HCBA Lawyer Magazine No. 32, Issue 4 | Page 15

F R O M T H E S T A T E A T T O R N E Y A n d r e w H . W a r r e n - S t a t e A t t o r n e y f o r t h e T h i r t e e n t h J u d i c i a l C i r c u i t
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She stepped away from her private practice in early 2020 as she battled metastatic breast cancer . With her cancer now under control , she has emerged ready to step up to this new challenge .
Ms . Jean-Pierre Coy understands that a prosecutor ’ s job is to seek justice and that commitment never ends — even if it means acknowledging we got something wrong in the past . “ We all know that the justice system has had its flaws ,” she said . “ So the ability to be able to get into this and try to correct some of those errors — whether they were intentional or unintentional — is really a dream job for me and a great culmination of my life ’ s work so far .”
Hillsborough ’ s State Attorney ’ s Office is one of the first in Florida with a CRU . It has reviewed more than 400 convictions . In nearly every case , the review confirmed the conviction was correct and justice was served . However , CRU reviews have prompted us to seek reversals of wrongful convictions in three cases , including Robert DuBoise , 2 who spent nearly 37 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit .
Ms . Jean-Pierre Coy is taking the reins from Assistant State Attorney Teresa Hall . Ms . Hall was our CRU ’ s initial supervising attorney , who over the past three years developed the fledging unit into a national leader . Ms . Hall has returned to full-time prosecution within our office .
This position should be part of every prosecutor ’ s office — any wrongful conviction undermines our entire justice system and threatens public safety . If an innocent person is behind bars , that means the guilty person is still out there .
If you know of a case that our CRU should review , fill out a petition today on our website at sao13th . com . n
1 https :// www . sao13th . com / conviction-review-unit-cru /
2 https :// www . sao13th . com / 2020 / 08 / state-attorneyoffice-identifies-man-wrongfully-convicted /

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