Louisiana Capital Assistance Center

 Louisiana
 Capital
 Assistance
 Center
  A Non-Profit Law Office


 
 636 Baronne Street
 New Orleans La 70113  USA
 Ph. +1 (504) 558 9867
 Fax. +1 (504) 558 0378
info@thejusticecenter.org

Richard Bourke is the director of the LCAC.  He graduated from the Melbourne University School of Law in Australia where he also gained a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Psychology and Criminology.  Richard came to New Orleans to volunteer and then worked at the LCAC after pursuing a successful career as a criminal barrister in Australia.  Richard is certified as capital trial lead counsel in Louisiana and also represents defendants in state and federal capital post-conviction proceedings in Texas and Mississippi.  Before his legal career, Richard worked as a youth counselor and social worker with adolescent victims of physical and sexual abuse. Richard is licensed in Louisiana, Texas, federal court and the United States Supreme Court.

Kim Watts is the LCAC's Office Manager, Personnel Director and Financial Manager. Kim single-handedly manages an array of duties ranging from reception to financial planning. Kim also deals with staff needs such as health plans, leave, work environment and equipment.  Kim earned a degree in Political Science from Xavier University while working her way through school. She has worked to organize a student forum on racism and campaigned for several political candidates. While at Xavier, Kim undertook an internship with the Loyola Death Penalty Resource Center and was later employed by it as a research assistant. Prior to her arrival at the LCAC, Kim was a legal secretary/paralegal for Loyola's Post-Conviction Defender Organization.

Danalynn Recer is of counsel with the LCAC. She graduated from the University of Texas School of Law.  Danalynn has represented capital defendants at all stages of the process, primarily in Louisiana and Texas. Previous employment includes a position as an investigator with the celebrated Texas Resource Center in 1992, and after in 1993, she became a Law Fellow with the agency. Danalynn is currently directing the Gulf Region Advocacy Center (GRACE), in Houston, Texas, which aims to tackle the grave problems facing indigent defense and capital defendants across the border.

Eleni Antonopoulos is the lead investigator and mitigation specialist for LCAC. Eleni graduated from the Monash University Law School after having previously completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Politics.  A former intern of the LCAC, Eleni returned from her native Australia to take her current position.  In addition to her work for clients in Louisiana, Eleni has worked on a number of complex and difficult death penalty cases in Texas and Singapore. In 2005, Eleni was awarded the inaugural Reprieve Capital Defense Fellowship.  Before moving to America, Eleni worked as a personal care assistant for terminally-ill patients, and donated her energies to numerous charities, including ReprieveAustralia and Amnesty International. 

Rachel Jones is a staff attorney at the LCAC. She graduated from NYU Law School and during her time there participated in a capital defender clinic, working with attorneys from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on capital cases in Mississippi and Louisiana.  Prior to joining the LCAC, Rachel worked as a public defender in Brooklyn, New York representing indigent criminal defendants.  Rachel is admitted to practice in state and federal court in Louisiana as well as in New York State and is certified as capital trial associate counsel in Louisiana. Before her legal career, Rachel taught third grade reading at an alternative public elementary school in Harlem.

Laura Krevsky is a staff attorney at the LCAC.  She graduated from Harvard Law School.  During law school she interned at the California Appellate Project, a non-profit legal resource center which provides support for death penalty appeals.  She also worked in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and on the Harvard Human Rights Journal.  Laura received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Ethnography from Cornell University.  In addition to her litigation practice at the LCAC, Laura has worked intensively on the Orleans 6^th Amendment Project at the LCAC, a project aimed at protecting the right to counsel of Orleans Parish capital defendants left unrepresented after Hurricane Katrina.  Laura is admitted to practice in state and federal court in Louisiana. 

Joseph Olivier is a staff investigator for LCAC.  Joe is a native of Lafayette, Louisiana, and is a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans, where he received his BA in Sociology with minors in Spanish and Latin American Studies.  During his time at Loyola he was active in its student-run Community Action Program, where he divided his time between organizing students and providing direct services to disadvantaged people in the Greater New Orleans area.

Lucy Larkins is a full time volunteer with the LCAC as a part of the Reprieve volunteer program and is the LCAC Client Welfare Coordinator.  Lucy is a graduate of the Melbourne University School of Law having also earned a Bachelor of Arts, with a major in History, from that institution.  During her time at law school, Lucy was involved in the Melbourne University Innocence Project, worked as a research assistant for a Senior Counsel and was an Assistant Editor of the Melbourne University Law Review.  After initially volunteering at the LCAC for several months, Lucy returned to take up the Reprieve LCAC client welfare position.

James Beane - is a staff attorney at the LCAC.  He received his JD from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, and his LLM in Trial Advocacy from Temple University.  A trial attorney with 10 years experience, James most recently was in private practice in Washington, DC, where he focused primarily on criminal trials and appeals.  James is a member of the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College where he teaches advanced trial advocacy.  He also teaches appellate advocacy at NLADA's Appellate Defender Training Program.  Previously, James served as law clerk for two United States District Court judges, and was a trial attorney for the Federal Trade Commission.  He is licensed to practice in the District of Columbia; the United States District Court for the District of Columbia; the United States District Court for the District of Maryland; the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Joey Spielberger is a full time volunteer with the LCAC as a part of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps program.  He graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles with a degree in History.  Joey became active in social justice issues after traveling to India as a child and seeing the conditions of child labor in that country.  He became involved with the Free the Children youth organization at a young age and as an adult he continued this commitment to social justice-oriented extracurricular activities – tutoring and mentoring inner-city kids and teens, working at homeless shelters, running the LA Marathon for charity, and doing community service work in Mexico, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and India.

Annie Preziosi is a staff investigator for LCAC. She completed a BA with honors at NYU, where she double majored in Fine Arts and Anthropology, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She completed her Masters in Education in 2007, with a concentration in Special Education. Prior to joining the LCAC, Annie was teaching special needs children in Brooklyn. She taught children labeled with severe emotional disturbance, learning disabilities, speech impairments and developmental delays. As an undergraduate, she worked and interned at Creative Time, a not-for-profit that presents temporary public art projects, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ashley Cusick is a staff investigator for LCAC.  She earned a BA in Sociology and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College. While an undergraduate, she completed a year-long study on the preparation process for prisoners about to reenter rural and urban communities in Maine. Ashley moved to New Orleans in 2005 as a member of Teach for America. When Hurricane Katrina caused her school to close, she worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist hurricane victims in attaining access to relief funds and other disaster services. Prior to coming to the LCAC, Ashley had resumed teaching as a seventh grade math and social studies instructor at Samuel J. Green Charter Middle School.