Is the US Death Penalty Constitutional?
Professor Jeffrey Fagan of Columbian Law School, will present new work on Academic challenges to the constitutionality of the death penalty. With reference to the case ‘Ashmus v Wong’ in California, exploring the empirical and doctrinal issues in pursuing Furman claims in many states in the US. From this, we shall establish the new momentum that has been created from cases like ‘Ashmus’ to pursue these claims in both state and federal death penalty courts, with a number of state cases having abolished capital punishment in specific places. A new wave of constitutional action is emerging, which links the Furman era (1972-6) with the present landscape of capital punishment and it is vital to explore this new era, highlighting constitutional problems with capital punishment. Such as the need for ‘narrowing’ in the decision making process to action the death penalty.
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Professor Jeffrey Fagan Bio:
Leading Legal Academic Expert in Criminology and Death Penalty in USA
Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor, Columbia Law School
Professor of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University.
Senior research scholar and visiting professor, Yale Law School
Research examines policing the legitimacy of the criminal law, capital punishment, legal socialization of adolescents, neighborhoods and crime, and juvenile crime and punishment.
Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academy of Science from 2000-2006
MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice.
2004 National Research Council panel that examined policing in the U.S.
Expert witness on capital punishment to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Fellow of the American Society of Criminology, and served on its executive board for three years. He is past editor of the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and serves on the editorial boards of several journals in criminology and law.
https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/jeffrey-fagan
About Amicus:
Amicus is a small charity that helps provide representation for those facing the death penalty in the United States.
We believe the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on the most vulnerable in society, violating their right to due process and equal justice before the law. Our aims are to provide better access to justice and to raise awareness of potential abuses of defendants' rights.
We are not a campaigning organisation. We believe we can make the greatest difference through frontline work.
Amicus runs various internships. The UK internships are based in our London office and vacancies open about four times a year. Based in the US, general interns (40+ a year) are placed in capital defence offices for a minimum of three months. There are no deadlines for these internships because the need is year-round. Shorter internships usually relate to a specific project (and therefore have specific deadlines), require a commitment of less than three months and are sometimes open to undergraduates. The popular Amicus US Capital training gives delegates a crash course in US law and constitution and student places are heavily subsidised.
