Suter is director of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender Innocence Project Clinic at Maryland Carey Law.
Professor Erica J. Suter, JD, director of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender (MOPD) Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, has been named to the Maryland Daily Record’s 2025 Criminal Law Power List. The list includes 20 Maryland attorneys “at the top of the criminal law profession,” wrote The Daily Record Managing Editor Patrick Brannan in a message introducing the honorees.
Suter joins three distinguished Maryland Carey Law alums also on the Criminal Law Power List. They are Oana A. Brooks, JD ’06, founder of BrooksLaw LLC; Judge William H. “Billy” Murphy Jr., JD ’69, senior and founding partner at Murphy, Falcon & Murphy; and Arnold M. Weiner, JD ’57, founding partner at Rifkin Weiner Livingston LLC.
“I’m grateful to be included,” said Suter, adding, “Innocence work is, by definition, a team sport. ... I’m privileged to do this work alongside my colleagues at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.”
Suter joined Maryland Carey Law this fall to establish the MOPD Innocence Project Clinic, which is a partnership between the law school and the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, where she is also an assistant public defender. Under Suter’s supervision, student-attorneys represent MOPD clients who maintain their innocence but have been convicted of serious crimes in Maryland state courts.
The Daily Record honor coincides with the completion of the MOPD Innocence Project Clinic’s first semester at Maryland Carey Law. Since September, the six student-attorneys in the clinic have had the opportunity to meet with incarcerated clients, craft investigation plans, interview witnesses, master complex case records, conduct field work, and more.
“Students’ achievements this semester reflect not only hard work, but a commitment to justice,” said Suter, “and we celebrate the rich, demanding, and profoundly rewarding journey they have begun.”
Prior to founding the clinic at Maryland Carey Law, Suter was director of the MOPD Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law after working in private practice. Her advocacy has resulted in the reduction of hundreds of years of incarceration; and, separately, the life sentences of more than 20 of her clients were modified or vacated. In 2022, she walked beside her client, Adnan Syed, as he exited the courthouse, free after 23 years of incarceration.
Attorneys on the Criminal Law Power List were announced the day before Thanksgiving and honored in a special edition of The Daily Record featuring profiles of the honorees.
Support the MOPD Innocence Project Clinic at Maryland Carey Law.