Convicted murderer James Hamm sees his life as a prison success story. Others see his future as unfair.
In 1989, then-Gov. Rose Mofford commuted his life sentence on a recommendation from the state parole board that he was rehabilitated.The commutation made him eligible for early release and created a political uproar. Mofford reversed the commutation, but Hamm successfully challenged the reversal in court. The parole board approved Hamm's release in June 1992 and he was out of prison after serving about 18 years.
Now, Hamm finds himself at the center of another flap, this time over his admission to law school at Arizona State University. Some students who didn't make the cut questioned why a convicted murderer should be admitted. Some legislative leaders were angry as well.
"There are a lot of hard-working young people out there who could not get into law school because he did," Mark Killian, the Republican house speaker, told The Arizona Republic.
Law school Dean Richard Morgan stands by admitting Hamm, though he ordered a review of admission policies. Some members of the Board of Regents, which runs the state's three public universities, have called for a systemwide review of policies on enrolling students with a history of crime.
One rejected law school applicant, Julie McCoy, said the government has spent enough money helping Hamm rebuild his life.
"We continue to pay for Hamm's rehabilitation through subsidizing his legal education and at the same time deny that subsidy to more deserving citizens," she said in a letter to the editor.
Hamm is a one-time divinity student who drifted into drugs and crime. He pleaded guilty in 1974 to shooting a man in the head over a drug deal. In prison, he earned a bachelor's degree in sociology and became active in Middle Ground, a prisoner rights group.
He married Middle Ground's founder, Donna Leone, who met him during a prison visit.
Hamm scored in the top 5 percent on the law school admission test and was among 156 of 2,200 candidates accepted. He said he's surprised by the fuss but doesn't take it personally.
"It touches on feelings about crime, criminals, recidivism, the failure of the criminal justice system," said Hamm, who began classes this fall at age 45. "I'm a lightning rod for those feelings."
Hamm hasn't decided whether he will try to practice law after graduation. In any case, he plans to use his law degree to further his work for prisoner rights.
At least four people with felony convictions - none for murder - have applied to practice law in Arizona since 1987, said Steve Villarreal, a Tucson lawyer who serves on a state Supreme Court committee that considers applicants' character. At least one was admitted to the state bar, he said.
Elsewhere, a University of Oregon law school graduate who participated in a fatal bombing at the University of Wisconsin in 1970 was denied permission to practice law in Oregon in 1987.
William Powers, an American Bar Association staff attorney who edits the newsletter for the ABA's section on legal education, said he hadn't heard of any similar cases of killers seeking to join the profession.