Hon. John Paul Stevens

When Justice John Paul Stevens retired from the United States Supreme Court on June 29, 2010, he was the third longest-serving justice in the history of the Court. During his lengthy tenure Justice Stevens authored many opinions expressing concerns about injustices in the administration of the death penalty, including racial bias, limitations on the courts’ abilities to correct constitutional violations, and lack of access to competent counsel. He has been described as a “champion of the powerless” in recognition of his advocacy for the rights of criminal defendants, including those on death row.

In Murray v. Giarratano, Justice Stevens dissented from the 1989 decision holding that there is no right to counsel in post-conviction proceedings, stating “it is fundamentally unfair to require an indigent death row inmate to initiate collateral review without counsel’s guiding hand.” The American Bar Association has long agreed with Justice Stevens, and the work of the Death Penalty Representation Project and its thousands of volunteer attorneys has been inspired and sustained by his words and actions throughout his distinguished tenure at the Court. We are also indebted to Justice Stevens for his support of pro bono service, which he has long championed. Writing in a 2000 article for the Chicago Bar Association, he said “I remain convinced that the principal rewards that are available to the best lawyers in our profession are intangible rather than monetary…[T]here is no substitute for pride in a job well done and knowledge that your talent and training have served others badly in need of help.”

Since his retirement from the Court, Justice Stevens has continued to be an influential voice for the most vulnerable members of our society and for changes that will give meaning to our Constitutional protections. In gratitude, and for his lifetime commitment and dedication to justice for death row prisoners, the Death Penalty Representation Project is very proud to honor Justice John Paul Stevens with its 2011 Guiding Hand of Counsel Award.

Arnold & Porter

Arnold & Porter’s pro bono program has long been defined by its commitment to representing unpopular clients. As part of this commitment, Arnold & Porter has worked on behalf of numerous death row inmates over the years. The firm currently represents two death-sentenced prisoners in Pennsylvania and one in Georgia and has dedicated more than 50,000 hours to pro bono death penalty representation work.

Arnold & Porter currently represents Troy Davis in Georgia. Mr. Davis’s case has attracted national and international attention due to strong evidence of actual innocence. After Mr. Davis’s other legal remedies had failed, Arnold & Porter convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to consider his original petition for habeas corpus—something that had not happened in nearly 50 years. The firm has obtained three stays of execution for Mr. Davis and is currently seeking clemency from the Georgia governor.

Arnold & Porter also represents two death row prisoners in Pennsylvania: James Dennis and Henry Daniels. Over the past 13 years, volunteer lawyers have briefed and argued numerous appeals before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, presented evidence at multiple evidentiary hearings, and interviewed and investigated hundreds of witnesses. Stuart Lev, a federal defender in Pennsylvania, wrote in support of the firm’s nomination and said, “the legal teams [at Arnold & Porter] . . . have developed extraordinary relationships with their clients . . . [though] this is often no easy task. But the legal teams have made this a priority in their representation . . . and have devoted incredible time and energy to maintaining and preserving their attorney client relationships.”

The firm’s commitment to post-conviction capital representation includes past death penalty work in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina on six matters beginning soon after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Arnold & Porter has also submitted numerous amicus briefs in death penalty cases, including Maples v. Thomas, Panetti v. Quarterman, Hood v. Georgia, United States v. Martinez, and Thanos v. Maryland.

The Project shares Arnold & Porter’s commitment to providing skilled, dedicated representation to the most unpopular members of society and commends the firm for all it has done to seek justice for its clients.

Dorsey & Whitney

Dorsey & Whitney has long been a leader in both pro bono death penalty representation and in education about the problems with capital representation. Over the past 25 years, the firm has represented 8 individuals on death row in states such as Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas—far from its principal office in Minnesota. Dorsey attorneys are also frequent guest speakers at schools and in the legal community about their cases. The firm is a co-sponsor of the “Advocates’ Death Penalty Project Speaker Series,” which provides free seminars on topics related to capital punishment, including volunteer death penalty work.

Dorsey is currently representing three individuals on death row. One of these individuals, Andre Thomas, is profoundly mentally ill. After being incarcerated in Texas, he removed both of his eyes, and he is now housed in a special unit reserved for those with severe mental illness. Dorsey attorneys have spent nearly 9,000 hours on Mr. Thomas’s case, working to expose constitutional errors that occurred at his trial and to tell the humanizing story of his past. Dorsey also represents an intellectually disabled prisoner in Pennsylvania, Wilfredo Ramos. In 2010, volunteer attorneys from Dorsey succeeded in showing that, because of his disability, Mr. Ramos was ineligible for execution under Atkins v. Virginia. Although the firm has already saved Mr. Ramos’s life, Dorsey continues to represent him as they seek a new trial based on the ineffectiveness of his trial counsel.

Dorsey attorneys have achieved a number of other victories on behalf of their former death row clients. They succeeded in obtaining life sentences in cases involving issues such as ineffective assistance of counsel, erroneous jury instructions, and violation of consular rights. For one client, they convinced the Oklahoma governor to grant clemency, an increasingly rare occurrence. For another client, Dorsey attorneys persuaded the United States Supreme Court to hear his appeal. The Court issued an important ruling requiring the automatic reversal of jury verdicts based on erroneous instructions regarding reasonable doubt.

The Project is proud to recognize Dorsey for its long history of commitment to educating the bar and the public about the problems with the administration of the death penalty and also for its dedication to providing the highest quality representation to indigent death row prisoners.

Fredrikson & Byron

For nearly 25 years, Fredrikson & Byron has made a unique commitment to representation of death-sentenced prisoners in Louisiana. Its 250 attorneys draw inspiration from Robert F. Kennedy, who is quoted on the firm’s webpage: “As long as a man is handicapped before the bar of justice because of his poverty, our task as lawyers is not done.”

The firm agreed to represent its first pro bono death row client, Dobie Williams, in 1987. For the next twelve years, Fredrikson lawyers fought on behalf of Mr. Williams, twice obtaining a stay when he was just hours away from execution. After years of work, the team won a reversal of his sentence, but an appeals court overturned that decision in 1999, and Mr. Williams was executed later that year.

Within one year of Mr. Williams’ execution, Fredrikson took a second death penalty case in Louisiana. Damon Thibodeaux was convicted and sentenced to death solely on the basis of his confession, which occurred after a lengthy and coercive interrogation. Between 2001 and 2007, the Fredrikson team uncovered an extraordinary amount of evidence that supported Mr. Thibodeaux’s claim of innocence. As a result, the district attorney has now directed resources into a new investigation.

Throughout their representation, Fredrikson attorneys have demonstrated personal dedication to Mr. Thibodeaux. Attorney Steve Kaplan has engaged in weekly phone calls with Mr. Thibodeaux and has developed strong relationships with his family. Barry Scheck, Co- Director of the Innocence Project, said that Mr. Kaplan “exemplifies everything good about lawyers and humans. When you look up the word mensch in your legal dictionary, his picture is there.”

Fredrikson recently agreed to represent another Louisiana death row prisoner, Michael Wearry, who is intellectually disabled. The firm’s aggressive litigation strategy has already resulted in an impressive evidentiary record for Mr. Wearry’s appeal.

The Project joins Mr. Scheck and many others in commending Fredrikson & Byron for its decades of seeking justice for Louisiana death row prisoners.

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