Trinity `a good place' for Louise

Louise Woodward wants to study law and Mr Barry Scheck, one of her lawyers, has recommended she apply to Trinity College, Dublin…

Louise Woodward wants to study law and Mr Barry Scheck, one of her lawyers, has recommended she apply to Trinity College, Dublin.

"I think it would be a good place for her to study; people in Ireland are very fair-minded," said Mr Scheck, who is on a visit to Dublin and gave the fourth annual Nissan lecture at TCD last night.

Mr Scheck was in Dublin to publicise the Innocence Project which he set up with Mr Peter Neufeld in 1992. The project is a clinical programme at Cardozo Law School in New York, where Mr Scheck is a professor of law, and it has either represented or assisted in the representation of 33 men who were exonerated through post-conviction DNA testing and freed from lengthy prison sentences or the death penalty.

Mr Scheck, who also defended OJ Simpson, says the pre-trial publicity Ms Woodward received gave the jury a negative impression. However, she was innocent of the charges because "all the evidence pointed to an older injury".

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Her decision to go for the risky all-or-nothing verdict "turned out OK, didn't it?" he said.

Mr Scheck said Ms Wood ward and her family had the benefit of the advice of an independent lawyer as well as her defence team. "She didn't want the jury to convict her for a crime she didn't commit," he said. With a charge of manslaughter, she could have faced five to 10 years in jail.

A full interview with Barry Scheck appears on the News Features page tomorrow