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Bryan Stevenson
Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal
Justice Initiative of Alabama, a non-profit organization that defends
the rights of the poor and people of color in Alabama. He and his
colleagues have successfully reduced or overturned death sentences
in more than sixty-five cases where poor people were unconstitutionally
convicted or sentenced. Stevenson is one of the country’s most
eloquent anti-death penalty speakers and has won wide recognition
for his work. He is the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s "Genius
Award," the ACLU’s National Medal of Liberty, and the American
Bar Association’s Wisdom Award for Public Service.
Frank R. Baumgartner, Ph.D.
Frank R. Baumgartner, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor of Political
Science at Pennsylvania State University whose work focuses on public
policy, agenda-setting, and interest groups in American politics.
He has done innovative research on the changing nature of public discussion
surrounding the death penalty, and gave a major presentation at the
24th Annual NAACP-LDF Capital Punishment Training Conference, (the
Airlie Conference) entitled, “Justice, Retribution, or Mistake?
The Changing Tones of Media Coverage of Capital Punishment in the
U.S.”
Gary L. Bledsoe
Gary L. Bledsoe is the founder and President of the Texas State Conference
of NAACP Branches, a position he has held continuously since 1991.
During his tenure, the number and influence of local branches in Texas
increased significantly, making the NAACP one of the most respected
civil rights organizations in that state. In recognition of his work,
Gary Bledsoe received the 1998 Kelly Alexander Award for the Best
State Conference President in the Nation. Bledsoe has also received
the Lawyer of the Year Award and the Arthur B. Dewitt Award for Contributions
to Civil Rights.
Senator Rodney Ellis
Senator Rodney Ellis of Houston has served in the Texas Senate for
fourteen years. During his tenure, he has sponsored and passed several
major criminal justice reform laws, including the Texas Fair Defense
Act of 2001, landmark legislation that overhauled the state’s
indigent criminal defense system. During the 2005 legislative session,
Senator Ellis sponsored a dozen anti-death penalty bills and in recognition
of those efforts, he will be a recipient of the NCADP Public Service
Award at this year’s conference.
Assemblyman Joseph Lentol
Assemblyman Joseph Lentol from Brooklyn, New York has served in the
state legislature since 1972 and was once a death penalty supporter.
But on April 12, 2005, Lentol said, “I never thought I’d
vote against the death penalty. But I’ve come to realize that
no one’s perfect, including judges and juries.” On that
day, the Committee on Codes, which he chairs, killed a legislative
fix to New York’s death penalty statute, which had been declared
unconstitutional in 2004. In recognition of his leadership in ending
the death penalty in New York, Assemblyman Lentol will receive the
NCADP Public Service Award at this year’s conference.
Rachel King
Rachel King served as the Director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project and currently teaches at The Howard University School of Law. A longtime anti-death penalty activist, she is the author of two books: Capital Consequences: Families of the Condemned Tell Their Stories and Don’t Kill in Our Names: Families of Murder Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty.
David Dow
David Dow is the Director of the Texas Innocence Network at the University of Houston Law Center. He has handled more than twenty-five death penalty appeals. Professor Dow has written extensively on the death penalty and is the author of several books, including Executed on a Technicality: Lethal Injustice on America’s Death Row (Beacon Press, 2005). He graduated with a B.A. in History from Rice University, and earned his M.A. in History and his law degree from Yale. Upon graduation, he clerked for the Honorable Carolyn Dineen King of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ruth Friedman
Ruth Friedman has been handling death penalty cases for many years. She served as senior counsel at the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, where her practice encompassed all levels of capital litigation, including federal habeas corpus, state post-conviction, and trial and direct appeal. In 1994 Ms. Friedman argued the case of Harris v. Alabama before the U.S. Supreme Court. Ms. Friedman is a leading expert on federal habeas corpus jurisprudence and lectures frequently on this and other topics related to the administration of capital punishment. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her undergraduate degree from Harvard University.
Hadar Harris
Hadar Harris is the Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University College of Law in Washington, DC. She is a leading expert on the application of the international human rights framework to domestic criminal justice advocacy. She has worked extensively in assessing and reviewing national compliance with international human rights treaties working both with NGOs and governmental bodies. In addition, Ms. Harris has developed and piloted innovative distance learning programs and has conducted training and educational workshops on a wide variety of subjects concerning human rights, pluralism and democracy education around the world.
Jim Marcus
Jim Marcus is the Executive Director of the Texas Defender Service, a private, nonprofit law firm that represents indigent capital defendants. He is an Associate Director of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and a member of the Board of Directors of the Texas Innocence Network. The recipient of numerous awards, Mr. Marcus was named as a “Super Lawyer” by Texas Monthly in October of 2004 and received the “Torch of Liberty Award” from the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association in 2002. His activities include providing consulting assistance in death penalty cases, presenting Continuing Legal Education seminars on death penalty representation, coordinating representation for indigent inmates, and speaking on death-penalty related topics. Mr. Marcus graduated from the University of Houston Law Center cum laude in 1993.
J. Gary Hart
J. Gary Hart is in private practice specializing in capital post-conviction relief. He has drafted numerous applications for writs of habeas corpus in Texas capital murder cases, and handled the case of Kelsey Patterson, a severely mentally ill Texas death row inmate.
Prior to establishing his private legal practice, Mr. Hart served as Research Assistant for Judge Sam Houston Clinton in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. He is a 1979 graduate of Davidson College in North Carolina and received his J.D. Degree, With Honors, from the University of Texas at Austin in 1984.
Naomi E. Terr
Naomi E. Terr is a program attorney with the Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program, a program funded by the government of Mexico to assist Mexican nationals facing the death penalty in the U.S. The major focus of her private practice is developing mitigating evidence in capital cases. Ms. Terr has worked extensively on cases involving mental retardation. From 2001-2003 Ms. Terr served as an Equal Justice Works Fellow where she was responsible for developing and implementing a project to incorporate social work students into capital defense teams. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989 with a Bachelor of Social Work. In 1993, she obtained a Master of Science in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Social Work. She received a Doctorate in Jurisprudence from Cornell Law School in 2001.
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