News & Commentary written by Robert Ponce

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Robert Ponce

Legal Fellow, ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û Capital Punishment Project and ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û of Southern California

Pronouns: he/him

Bio

Robert Ponce is legal fellow with the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û of Southern California, where he joins a statewide effort to challenge the death penalty in California, working closely with the national ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û Capital Punishment Project. Robert is a proud Chicano and Inland Empire native who graduated from Georgetown University and the University of San Diego School of Law.

Prior to attending law school, Robert served as a community organizer in East Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. While in law school, Robert was heavily involved in on-campus activism and organizing, and his advocacy efforts earned various student leadership recognitions and awards from his law school and the San Diego La Raza Lawyer's Association. As a legal clerk for the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û Capital Punishment Project during the summer of 2020, Robert first joined the fight to abolish the death penalty across the United States.

Robert remains deeply connected to the Inland Empire, where he sits on the Associate Board of the Inland Empire Future Leaders Program (IEFLP), and seeks to empower a next generation of Chicanx activists, organizers, and professionals from his community.