Con to the question "Should the death penalty be allowed?"
Reasoning:
"Do we want a hateful, vengeful society, one that turns its
back on its children and then executes them, that
denies its mentally ill the treatment and the
medicine they need and then puts them to death
when demons are no longer kept at bay...
If we here in the United States examine our
own system, face its flaws, and think about what
kind of society we want to have, we will
ultimately conclude that, like slavery and
segregation, the death penalty is a relic of
another era, that it represents the dark side of
the human spirit, and that we are capable of more
constructive approaches to the problem of crime
in our society. And we will then join the rest
of the civilized world in making permanent,
absolute and unequivocal the injunction 'Thou
Shall Not Kill.'”
"Will the Death Penalty Remain Alive in the Twenty-First Century?," Wisconsin Law Review, Oct. 27, 2007
Experts
Individuals with MDs, JDs, PhDs, other relevant advanced degrees, corrections and government officials with significant involvement in, or related to, death penalty issues. [Note: Experts definition varies by site]
Involvement and Affiliations:
Director, Southern Center for Human Rights, 1982-present
Board of Directors, National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, 1996-present
Visiting Lecturer, Yale Law School, 1995-2000
Visiting Lecturer, Harvard Law School, 1994-1999
Senior Lecturer, Emory Law School, 1997-1998
Visiting Associate Professor, Georgetown University Law Center, 1997
Visiting Lecturer, Northeastern University School of Law, 1996
Recipient, Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty, American Civil Liberties Union, 1991
Board of Directors, Texas Resource Center, 1988-1996
Recipient, Thurgood Marshall Award, American Bar Association, 1988
Executive Director, District of Columbia Law Students in Court Program, 1981
Trial attorney, District of Columbia Public Defender Service, 1976-1979
Education:
JD, College of Law, University of Kentucky, 1974
BA, Political Science, University of Kentucky, 1971
"Will the Death Penalty Remain Alive in the Twenty-First Century?," Wiscosin Law Review, Oct. 27, 2007
"Neither Equal nor Just: The Rationing and Denial of Legal Services to the Poor When Life and Liberty Are at Stake," NYU Annual Survey of American Law, 1997
"Political Attacks on the Judiciary: Can Justice Be Done Amid Efforts to Intimidate and Remove Judges from Office for Unpopular Decisions?," New York University Law Review, 1997
"Discrimination, Death and Denial: The Tolerance of Racial Discrimination in the Infliction of the Death Penalty," Santa Clara Law Review, 1995
Cowritten with Keenan, "Judges and the Politics of Death: Deciding Between the Bill of Rights and the Next Election in Capital Cases," Boston University Law Review, 1995
"Counsel for the Poor: The Death Sentence Not for the Worst Crime but for the Worst Lawyer," Yale Law Journal, May 1, 1994
Other:
Selected death penalty cases litigated:
Amadeo v. Zant, 486 U.S. 214 (1988) (briefed and argued before the United States Supreme Court) (conviction and death sentence set aside due to racial discrimination)
Brooks v. Kemp, 762 F.2d 1383 (11th Cir. 1985) (en banc), vacated and remanded, 478 U.S. 1016 (1986), adhered to on remand, 809 F.2d 700 (11th Cir. 1987) (en banc), cert. denied, 483 U.S. 1010 (1987) (conviction and death sentence vacated due to jury instruction which shifted burden of proof on intent)
Isaacs & Dungee v. Kemp, 778 F.2d 1482 (11th Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1164 (1986) (conviction and death sentence set aside due to failure to grant a change of venue)
