Amicus and the DPRU co-hosting: The Death Penalty in the U.S: Experiences from Texas, the leading execution State

Since 1976, Texas has executed more people than any other State in the U.S. With executions in decline, how does Texas position itself? What are the current human rights and legal challenges on the death penalty? What is the impact on Texas and the U.S. of the recent high-profile nitrogen suffocation execution and expansion of capital charges beyond murder? How do political forces impact Texas? Join us for a discussion with leading Texan academics and practitioners.

 Professors Jim Marcus, Raoul Schoneman and Thea Posel from University of Texas at Austin will provide a unique opportunity to discuss the death penalty in Texas and the wider U.S., with a wealth of experience and knowledge of capital defense. 

Prof. Raoul Schonemann, Clinical Professor, Capital Punishment Clinic

Raoul Schonemann is a clinical professor and the co-director of the Capital Punishment Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas. For the past 25 years he has defended people facing the death penalty in Texas, California, Alabama, and Georgia, primarily in appellate and post-conviction habeas corpus proceedings.  Prior to joining the law school, he was employed as the managing attorney of the Capital Litigation Unit at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta; as a deputy public defender at the Office of the State Public Defender in San Francisco; and as a staff attorney at the Texas Resource Center in Austin.  In 2003, he served as a consultant to the American Bar Association in its revision of the “Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Counsel in Death Penalty Cases.”

Prof. Jim Marcus, Clinical Professor and Co-Director, Capital Punishment Clinic

Since graduating law school in 1993, Jim Marcus has represented death-sentenced clients at every level of state and federal habeas corpus proceedings.  Jim began his career at the Texas Resource Center.  In 1995, he helped found the Texas Defender Service, a non-profit capital defence project. Jim served as the Executive Director of Texas Defender Service from 1997 until 2006, when he joined the Capital Punishment Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law.  He is currently a Clinical Professor and Co-Director of the Capital Punishment Clinic and a Texas Habeas Assistance and Training Counsel. In the latter capacity, Jim trains and supports capital habeas counsel in Texas cases and lectures in capital defence seminars across the nation.

Prof. Thea Posel, Clinical Instructor, Capital Punishment Clinic

Thea Posel is a clinical assistant professor at the School of Social Work as well as a clinical instructor at the Capital Punishment Clinic. She has worked with capital defense teams in both Colorado and Texas, from pre-trial litigation prep and consulting to state and federal post-conviction cases.  She now works primarily on Texas state court advocacy and consulting at the capital trial, appellate, and habeas stages. She co-teaches "Providing Effective Assistance of Counsel in Capital Trials" with Professor Raoul Schonemann and the interdisciplinary "Mitigation Matters" course, a collaboration between the Capital Punishment Center faculty and the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Thea holds a sociology degree from the University of Colorado, where her undergraduate research focused on the effects of race and class in capital prosecutions, sentencing outcomes, and participation in the criminal justice system as well as social and environmental effects and attitudes surrounding the death penalty in Colorado.