Amy Sings In The Timber, Executive Director
Amy Sings In The Timber came to MTIP with over a dozen years of non-profit leadership experience and more than 20 years of professional commitment to advancing social and racial justice and human rights issues.
As a practicing attorney, Amy directly represented formerly incarcerated, trafficked women to reunite them with their children. Over the past two decades, she has developed and supported access to justice and legal aid programs designed to address disparities in our justice system and promote the rule of law, worked with communities to break down barriers and identify and develop solutions to complex societal and institutional challenges, and advocated for a trauma informed continuum of care, sustainable stable housing models, and economic and educational advancement opportunities for marginalized and disenfranchised peoples.
Before joining the Montana Innocence Project, Amy served as the Executive Director of the Montana Justice Foundation, and in senior leadership roles with The Chicago Bar Foundation and Covenant House Illinois.
Amy received her law degree from the University of Montana School of Law (now Alexander Blewett III School of Law).
Caiti Carpenter, Legal Director
Caiti Carpenter is Legal Director for the Montana Innocence Project. Caiti brings experience as a solo practitioner in private practice to the Montana Innocence Project. As a criminal defense attorney, she represented clients in post-conviction relief cases, misdemeanor and felony criminal matters, as well as dependency neglect, contract disputes, and other civil matters.
She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Colorado in Boulder before earning her law degree from Catholic University, Columbus School of Law in Washington D.C. Caiti is overjoyed to return to the work that first struck her passion for practicing law. She is excited to represent MTIP’s clients as well as engage with students, volunteers, donors, and staff in furtherance of this organization’s righteous mission: to exonerate the innocent.
Rich Buley, Investigator
Rich has been practicing law in Montana for 35 years at the firm Tipp and Buley. Rich’s legal career involved a wide range of cases, but he concentrated primarily in the areas of representing plaintiffs in personal injuries and worker’s compensation and representing defendants in criminal cases. He was one of the founding members of the Montana Criminal Defense Lawyers Association in 1997 and has been a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Rich was licensed by the State of Montana as a Private Investigator in 2014 and has engaged in that business since he retired from the active practice of law in 2015.
Bill Baldassin, Volunteer Coordinator
An MTIP volunteer himself, Bill Baldassin has served as MTIP’s Volunteer Coordinator since 2017. Bill is responsible for client intake, case review, and coordination and correspondence with MTIP pro bono attorneys and other volunteers.
Bill is both a University of Montana graduate (1969) and a UM School of Law alum (1973). He worked in private practice for the firm he interned with while in law school until he launched his own firm in 1995. In 2004, Bill retired from the practice of law; however, he continued to pursue information and education in the area of criminal justice, including taking a class from former MTIP Legal Director Larry Mansch – and the rest is history!
“It’s a terrible thing that our work is needed in the first place,” Bill said. “But for as long as it is, we need to do the best we can to free those who’ve been wrongfully convicted and keep it from happening again.”
Bill lives in Missoula with his wife and two dogs. Outside of volunteering with MTIP, he enjoys spending as much time as possible with his grandchildren.