Capital Habeas Practicum

Catalog description

This course provides students with an overview of the substantive and procedural law involved in capital post-conviction litigation. Topics include an overview of some of the constitutional principles governing the imposition of the death penalty, the exclusion of intellectually disabled defendants from death-eligibility, effective assistance of counsel in capital cases, and certain aspects of state post-conviction and federal habeas corpus procedure. This course has a heavy experiential component in which students focus on developing lawyering skills needed for effective post-conviction capital litigation, including legal research and writing and effective courtroom advocacy.