Sandy Coliver

I first met Maggi in law school. She started out one year ahead of me, and then I took off a year after getting involved in the Coalition for a Diversified Faculty (which provoked unpleasant reactions from several at the law school). Maggi was a great role model. I admired her for her Lawyers Guild work and for her sense of purposefulness. I followed her career from a distance thereafter, noting with admiration, and some envy, when she got her job with the National Center for Immigrants Rights, and marveling when she moved to El Salvador.

I began my own career in human rights around that time. I continued to hear about Maggi, and occasionally received her reports from El Salvador.

In 1999, I had my first chance to work with Maggi. I decided to apply for a grant from USAID to produce a guide to judicial independence around the world. I sought out Maggi's help to conceptualize the project and produce the section on Latin America, which was the most important region from which lessons could be drawn, given USAID's history of supporting "justice reform" efforts there, often as part of thinly disguised efforts to justify the giving of large sums of military aid. Maggi's perspective and experience were crucial in ensuring that the guide took a sober look at judicial reform efforts in Latin America to-date. She commissioned chapters from leading experts in 10 countries, worked with the authors so that each chapter addressed the same set of issues, and wrote a chapter that synthesized the experiences, best practices and lessons of the other chapters. The Rule of Law Program at USAID reported that the Guide was one of its most useful publications. Maggi made a significant impact by introducing USAID to several outstanding people with whom USAID had not previously worked. Putting people other than herself in the limelight, and providing insightful criticism to keep projects true to the realities on the ground were hallmarks of Maggi's work.

The second time I had the chance to work with Maggi was starting in 2001 when I became the Executive Director of the Center for Justice & Accountability. Maggi had agreed to serve as an expert witness in our landmark trial against Generals Vides Casanova and Garcia. Her testimony at trial in 2002 helped persuade a jury that the generals, who served as Defense Ministers and also head of the National Guard, bore command responsibility for the torture of our clients from 1979-83. Maggi's testimony - clear, precise, knowledgeable, directly on point- demonstrated why she was such a valuable expert. She was called to testify about the Salvadoran judicial system's handling of human rights abuses. After establishing her credentials at some length, she explained the facts that led to her expert opinion that Salvador's justice system was unable and unwilling to handle claims by victims of human rights abuses during the 1979-83 period, and that responsibility for this failure lay squarely with the generals.

On cross-examination, the generals' defense counsel repeatedly asked Maggi questions about divisions within the military, implying to the jury that the justice system's inability to adjudicate human rights claims against the military could be attributed to infighting within the military, and should not be blamed on actions, policies or practices that the generals could control. Maggi repeatedly declined to answer questions about the military, pointing out that (a) she had not been qualified by counsel to testify on that subject, and (b) any divisions within the military could in no way justify the failure of the National Guard to investigate claims of human rights abuses by members of the security and military forces. After opposing counsel's third or fourth effort to get Maggi to answer questions about the military, she answered with authority and not a little bit of impatience, that she was an expert on the topics about which she knew, and was not going to testify about matters on which she was not an expert. That statement well reflected Maggi's style and expertise, and her great value as an expert: concerning matters to which she devoted herself, she became an expert, and she wouldn't make claims that reached beyond her expertise. Her testimony is attached to this note.

Maggi was a role model, a steadying force when I tried to do too much, a voice of reason when I tried to push our work to do more than it could, a shining example of what one exceptionally talented and dedicated person can accomplish. I miss her tremendously. I am very grateful that Maggi's family members and friends shared stories about her as a girl, a young adult, a mother and an aunt. I now better understand from where she got her strength, warmth and clarity of purpose.

With much love to her family and friends,
Sandy Coliver
Center for Justice & Accountability
scoliver@cja.org