ALLISON FRANZ, ESQ.

 Allison Franz is a staff attorney at Justice 360 in Columbia, South Carolina and adjunct professor of law at Cornell Law School, supervising the Capital Punishment and Juvenile Justice Clinics. Her practice is primarily devoted to capital post-conviction representation, representation of juveniles facing life sentences, and parole advocacy. She is a graduate of Cornell University and Cornell Law School.

Susan C. Knight, Ph.D., ABPP

Dr. Susan Knight is a clinical psychologist with specialization in forensic psychology. She has a Master’s Degree (M.A.) and Doctoral Degree (Ph.D.) in Clinical Psychology from the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. She completed a predoctoral internship in forensic and correctional psychology at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, with the U.S. Department of Justice. Subsequently, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Forensic Psychology with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, in Los Angeles, California. Since 2009, she has been board-certified in Forensic Psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP).

Dr. Knight has worked treating and evaluating defendants in county, state and federal correctional settings, including the Twin Towers Correctional Facility within the Los Angeles County Jail. For six years, she was on faculty at the Medical University of South Carolina, Division of Forensic Psychiatry, teaching and training medical students, psychiatry residents and forensic psychiatry fellows in conducting forensic evaluations. She has provided lectures and invited talks to various groups of attorneys, judges and mental health professionals in the area of forensic psychology. She is presently employed in private psychological practice wherein she conducts forensic psychological evaluations for private and public legal entities, and provides consultation to court systems. She specializes in criminal forensic psychological evaluations including the assessment of legal competencies; criminal responsibility and mental state defenses; violence risk assessment; sexual offender risk assessment; mitigation/sentencing evaluations, and capital case evaluations. Regarding juvenile forensic assessments, she conducts pre-waiver evaluations in Family Court, and Aiken/Miller cases, in General Sessions, for JLWOP defendants. She holds adjunct faculty positions at the Charleston School of Law, teaching a course in Psychiatry and the Law, since

2011; and at Cornell Law School, since 2015, where she provides instruction and consultation to law students in the capital case and juvenile justice clinics.

ROSALIND MAJOR, ESQ.

 Rosalind Major joined Justice 360 as a Craig N. Yankwitt Capital Punishment Fellow in September 2022. She is a graduate of Davidson College and Cornell Law School. While in law school, Rosalind worked with the Capital Punishment Clinic, the International Human Rights Clinic, and the Women’s Decarceration Practicum. She also spent a summer interning at the Capital Habeas Unit at the Federal Community Defender’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Following law school, Rosalind served as a law clerk for United States Magistrate Judge Nancy J. Koppe in the District of Nevada.

JEAN MARIE POPOWSKI

Deputy Public Defender, 11^th Circuit Public Defender’s Office

 Jean Marie Popowski grew up in Columbia and graduated from Dreher High School in 1998. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Political Science at Emory University, Jean went to the University of South Carolina School of Law. She began her legal career as a state prosecutor in Dorchester County (1^st Circuit) and then joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office as a federal prosecutor in 2010. Jean left the practice of law in 2012 and has been in recovery from substances since 2014. She is now a Deputy Public Defender in Lexington County, where she has been advocating for criminal defendants since 2019. Jean has a 10-year-old daughter named Nina who is a rising 5^th grader at Rosewood Elementary.

Brie Rust, Esq.

Law Office of Brie Rust, LLC

 Brie Rust graduated from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology in 2006 and received her Juris Doctor from the Charleston School of Law in 2012. She is a mitigation specialist for juvenile life without parole (LWOP) and capital cases. She also represents clients in general sessions, magistrate, federal, and family courts and before the Probation, Pardon, and Parole Board. Brie found direction for her practice while serving as a guardian ad litem in law school. She found that most people facing LWOP or the death penalty were in foster care. That realization led her to a more intense study and understanding of the family court abuse and neglect system. While clerking in the Richland County Public Defender’s office she realized the importance of working on both the criminal and family court sides, using the resources that each provides to obtain the best results for clients. Brie speaks frequently on the importance, collection, preparation, and use of mitigation evidence.