Death Penalty


NACDL supports the abolition of the death penalty. The death penalty committee is actively involved in abolition and moratorium efforts around the country and the world. The committee is involved in assisting members in achieving due process and justice for their clients through a number of projects: holding Making the Case for Life, an annual death penalty defense seminar focusing on voir dire and mitigation investigation; writing the "Death Watch" column and procuring the "Capital Cases" articles for The Champion; running the LIFE VOTE project, a collection of data from successful death penalty cases and an attempt to identify the mitigation themes and arguments that persuade jurors to vote for life; soliciting members for the Volunteer Attorney Project, an effort to find pro bono lawyers for inmates without counsel on death rows in the South; and, consulting daily with members who are representing individuals in capital cases.

Hide details for Death Penalty Resource CounselDeath Penalty Resource Counsel

The daily functioning of the Death Penalty committee is carried out by the Death Penalty Resource Counsel, Colin Garrett, at cgarrett@schr.org. The Resource Counsel position is funded by NACDL and housed at the Southern Center for Human Rights, see www.schr.org. This collaborative effort, begun in 1996 by two organizations committed to the defense of people accused in capital cases, provides members the unique opportunity to consult with Resource Counsel that is aware of national trends and developments and also is practicing daily down in the "trenches."


Hide details for Champion Articles on the Death PenaltyChampion Articles on the Death Penalty

Mitigation InvestigationMarch 2007
The Role of Victim OutreachDecember 2006
Lethal IncompetenceSeptember/October 2006
NACDL Awarded Grant for Capital Trial TrainingsSeptember/October 2006
The Capital Ethnography ProjectJuly 2006
Death WatchJune 2006
Supreme Court Re-Emphasizes Need For Thorough PenaAugust 2005
Beyond Wiggins : Tipping Points And Evolving StandJuly 2005
Death WatchApril 2005
January/February 2005
Another DNA Exoneration, Another Death Row Inmate December 2004
Death WatchJune 2004
End of Juvenile Death PenaltyMay 2004
Prosecutorial Wrongdoing and the People Who EnableMarch 2004
Lethal injection and the Georgia Supreme Court's nJanuary/February 2004
Securing funding for your mitigation specialistsJanuary/February 2004
Louisiana jury sentences a man to death for non-muNovember 2003
What's on the menu?September/October 2003
Update: No victim impact testimony without specifiAugust 2003
They kill Louis Jones Jr.July 2003
Change, redemption do exist June 2003
Delusional justice May 2003
Death WatchApril 2003
Death WatchMarch 2003
Federal death penalty unconstitutional, again; MakDecember 2002
Ring: Hammer of justice, bell of freedom... all ovSeptember/October 2002
Money for your case; When your client prefers to dAugust 2002
100th dead row exonerationJune 2002
Death WatchApril 2002
Execution Is Unconstitutional for Mentally RetardeMarch 2002



Web Links



Hide details for News & Updates on the ICCNews & Updates on the ICC
  • President Tries to Moot Texas Death Row Case; Withdraws from Treaty Provision--April 7, 2005--One of the Term’s most interesting cases, with implications for 51 Mexican nationals on Texas’ death row, took a strange turn when the United States filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the state of Texas and then tried to keep the case from being decided in the state’s favor.

Hide details for Misc. ResourcesMisc. Resources

Death Penalty Committee Page (Members Only)


National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)
1660 L St., NW, 12th Floor, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 872-8600 • Fax (202) 872-8690 • assist@nacdl.org