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Steven F. Shatz

Philip and Muriel Barnett Professor of Trial Advocacy and Director of the Keta Taylor Colby Death Penalty Project

Philip and Muriel Barnett Professor Shatz has been an expert witness and consultant in numerous capital cases and authored several amicus briefs for U.S. Supreme Court cases. Shatz has been a lecturer at UC Berkeley, and a visiting professor at the East China Institute of Politics and Law, in Shanghai, China, and UC Hastings College of Law. Shatz is the director of the Keta Taylor Colby Death Penalty Project, established in 2001 to involve law students in the interim reform and ultimate abolition of the death penalty in the United States. He oversees the Southern Internship Program, which sends students to work with capital defense attorneys in the South each summer.

Education
  • AB, UC Berkeley
  • JD, Harvard University
Prior Experience
  • Directing Attorney, Farm Worker Division, Evergreen Legal Services
  • Partner, Rader & Shatz
  • Fellow Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Program
Awards
  • Sarlo Prize for Excellence in Teaching, University of San Francisco, 2009
  • Leo T. McCarthy Center Public Service and the Common Good Human Rights Research Fellowship, 2004
  • Grant, Butler Family Fund, 2003 
TitleOutletsDate
"Police: Wounded Foster City Intruder May Have Been Lost"Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, San Mateo County Times, and others03/27/12
"Shatz and Shatz on Gender and the Death Penalty"CrimProf Blog03/10/11
Books
  • California Criminal Law: Cases and Problems (Lexis, First Edition 1999, Second Edition 2004, Third Edition 2011). Buy It
  • Cases and Materials on the Death Penalty (West, First Edition 2001, Second Edition 2005, Third Edition 2009). (Co-authored with Nina Rivkind.)
Law Review and Journal Articles
  • "Chivalry is not Dead: Murder, Gender, and the Death Penalty," 27 Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law and Justice 64 (2012). (Co-authored with Naomi Shatz.) SSRN
  • "The Death Penalty," 13 Peace Review 493-565, [special issue] (2001). (Co-edited with Constance de la Vega)
  • "The Eighth Amendment, the Death Penalty, and Ordinary Robbery-Burglary Murderers: A California Case Study," 59 Florida Law Review 719 (2007). SSRN
  • "The California Death Penalty: Prosecutors' Use of Inconsistent Theories Plays Fast and Loose with the Courts and the Defendants," 36 University of San Francisco Law Review  853 (2002). (Co-authored with Lazuli M. Whitt)
  • "The California Death Penalty Scheme: Requiem for Furman?" 72 New York University Law Review 1283 (1997). (Co-authored with Nina Rivkind)
  • "The Strip Search of Children and the Fourth Amendment," 26 University of San Francisco Law Review  1 (1991). (Co-authored with Molly Donovan & Jeanne Hong)
  • "The Second Death of 42 U.S.C. Section 1985(3): The Use and Misuse of History in Statutory Interpretation," 27 Boston College Law Review 911 (1986).
  • "Picketing Injunctions in California: A Study of the Role of the Courts in Farm Labor Disputes," 28 Hastings Law Journal  801 (1977).
  • "California Criminal Discovery: Eliminating Anachronistic Limitations Imposed on the Defendant," 9 University of San Francisco Law Review 259 (1974).
Book Contributions
    Opinion Pieces and Blog Posts
      Other Publications
      • Teacher's Manual, Cases and Materials on the Death Penalty Supplement (Eagan: Minn.; West, 2009). (Co-authored with Nina Rivkind.)
      • Teacher's Manual, California Criminal Law: Cases and Problems (Lexis, First Edition 1999, Second Edition 2004).
      Briefs
        Court Citation of Research
        • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Morales v. Woodford, 388 F.3d 1159 (9th Cir 2004) (No. 99-99020).
        • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Ben-Sholom v. Ayers, WL 4167079 (E.D.Cal 2008) (No. 1:93-CV-05531 AWI).
        • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Dickey v. Ayers, WL 2131564 (E.D.Cal 2008) (No. CIV. F-06-357-AWI-P).
        • Supreme Court of Illinois, People v. Ballard, 794 N.E. 2d 788 (Ill. 2008).
        • Supreme Court of Indiana, Saylor v. State, 765 N.E.2d 535 (Ind. 2002) (No. 48S00-9712-PD-647).
        • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sanders v. Woodford, WL 34882452 (E.D.Cal 2001).
        • U.S. District Court for the Sourthern District of California, Taylor v. Evans, 72 F.Supp.2d 298 (S.D.N.Y. 1999) (No. 94 CIV. 8425(CSH)).
        • U.S. District Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, Jenkins Hall v. Talladega City Board of Education, 115 F.3d 821 (11th Cir. 1997) (No. 95-6243).
        • U.S. District Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, Franz v. Lytle, 997 F.2d 784 (10th Cir. 1993) (No. 92-3183).
        Presentations
        • Panelist, "The California Death Penalty," UC Davis School of Law, (January 2010).
        • Presenter, "The State of the Death Penalty in the United States," Beth El Synagogue, Berkeley (January 2010).
        • Presenter, "Litigating Death Eligibility," California Attorneys for Criminal Justice 2009 Capital Training Program, Los Angeles (September 2009).
        • Workshop leader, "Narrowing Death Eligibility," Capital Case Defense Seminar, Monterey, Calif. (February 2009).
        Testimony and Hearings
        • Professor Shatz has been an expert witness by oral testimony or affidavit in 140 capital cases on the subject of his empirical research regarding the California death penalty (1997 to present)
        • Professor Shatz testified at the United States District Court, Northern District of California, as an expert witness on the California death penalty in the case of Ashmus v. Wong.
        Written Testimony and Commentary
          Advisor or Consultant
            Counsel
              Symposia Organization
                Professional Membership
                  Fellowships
                    Other Service
                    • Consultant, Ensemble contre la peine de mort (French anti-death penalty group and publisher of The Death Penalty in the United States, A Polymorphous Torture) (2011).