| Course Description |
We will study and learn how lawyers approach the trial of a capital case.
How has the Supreme Court shaped capital litigation and how do lawyers use the
changing constitutional and statutory rules to organize and conduct the defense. The
principles and skills we will study will prepare you to participation in complex litigation,
not only capital cases. However, we will also deal with the unique challenges of capital
litigation, and inquire whether the efforts to rationalize the administration of the death
penalty have been successful. We will approach the issues and lawyer decisions from the
standpoint of a team of lawyers appointed to represent a capital case defendant. We will
also analyze the decline in the number of death verdicts and sentences, and ask how
lawyers’ efforts have contributed to this. We will look at the international movement to
abolish the death penalty, and discuss the abolition movements in France, South Africa
and Japan (in each of which countries Michael Tigar has taught and worked with human rights activists. Michael E. Tigar, the instructor, was a partner at Williams & Connolly
and in his own law firm, and has taught at law schools in the US, France, Japan,
Switzerland and South Africa. He has been involved in capital case representation in
federal and state trial and appellate courts, and in teaching capital case advocacy. He has
conducted litigation in more than 20 states and in other countries, and has argued more
than 100 federal appeals and seven cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. More information
(and an archive of his work) is at https://law.utexas.edu/tigar-event/visit-the-archive/. His
memoir is Sensing Injustice (2021).
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