Sheri Johnson and John Blume and attorneys at Justice 360. Participation in the clinics had a profound impact on Craig and he continued to support their work in numerous ways following his graduation.