Big firms offer death row defense
Dublin Core
Title
Big firms offer death row defense
Subject
Death Row Defense
Description
Big law firms offer lawyers to defend people on death row
Creator
Unknown
Source
New York Times
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
July 8, 1988
Rights
The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source.
Format
2 JPG
Language
English
Coverage
Michigan
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Miguel Richardson bears little resemblance to the securities brokers and corporate raiders that Steven Rosenfeld, a partner in Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison has always represented. Mr. Richardson, convicted of the murders of two Holiday Inn security guars in San Antonio, has been on death row in Texas since 1982.
"From the point of view of a typical corporate attorney this is an entirely different clientele," Mr. Rosenfeld said. "This sort of population is not the most popular in society and there is certain reservation about doing this sort of work in the minds of a lot of people. But it's hard to pick a group of people who needs help more but have less access to it."
To an uncommon extent, many of the nation's most prestigious corporate law firms are volunteering for duty in a difficult area of criminal: capital punishment. Some, like Paul, Weiss, have represented death row inmates before but are doing so more often. Many others, especially in the South and West are taking on such cases for the first time.
"From the point of view of a typical corporate attorney this is an entirely different clientele," Mr. Rosenfeld said. "This sort of population is not the most popular in society and there is certain reservation about doing this sort of work in the minds of a lot of people. But it's hard to pick a group of people who needs help more but have less access to it."
To an uncommon extent, many of the nation's most prestigious corporate law firms are volunteering for duty in a difficult area of criminal: capital punishment. Some, like Paul, Weiss, have represented death row inmates before but are doing so more often. Many others, especially in the South and West are taking on such cases for the first time.
Represented All the Way
The movement is a response to an acute shortage of criminal lawyers for capital appeals. While the defendants have a constitutional right to legal representation at trial and through at least one appeal, there is no constitutional right to a lawyer through the long process of appealing a death sentence all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Many states have mechanisms to provide representation for death row appeals, but there are not enough defense lawyers to go around, according to prosecutors, prisoner rights organizations and many judges.
The entry of leading, corporate law firms into death row appeals has brought complaints from some prosecutors who are annoyed by the delays and long legal briefs that the civil litigators have brought to this criminal matter. But the influx of sharp new minds is also welcomed in the Have taken capital cases since last October.
While most of the participating corporate lawyers have little or no experience in the field, experts say training and resources and often the sheer love of challenge, more than compensates. Yale Kamisar, a leading constitutional scholar at the University of Michigan law school, said inexperience in death penalty appeals could even be an advantage in opening the way to novel approaches.
"People in private law firms coming insights experienced criminal lawyers would not," Professor Kamisar said. "A civil lawyer who takes a capital case is more likely to get fired up and think of every conceivable argument he can make."
The movement is a response to an acute shortage of criminal lawyers for capital appeals. While the defendants have a constitutional right to legal representation at trial and through at least one appeal, there is no constitutional right to a lawyer through the long process of appealing a death sentence all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Many states have mechanisms to provide representation for death row appeals, but there are not enough defense lawyers to go around, according to prosecutors, prisoner rights organizations and many judges.
The entry of leading, corporate law firms into death row appeals has brought complaints from some prosecutors who are annoyed by the delays and long legal briefs that the civil litigators have brought to this criminal matter. But the influx of sharp new minds is also welcomed in the Have taken capital cases since last October.
While most of the participating corporate lawyers have little or no experience in the field, experts say training and resources and often the sheer love of challenge, more than compensates. Yale Kamisar, a leading constitutional scholar at the University of Michigan law school, said inexperience in death penalty appeals could even be an advantage in opening the way to novel approaches.
"People in private law firms coming insights experienced criminal lawyers would not," Professor Kamisar said. "A civil lawyer who takes a capital case is more likely to get fired up and think of every conceivable argument he can make."
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
Unknown , “Big firms offer death row defense,” HIST299, accessed July 12, 2026, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/118.