New Haven, CT—Keeda Haynes, Candidate for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional district and Criminal Justice Reform advocate will be a featured panelist for the Rebellious Lawyering Conference at Yale Law School February 14-15, 2020. Reblaw is the largest student-run public interest conference in the United States. Keeda will be participating with the National Justice Impact Bar Association (NJIBA).
Keeda will be speaking on the “Leading Through Experience; Formerly incarcerated lawyers raise the bar in law & justice for all” panel. The mission of the NJIBA is to promote real justice in and through the legal profession for the justice impact community in all its diversity and work to progress the legal field and administration of justice for all.
“In every forum I will continue to use my experience to advocate and reform the criminal justice system. Working together with those that have been formerly incarcerated we can educate attorneys and the public on what we must do to make real change in our justice system.”
Keeda Haynes is a native of Franklin, Tennessee and graduate of Tennessee State University (TSU) with a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice. She attended and attained her Juris Doctorate from the Nashville School of Law in 2012. Haynes has worked to bring a new face to criminal justice reform as she spent four years in federal prison for her alleged involvement in a drug distribution ring.
Just weeks after earning her degree from TSU, Haynes was dropped off at the gates of Alderson Federal Prison Camp for an 84-month sentence for a crime she did not commit but was convicted, she was 24 years old.
Knowing first-hand the inequities of the system, the disparate treatment of defendants based on race and economic status combined with the dangers of mandatory minimum sentencing, Haynes passed the Bar and went to the front lines of the criminal justice system as a public defender. Her refusal to become a casualty of the War on Drugs made Keeda Haynes a fierce advocate for each of her clients.
Haynes is currently a Legal Advisor at Free Hearts, a Non-Profit Organization led by formerly incarcerated women that supports other formerly incarcerated women and children who have parents that are incarcerated or deported.