Kristin O'Bryan and Rachel Trauner Present Oral Argument Before Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Pepperdine Caruso third-year students Kristin O’Bryan and Rachel Trauner presented an oral argument before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on November 7. O’Bryan and Trauner, as part of their participation in the Ninth Circuit Appellate Advocacy Clinic, represent Jerry Lee King, who is incarcerated in a California state prison. King is a plaintiff in a lawsuit alleging that he was beaten by prison guards shortly after he arrived at the prison. The guards persuaded the district court to dismiss King’s lawsuit on the ground that he had pleaded no contest to a charge of resisting arrest arising out of the same incident, and that if King succeeded in his civil lawsuit, it would imply that his criminal conviction was invalid.

King, who represented himself in the district court, appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which appointed the Pepperdine Caruso Law Ninth Circuit Appellate Advocacy clinic to represent him on appeal. O’Bryan and Trauner filed an opening brief and a reply brief on King’s behalf and then participated in oral argument before a three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit’s courthouse in Pasadena. The judges asked several questions of both students during oral argument and commended them for their excellent briefing and argument. A week after the argument, the court invited both sides to file supplemental briefs. The court is expected to issue its decision in 2025.