Leading attor­ney, law pro­fes­sor, and advo­cate Anthony Amsterdam was hon­ored by the Southern Center for Human Rights with the Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award in Washington, DC on October 2. Professor Amsterdam con­ducts the Capital Defender Clinic at New York University Law School and is rec­og­nized for his four decades of promi­nent work in cas­es rang­ing from death penal­ty defense to claims of free speech and the press, pri­va­cy, and equal­i­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ty for racial minori­ties and the poor.

Professor Amsterdam’s remarks addressed those who ​“have a per­spec­tive on life and death that has not been warped all out of shape by dai­ly expo­sure to the doc­u­ments that States’ lawyers file in cap­i­tal cas­es, pro­ceed­ings like those in Troy Davis’ case and Mendellin’s,” com­ment­ing that the cas­es must seem ​“bizarre” and ​“inex­plic­a­ble.”

He con­tin­ued, ​“Why, you may ask, are we even debat­ing whether an exe­cu­tion should be delayed for a few weeks or months until sig­nif­i­cant ques­tions can be resolved that may prove the death judg­ment to be fac­tu­al­ly or legal­ly erro­neous? How can lawyers for any American gov­ern­ment that has a Due Process clause in its con­sti­tu­tion con­test a stay in such a case?” He uti­lized his exper­tise and knowl­edge to answer those ques­tions and more while address­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The com­plete text of the speech may be found here.

Professor Amsterdam is well known for his vic­to­ry in Furman v. Georgia before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972, which result­ed in over­turn­ing all exist­ing death sen­tences in the U.S. because the death penal­ty was being applied in an arbi­trary and capri­cious man­ner. The Southern Center for Human Rights is based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the lead­ing orga­ni­za­tions defend­ing death row inmates and advo­cat­ing for basic rights in the south. Their annu­al award rec­og­nizes those who have ​“demon­strat­ed bril­liance and tenac­i­ty in the defense of human rights, and in doing so, pro­vide inspi­ra­tion and lead­er­ship to oth­ers in the legal field.”

See Southern Center for Human Rights and details on the awards din­ner hon­or­ing Professor Amsterdam. Prof. Amsterdam has also served on the Board of Directors of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington since its found­ing in 1990. The full speech can be found here.

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