08/29/2026
Alumni Spotlight: Allison Clayton ‘07
Allison is an adjunct professor and director of the Innocence Clinic at TTU School of Law Clinical Programs. With years of experience as a criminal defense attorney, Allison specializes in appellate and post-conviction litigation, with many complete exonerations for her clients. Allison has served as the Deputy Director of the Innocence Project of Texas for over 10 years and has helped bring justice to many clients who were wrongfully convicted.
One of the most recent exonerations Allison and the Tech Law students in the Innocence Clinic – Addison May, Linzy Hill, and Sarah Dickie – worked on was that of James Harry Reyos. Although it was proven that he was not in Texas at the time of the murder, was convicted in the death of Father Patrick Ryan, a closeted Catholic priest in Odessa, Texas in 1983. After 40 years, James Reyos was exonerated in 2023 with the help of the Odessa Police Department, the Innocence Project of Texas, and the Innocence Clinic at Texas Tech University.
We are proud to have Allison as a Tech Law Grad and of the work she does for our students! You can see Allison and the students who worked on James’ case in the documentary, NIGHT IN WEST TEXAS, which is streaming on PBS: https://to.pbs.org/3SwDqn4.
