Introduction
Julie Jonas joined the University of St. Thomas School of Law faculty in 2022. Her scholarship focuses on wrongful convictions, including the use of expert testimony in cases involving contested forensic science, as well as the impact of technology and privacy issues on wrongful convictions and the criminal justice system.
Before joining St. Thomas Law, Jonas served as Legal Director of the Great North Innocence Project at the University of Minnesota Law School. In that role, she helped secure the release of eight innocent men who had been wrongfully incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. Since joining St. Thomas, she continued to represent two long-term clients on a pro bono basis through the Great North Innocence Project and has since secured their release from prison.
Jonas also works extensively on criminal justice policy reform. Her work was instrumental in the passage of Minnesota’s 2014 Imprisonment and Exoneration Remedies Act, which provides compensation to innocent exonerees. Under that law, she secured compensation for several of her wrongfully convicted clients. In 2020, she helped secure passage of legislation requiring law enforcement agencies throughout Minnesota to use best practices when conducting eyewitness identification procedures, with the goal of increasing the reliability of identifications and reducing wrongful convictions. In 2021, she helped advance legislation to track and regulate the use of jailhouse informants in criminal cases.
Jonas taught at Minnesota law schools for many years, focusing on the prevention of wrongful convictions and working with clinical students to screen and investigate cases involving potential innocence claims. She earned both her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Minnesota. After law school, she began her legal career with the Ramsey County Public Defender’s Office in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Jonas currently serves on the Board of the Conviction Review Unit at the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General and provides pro bono support to the Legal Rights Center’s First Defense program. She also served on the task force that developed the Golden Valley PEACE Commission, which focused on police accountability and community engagement, and was a founding board member of the Criminal Justice Institute at Hamline University.
Jonas is a frequent presenter in the media, at Continuing Legal Education programs for lawyers and judges, and before community groups on a range of criminal justice topics. In 2022, she received the Ronald I. Meshbesher Distinguished Service Award from the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. That same year, the Great North Innocence Project renamed its Never Forgotten Award in her honor and presented her with the first Jonas Justice Award. In 2024, Jonas received the St. Thomas School of Law Dean’s Award for Outstanding Teaching.