Death Penalty Sentencing Mitigation Unit

Time commitment

The clinic will run during the Autumn, Spring and Summer terms. Students will not be expected to participate during the vacations or during the examination period.

Members of the team will be trained by Dr. Alexandra Cox and Dr. Coco in conjunction with lawyers from Reprieve. They will meet via Zoom once a week during term time at a mutually agreed-upon time, and will receive regular Zoom supervisions from the project supervisors.

Participation in the clinic will require from students a commitment of approximately 40 hours of work (in total) over the course of three terms, in addition to 10 hours of contact time through meetings and seminars per term.

Student activity

Students will be assigned tasks in conjunction with the cases. These tasks will include:

• requesting and obtaining client records, including medical, educational, prison/jail, and military records
• digesting and analyzing records
• researching and investigating witnesses
• researching and investigating facts related to the criminal case
• interviewing witnesses
• conducting investigations about conditions of confinement, arrest, and detention in the countries where clients are detained
• research which feeds into Reprieve’s advocacy with the home state or detaining state in relation to the various cases. For example, before trial, research to inform representations by the home state executive to the detaining state executive against seeking the death penalty at trial or, during the judicial process, research to inform an intervention by the home state by way of amicus brief
• social science research connecting to the specific context, pathways and outcomes of the individual’s route to the crime. This could include information about age and offending, gender and offending, but also the broader socio-structural contexts of offending (e.g. exposure to abuse and violence, experiences in war)
• research about the preparation and filing of complaints to international and regional human rights treaty bodies
• research relating to specific country-level campaigns, e.g. ending the death penalty against young people in Saudi Arabia

Duties

Students will be assigned tasks in conjunction with the cases. These tasks will include:

• requesting and obtaining client records, including medical, educational, prison/jail, and military records
• digesting and analyzing records
• researching and investigating witnesses
• researching and investigating facts related to the criminal case
• interviewing witnesses
• conducting investigations about conditions of confinement, arrest, and detention in the countries where clients are detained
• research which feeds into Reprieve’s advocacy with the home state or detaining state in relation to the various cases. For example, before trial, research to inform representations by the home state executive to the detaining state executive against seeking the death penalty at trial or, during the judicial process, research to inform an intervention by the home state by way of amicus brief
• social science research connecting to the specific context, pathways and outcomes of the individual’s route to the crime. This could include information about age and offending, gender and offending, but also the broader socio-structural contexts of offending (e.g. exposure to abuse and violence, experiences in war)
• research about the preparation and filing of complaints to international and regional human rights treaty bodies
• research relating to specific country-level campaigns, e.g. ending the death penalty against young people in Saudi Arabia

Skills acquired

By participating in the Death Penalty sentencing Mitigation Unit, you'll develop stand out skills which will include:

• strong commitment to human rights and the prevention of the application of the death penalty
• strong research and writing skills
• familiarity with legal and social science library-based research
• for law student applicants: ability to analyse, process and summarize legal texts
• willingness to respect client and case confidentiality
• language skills: though not a requirement, fluency in Urdu, Hindi, and Tamil would be beneficial for this clinic