TEAM JOHN BROOKINS
Meet the team determined to bring John home
Edward Foster
Edward J. Foster is a zealous advocate practicing in criminal defense in Philadelphia and throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He never backs down from a fight, and he has dealt with issues such as aggravated and simple assaults, various drug charges, gun charges, robberies, and violations of probation hearings, to name a few.
Mr. Foster graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Law and Society before earning his Juris Doctor at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Drexel University. While in law school, he took part in the year long Criminal Litigation Clinic at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, and he volunteered a great deal of time with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, earning Pro Bono Honors for his work there. Next, Mr. Foster became Of Counsel to the prestigious Philadelphia criminal defense firm Alva Foster & Moscow, LLC. Here, he uses his experience to vigorously defend the wrongly accused.
Mr. Foster employs his dedication and outstanding work ethic to relentlessly advocate on behalf of each and every one of his clients. Please contact his office with any information about the case at 215-665-1695 or via mail at 1520 Locust Street, Suite 700
Philadelphia, PA 19102.
Craig Cooley
Craig Cooley is a longtime advocate for John who has been investigating and litigating significant felonies, including death penalty, post-conviction DNA, and innocence cases for the last 20 years - during and after law school. His cases have been profiled on 20/20, 60 Minutes, NBC Nightly News, and Investigation Discovery. With a graduate degree in forensic science, Mr. Cooley has lectured nationally training defense attorneys how to challenge forensic identification evidence and to litigate post-conviction DNA testing motions.
Prior to starting his own practice in 2013, Mr. Cooley was a Litigation Attorney with the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence (NCCAI), where he represented indigent North Carolina inmates trying to prove their innocence with DNA and/or non-DNA evidence. Mr. Cooley helped represent two wrongly convicted men, Willie Grimes and Larry Lamb, who were ultimately exonerated based on non-DNA evidence.
Cole McConnachie
Cole is a senior at Georgetown majoring in Government. A small town New Jersey native, Cole hopes to bring attention to and rebuild the corrupt and unjust criminal justice system. Cole’s dedication for improving the system comes from her personal and professional connection to the issue. Her experience working for local and congressional political campaigns and at the Senate Majority Press Office has shown her the lack of interest in criminal justice reform from elected representatives.
Andrew Tyrrell
Andrew is a junior exchange student at Georgetown, originally from Dublin, Ireland where he studies Political Science and Economics. Andrew has a passion for social justice, which has manifested in heavy involvement in volunteering organisations both at home and abroad. Studying the US judicial system whilst in DC has opened his eyes to injustices in the world which he hopes to help correct later on.
Anne Marie Hawley
Anne Marie is a senior at Georgetown studying English and Film. Originally from the Chicago suburbs, Anne Marie has pursued her passions for law justice reform during undergrad as a research assistant for Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, her four years competing with Georgetown Mock Trial, and classes in appellate advocacy and legal system psychology.
The Innocence Project
In March 2019, the Innocence Project agreed to sign on to John’s case in a co-counsel capacity and to fund the DNA testing involved in the case.
Founded in 1992, the Innocence Project’s mission is to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment.
Georgetown Prisons and Justice Initiative
Georgetown University's Prisons and Justice Initiative was founded to bring together leading scholars, practitioners, and students to examine the problem of mass incarceration from multiple perspectives.
John’s case was chosen in January 2019 as part of the PJI’s “Making an Exoneree” class, led by Marc Howard and Marty Tankleff, himself a former exoneree. The class has already directly contributed to the exoneration of Valentino Dixon in 2018, and we hope John and others will soon join that list.