Death Penalty Clinic
By Frances Presma/Photos: Don Hamerman
Death Penalty Clinic Aids Understanding of Capital Punishment
One late January afternoon, Professor James Coleman has some good news to share about the death penalty. Not only did a newly released American Bar Association report recommend that Georgia halt executions based on what it called a flawed administration of the death penalty — accepting all recommendations of a steering committee that he chairs — but a North Carolina death row inmate was granted a new trial.
In 2004, Duke Law students enrolled in Coleman’s Death penalty Clinic worked on the case of Charles Walker, who was then scheduled for imminent execution for a 1992 murder. Walker had been convicted on the testimony of co-defendants without any body or physical evidence linking him to the murder, Coleman explains. Clinic students researched and briefed the issue of whether, in Walker’s case, the judge should have instructed the jury to consider the death penalty independently for each co-defendant.
Walker received an 11th hour stay of execution in 2004, and on January 30, 2006 won the right to a new trial, based on evidence found to have been withheld from his defense lawyers, a claim separate from the one the Clinic addressed. “But that sort of claim we were making is one that can be raised at the new trial,” says Coleman, clearly elated.
Coleman is one of the foremost experts on the death penalty in the United States and his Death Penalty Clinic, which helped to revive clinical education at the Law School in 1995, is well known for leaving a lasting impact on its alumni. It will return in the Fall 2006 semester after a year’s absence from the curriculum. Students will again have the opportunity to work on clemency petitions as well as other issues relating to how the death penalty is implemented. “My goal has always been to educate students about how the death penalty is actually administered. I want them to work on challenging litigation and investigations that provide insight as to how the system works,” says Coleman. “The best thing anybody can do is get educated as to how it works, and engage in honest discussion. People can then make up their own minds.”
Clinics give you an appreciation of how the legal system works. Students who have gone through one inevitably become better citizens, no what kind of law they practice.
- Professor James Coleman, Jr.
Mental retardation issues are likely to come before students in the revived Clinic, says Coleman. While the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded inmates in its 2002 decision in Atkins v. Virginia, “there are a lot of unresolved issues as to how that decision is implemented.”
Coleman notes that the Clinic is open to–and always attracts–students on both sides of the capital punishment debate. “Students who oppose the death penalty develop an appreciation of the other side, the victims’ side.” Leslie Cooley ’05 says her Death Penalty Clinic experience continually informs her work as an assistant district attorney in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
“Not only did it teach me the importance of compassion, but also about the balance of power in the criminal justice system and how important it is to have quality people working to make sure that justice is done. I use what I learned representing individuals who have been mistreated by the system when I make decisions as a prosecutor, knowing that some day they may affect the life of an individual, like they did my death penalty clients.”
“Clinics give you an appreciation of how the legal system works,” says Coleman. “Students who have gone through one inevitably become better citizens, no matter what kind of law they practice.”
