The criminal justice reform movement has lost one of its great champions. Tiffany Joslyn tragically died in a car accident this weekend in Rhode Island. Her brother Derrick also died.

Well before “bipartisan criminal justice reform” was everyone’s favorite DC buzzword, Tiffany was one of my first across-the-aisle friends when I started as a fellow at the Heritage Foundation and she was at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). Tiffany had just completed an extensive study, Without Intent: How Congress Is Eroding the Criminal Intent Requirement in Federal Law, with my boss, Brian Walsh. It took many long hours for me to understand what Tiffany and Brian did, but it took little time for me to appreciate how much hard work it took to write the report.

Tiffany was always an excellent resource on policy and a friendly face at every meeting. It was eye-opening for me, a rather green, conservative lawyer, to find a good deal of agreement from someone on the left. We were able to come together to advocate for good policy, labels be damned.

The last time I had a long chat with Tiffany we were, literally, in the halls of Congress, talking about criminal intent reform once more. Tiffany became deputy chief counsel of the crime subcommittee for the Democratic staff last year. I was starting at Right on Crime to work on federal reform, and I was happy to know that I would have to opportunity to work closely with Tiffany in her new role. Sadly, no one will have that privilege again.

NACDL has established an internship in Tiffany’s memory, an appropriate honor for someone who dedicated her life to criminal justice reform. She will be missed.