Death Penalty Representation Project
There is no constitutional right to counsel for people on death row in the United States, and the failure to guarantee effective representation has life-or-death consequences. The ABA Death Penalty Representation Project works nationwide to address this crisis of counsel, leveraging its network of pro bono attorneys and law firms, as well as the decades of combined capital defense experience and expertise of its three attorney staff members. The Project recruits and trains pro bono counsel to provide high quality representation to individuals facing the death penalty, provides technical assistance to capital defense teams, promulgates representation guidelines, and engages in systemic reform efforts. The Project also creates and maintains a number of important resources related to capital defense, including:
- A compilation of state-by-statequalification standards for capital defense counsel
- The Capital Clemency ResourceInitiative Clearinghouse which houses a unique collection of materials related to capital clemency practice and procedure in every death penalty state in the country
- The National Capital Standards Database, which includes case summaries, training materials, and published guidelines spanning more than 40 years.
Watch and learn more about the Project’s work, featuring pro bono attorneys and Texas death row exoneree Anthony Graves.
Your Gift Matters
The ABA Death Penalty Representation Project works to
ensure that no person faces a death sentence without a qualified, dedicated
team fighting to protect his rights. Your generous donation directly enables
our work, providing critical resources that support our mission. When you give
to the Project, the impact of your donation is multiplied by the power of our
extensive network and broad staff expertise, which allows our small-but-mighty
team of just four to help improve due process in hundreds of capital cases
throughout the United States.
Our Impact
During the past 25 years, the Project has directly
assisted nearly 425 death-sentenced prisoners by recruiting pro bono counsel to
provide representation in their cases. Each case placed with a pro bono firm
represents an extraordinary commitment that is unlike almost any other type of
pro bono work, with most cases requiring thousands of hours and hundreds of
thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses by the time the matter ends,
which can often take a decade or more. To date, more than 110 prisoners have
been saved from wrongful execution with the help of the Project’s pro bono
attorneys, and hundreds of cases remain ongoing.
Volunteer
To
share your time and expertise as a volunteer and help provide critical legal
advice that advances justice in communities nationwide.
Learn how you can use your legal skills to make a life-changing impact for a prisoner in need.