A spe­cial edi­tion of the Hofstra Law Review fea­tures an in-depth look at the American Bar Association’s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases. The law review exam­ines the ABA’s revised defense coun­sel guide­lines that were approved on February 10, 2003, and it con­tains arti­cles based on an October 2003 con­fer­ence at Hofstra University dur­ing which all death penal­ty juris­dic­tions were urged to imple­ment the revised guide­lines. The ABA’s guide­line rec­om­men­da­tions aim to cre­ate a sys­tem that insures due process and min­i­mizes the risk of exe­cut­ing the inno­cent by estab­lish­ing inde­pen­dent over­sight of defense coun­sel in death penal­ty cas­es, man­dat­ing that each defen­dant fac­ing the death penal­ty be rep­re­sent­ed by an expe­ri­enced defense team, and out­lin­ing spe­cif­ic respon­si­bil­i­ties for defense attor­neys. (31 Hofstra Law Review 903 (2003)) View the com­plete law review arti­cle and the ABA’s guide­lines. See DPIC’s report With Justice for Few: The Growing Crisis in Death Penalty Representation.

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