Post-Conviction Practice Essentials 2026

Michael Wiseman is a criminal practitioner focusing on all aspects of criminal defense at trial, appeal and post-conviction, with an emphasize on capital defense. Prior to entering private practice he was the Chief of Capital Habeas Corpus Unit of Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, from 1995 to 2011. Before that Michael was a senior staff attorney for the Pennsylvania Post-Conviction Defender Organization (1994-1995). He has represented dozens of prisoners in capital post-conviction and trial litigation. His thirty-five plus years of legal experience also includes service as the popularly elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (the Union representing lawyers employed by New York City’s Legal Aid Society), as a staff attorney for the Prisoners’ Rights Project of the Legal Aid Society of the City of New York, and as a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County. Michael graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo, School of Law in 1981.

Liz DeLosa is the Deputy Legal Director of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that investigates and litigates on behalf of men and women in Pennsylvania who were convicted and incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. In this role, she assists in shaping litigation strategy and case development, manages the Pittsburgh office, and supervises attorneys and law students. Liz litigates complex appellate and post-conviction cases throughout the Commonwealth, and her work has contributed to exonerations, case reversals, and other meaningful relief for wrongfully convicted individuals. She is also engaged in legislative and policy advocacy aimed at advancing statewide criminal justice reforms. Liz is an adjunct professor at Duquesne University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where she teaches courses on wrongful convictions, criminal procedure, and appellate practice, and she has also taught internationally at the University of Cologne in Germany. Her prior experience includes service as an Assistant Federal Defender in the U.S. Virgin Islands and as Assistant Chief Trial Counsel and Juvenile Program Director with the Allegheny County Office of Conflict Counsel. She is a graduate of Duquesne University School of Law and the University of Pittsburgh and is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Ms. Sanghvi is the Legal Director at the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. Before her employment at the Project, she taught in the Appellate Litigation Program at the Georgetown University Law Center and worked at law firms in New York, Washington DC, and Philadelphia, with a practice focus on appellate litigation. Ms. Sanghvi holds a B.A. from Columbia University and J.D. and LLM degrees from the Georgetown University Law Center. She clerked for Judge William B. Shubb in the Eastern District of California and Judge Thomas L. Ambro of the Third Circuit. In addition, Ms. Sanghvi serves on the board of the Third Circuit Bar Association.