For a land use attorney based in California’s Bay Area, Nadia Costa has spent an inordinate amount of time knocking on doors in south central Los Angeles. Costa, counsel at Bingham McCutchen, has devoted thousands of hours over the past six-and-a-half years reconstructing a long and harrowing story of abuse to try and win her client’s freedom.

The Am Law Pro Bono 100The woman at the center of the abuse, Deborah Peagler, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 1983 on charges that she had hired two gang members to kill her pimp and one-time boyfriend, who she said had repeatedly assaulted and raped her. Peagler, who waited in a car while the gang members strangled and beat the man to death in an Inglewood city park, was sentenced to 25 years to life.