On September 15, 2022, the Project celebrated the work of its volunteer attorneys at the 2022 Volunteer Recognition & Awards Program in Washington, DC.
View photos from the event and read more about our winners on our Event Media page!
Events
2022 Volunteer Recognition & Awards Program
We are deeply grateful to Susie Hoffman, Chair of the Death Penalty Representation Project Steering Committee, and to her law firm, Crowell & Moring, for hosting this year's Volunteer Recognition & Awards Event.
Speakers
The Project was honored to welcome Ha'im Al Matin Sharif, former Nevada death row prisoner, together with his attorney Cary Sandman, Assistant Federal Defender and counsel for Barry Jones in Shinn v. Ramirez & Jones, as keynote speakers for the 2022 Volunteer Recognition & Awards Event!
Learn more about Ha'im's case from the Death Penalty Information Center.
Exceptional Service Award
Every fall, the Project celebrates volunteer lawyers at its Volunteer Recognition & Awards Event. Pro bono firms are nominated by their colleagues for exceptional service to death row prisoners and honored with the Exceptional Service Award.
This year, the Project is proud to recognize the extraordinary efforts and accomplishments of two volunteer law firms.
Caplan Cobb
Caplan Cobb, a boutique trial and appellate litigation firm in Atlanta, Georgia, has played an extraordinary role in protecting the rights of death-sentenced prisoners in Georgia and helping defenders provide high quality representation.
This past April, founding partner Michael Caplan headed up a team of pro bono attorneys in partnership with Bondurant Mixson & Elmore and Eversheds Sutherland in innovative emergency litigation to win a stay of execution for Georgia prisoner Virgil Presnell, one day before his scheduled execution. The team’s victory not only saved Mr. Presnell, it also helped secure due process for all Georgia prisoners whose appeals become final during the pandemic. The ABA Death Penalty Representation Project is proud to honor the extraordinary commitment of Caplan Cobb with the Exceptional Service Award and also recognizes its partners Bondurant Mixson & Elmore and Eversheds Sutherland for the incredible victory they achieved together. Caplan Cobb leads by example, showing that pro bono firms of all sizes have the power to provide lifesaving assistance to those in need.
Kirkland & Ellis
Kirkland & Ellis, a leading global law firm with 18 offices worldwide, has made a decades-long commitment to pro bono death penalty representation. The firm’s capital representation work has run the gamut, including winning new trials for death-sentenced individuals on ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims; arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court on multiple occasions in matters with widespread impact; conducting intensive evidentiary hearings to establish that a client’s constitutional rights have been violated; and successfully advocating for mercy for clients in clemency proceedings.
In 2021, Kirkland successfully litigated two state post-conviction cases out of Texas on behalf of James Harris (Brazoria County) and Joseph Jean (Harris County). Both cases involved compelling evidence of the clients’ intellectual disabilities. These cases merely scratch the surface of Kirkland’s commitment to defending prisoners on death row. Among its many other pro bono death penalty matters, teams from Kirkland have also pursued posthumous DNA testing to clear the name of Sedley Alley, who was executed in Tennessee in 2006. They sought certiorari to challenge a ruling by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on behalf of William Kuenzel and, in 2020, they sought certiorari to challenge the federal death penalty in the case of Christopher Vialva. In addition, Kirkland has devoted more than 19,000 hours and more than $10 million in legal services to investigating and presenting the evidence of Max Soffar’s innocence in Texas.
This long and extensive commitment earned Kirkland the Exceptional Service Award once before in 2015, and the Death Penalty Representation Project is proud to honor the firm again with its 2022 Exceptional Service Award in recognition of the firm’s sustained commitment to excellence in pro bono death penalty representation.
You can read about previous award winners and their extraordinary accomplishments!
John Paul Stevens Guiding Hand of Counsel Award
The Project recognizes the extraordinary efforts of individual lawyers with the John Paul Stevens Guiding Hand of Counsel Award, which was first presented to Justice Stevens in 2011. The Project recognizes pro bono attorneys and full-time capital defenders and public interest lawyers in alternating years. Last year's award was presented to Professor Sandra Babcock of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide. This year's award will be presented to a pro bono attorney whose primary legal practice is not capital/indigent defense.
In 2022, the Project is proud to recognize the extraordinary dedication and advocacy of pro bono attorney Norman C. Hile, senior counsel at Orrick.
Norman C. Hile
Norman C. Hile, senior counsel and former managing partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in Sacramento, California, has spent nearly two decades dedicating himself to representing California death row prisoner Kevin Cooper and fighting to prove his innocence.
Mr. Cooper is a Black man who was sentenced to death for the brutal 1983 attack on a family in Chino Hills, California that left two adults and two children dead along with one surviving child victim. Prosecutors told the jury that the family was attacked by one man using a hatchet, an ice pick, and two knives. They also presented evidence that Mr. Cooper’s blood was found at the crime scene. Nearly 20 years ago, Mr. Hile agreed to provide pro bono representation to Mr. Cooper, who has always maintained his innocence, in his habeas proceedings to challenge his conviction and death sentence. Mr. Hile uncovered and presented evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and wrongful conviction through each level of the federal courts. Just hours before Mr. Cooper’s scheduled execution in 2004, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a stay. Five judges of the Ninth Circuit later wrote “The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man.” Mr. Hile also sought and obtained an executive clemency order to investigate Mr. Cooper's claims of actual innocence, and he launched a complex media campaign garnering the attention of such celebrities as Kim Kardashian. His case was featured in the New York Times and on CNN and CBS, and a book was published about the case entitled “Scapegoat: The Chino Hills Murders and the Framing of Kevin Cooper.”
Mr. Hile’s steadfast commitment to his client exemplifies the power of “counsel’s guiding hand” to protect the most vulnerable from the worst injustices. The ABA Death Penalty Representation Project is honored to present Norman Hile with the 2022 John Paul Stevens Guiding Hand of Counsel Award in recognition of his deep and lasting commitment to outstanding, creative, and zealous advocacy.
Prior Award Recipients:
Hon. John Paul Stevens - 2011
George H. Kendall - 2012
Denny LeBoeuf - 2013
Mark J. MacDougall - 2014
Megan McCracken & Jennifer Moreno - 2015
Sylvia H. Walbolt - 2016
Arkansas Capital Habeas Unit - 2017
Gwendolyn C. Payton - 2018
Kelley J. Henry - 2019
Meaghan VerGow - 2020
Sandra Babcock - 2021
Sponsorship
Sponsorship of the Volunteer Recognition & Awards Program provides essential funding for the Death Penalty Representation Project that enables the Project to carry out its mission year-round.
Thank you to our 2022 Event Sponsors!
Defender
Crowell & Moring
Greenberg Traurig
Champion
Caplan Cobb
Kirkland & Ellis
Orrick
Skadden
Partner
King & Spalding
The Steptoe Foundation
Friend
Morgan Lewis
White & Case
If you have questions about sponsoring the event, please contact Project Director Emily Olson-Gault at [email protected].