Jennifer L. Givens

Jennifer Givens is the legal director of the Innocence Project Clinic. Prior to joining the clinic in 2015, Givens worked as an assistant federal defender in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and as a senior staff attorney with the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, where she represented death-sentenced inmates in state and federal post-conviction proceedings. Her career successes include securing a grant of clemency for a severely mentally ill client and winning a life sentence for an intellectually disabled client, both of whom were sentenced to death in Virginia. She has argued before state trial courts and U.S. district courts in Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as the Virginia Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Givens has served as an adjunct professor at Temple University School of Law and has regularly spoken at local and national capital habeas corpus trainings and conferences. She is a member of the Virginia, Pennsylvania and Georgia bars.