NEW RESOURCES: The Private Bar’s Efforts to Secure Proper Representation for those Facing Execution

Civil rights litigator and death penalty expert Ronald J. Tabak recently published “The Private Bar’s Efforts to Secure Proper Representation for those Facing Execution” in the Justice System Journal. The article presents an in-depth review of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) role in ensuring effective counsel in capital cases. Tabak recounts the ABA’s efforts since the mid-1980’s to secure competent representation at every state of legal proceedings, stating that “someone without counsel has little chance of securing redress for constitutional violations that may have tainted a conviction or death sentence.”

The article explores the particular problem that exists because the Supreme Court has not recognized a right to counsel in post-conviction proceedings. Death-sentenced inmates may lack representation after their trial and direct appeal even though the legal proceedings that follow would offer opportnities to challenge their convictions and death sentences. Mr. Tabak discusses the ABA’s efforts to find pro bono lawyers to represent death-sentenced inmates in post-conviction proceedings, federal habeas corpus proceedings, and clemency proceedings. “Dealing with the issues specific to capital cases, whether arising from the trial record or requiring further investigation, requires an expertise far beyond that of most criminal law practitioners—not to mention the civil lawyers who predominate among the volunteers whom the ABA recruits,” explains Tabak. If lawyers do not understand the complex procedures and rules of capital cases, it “can literally prove fatal to clients.”

(R. Tabak, “The Private Bar’s Efforts to Secure Proper Representation for Those Facing Execution,”29 Justice System Journal 356 (2008)). See also Representation and Articles.