Drinker Biddle & Reath

Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP is particularly proud of its long and dedicated commitment to death penalty representation in many different contexts. Two aspects of this work give our firm special pride. First, the firm’s commitment to these difficult engagements finds its wellsprings not just in the original firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath, but also from the several firms that have combined with us in recent years. Indeed, the integration of these firms into Drinker Biddle & Reath has been so successful in part because of the shared commitment to this important pro bono work of those who have joined us along the way – a commitment that has broadened and deepened as we’ve grown.

The second aspect of Drinker Biddle & Reath’s death penalty representation work of which we are proud is the many different forms our contributions have taken. Certainly nothing has been more important than our undertaking individual collateral proceedings on behalf of those languishing on death row, the victims of ineffective representation and other constitutional violations that call into question the integrity of the justice system’s real commitment to due process.

At the present time, Drinker Biddle & Reath’s San Francisco office is handling Brittany Holberg’s post-conviction proceedings in Texas, our Florham Park office isrepresenting Emmitt Taylor in Louisiana, and the Philadelphia office is representing Tommy Lee Waldrip on federal habeas in Georgia. Most famously, the Philadelphia office represented William Cochran, a death row inmate in Alabama. Mr. Cochran was granted a new trial at which he was acquitted of the murder charge. Today he is a free man.

Because so many of the issues that arise in death penalty representation are endemic to the present system, the firm has committed to systemic litigation that might reform these fundamental problems. Through the firm’s Barbara McDowell High Impact Pro Bono Initiative, the firm is partnering with the Death Penalty Representation Project and Mississippi lawyers on Knox v. Mississippi, a civil lawsuit focusing on the systemic failures of the State of Mississippi which have prejudiced many death-sentenced prisoners.

Drinker Biddle & Reath has also prepared United States Supreme Court amicus briefs on behalf of the American Bar Association, ethics professors and others in individual cases that presented significant death penalty representation issues. Most recently, Drinker Biddle & Reath filed an amicus brief in Holland v. Florida. This was the sixth amicus brief filed by Drinker Biddle & Reath in the United States Supreme Court in the last 10 years.

Drinker Biddle & Reath has focused much of its work on issues relating to the professional responsibility of lawyers who represent clients in capital cases, including playing an important role in the development of the ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases. The firm has also addressed the conflicts of interest that arise in any certification of State Capital Counsel Systems by State Attorneys General or the Department of Justice.

Reed Smith

Reed Smith has been representing inmates on death row for twenty (20) years. The firm’s attorneys are doing this work in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Alabama, and are currently representing seven men on death row.

In the 1990’s a team of Reed Smith Pittsburgh lawyers saved the life of Pennsylvania inmate Lawrence Christie in post-conviction proceedings. Mr. Christie’s death sentence was modified to life in prison without parole after Reed Smith showed that his trial counsel had failed to present the available mitigation evidence.

Reed Smith began representing another Pennsylvania death row inmate, Bradley Martin, in state post-conviction proceedings in 2000. At an evidentiary hearing on multiple claims of prior counsel’s ineffectiveness, the trial court heard a dozen witnesses, vacated Mr. Martin’s death sentence, and ordered a new sentencing hearing. The state appealed but the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed in August 2010.

In 2007 Reed Smith merged with Sachnoff & Weaver, a Chicago firm with a long history of death row representations in Illinois, at one point handling three cases simultaneously. One of those representations, that of inmate Samuel Morgan, began in 1995 and is an active Reed Smith case today. The Sachnoff lawyers had obtained a reversal of the client’s death sentence from the Illinois Supreme Court. On remand, Reed Smith lawyers asserted a claim of actual innocence, now the subject of federal habeas proceedings.

Reed Smith New York lawyers began our fourth death penalty representation in 2007 representing William Kuenzel, an Alabama death row inmate. On appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Reed Smith obtained a reversal and reinstatement of the habeas petition, with a direction that, on remand, the district judge consider Mr. Kuenzel’s claim of “actual innocence”. This was significant because the 11th Circuit has not yet squarely held that the actual innocence exception applies to excuse a procedural bar under Section 2244(d).

Late in 2008, Reed Smith took on four additional death penalty representations in Alabama. The firm’s appearance on behalf of these men came because each was only weeks away from losing all access to a judicial review of their claims. Each of these four Alabama cases shared a procedural defect that helped compel Reed Smith to step in. The juries in each case had voted against the death penalty for life inprison without parole. However the trial judges had invoked Alabama’s ‘judicial override’ procedure to overturn these life sentences and imposed death sentences instead.

Reed Smith has also handled clemency proceedings in death penalty cases. In Virginia in 2005, the firm appeared at the 11th hour for inmate Robin Lovitt, whose execution was imminent. Reed Smith lawyers arranged a face-to-face meeting with Governor Warner on the day of the scheduled execution. The Governor granted the clemency petition, sparing Lovitt’s life.

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