The Edward Lee Elmore Summer Fellowship in Public Interest Law at the University of Texas School of Law funds a student to work with a capital defense office. The fellowship was created in honor of Edward Lee Elmore, a former death row inmate in South Carolina who gained his freedom after thirty years, by a generous gift from one of his attorneys, Diana Holt ’94. The William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law administers the fellowship in conjunction with the law school’s Summer Public Service Program.
The 2022 fellowship has been awarded to rising third-year student Zacharie Kump who will spend the summer with the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas. Kump will conduct legal research and writing on state and federal habeas law issues, meet with clients, and participate in mitigation-related research and investigation.
At the law school, Kump has volunteered for the Mithoff Pro Bono Program’s Expunction Project and Gender Affirmation Project and is a member of OUTLaw and the Texas Law Review. Last summer he worked with the Texas Indigent Defense Commission in Austin and the Oklahoma County Public Defender’s Office in Oklahoma City.