Keta Taylor Colby Death Penalty Project

The Keta Taylor Colby Death Penalty Project was established in 2001 to involve law students in the interim reform, and ultimate abolition, of the death penalty in the United States.

Professor Steven F. Shatz

The project is directed by Professor Steven F. Shatz, who holds the Philip & Muriel Barnett Professorship at USF, where he teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Death Penalty Law. He is co-author of a casebook and articles on the death penalty and has appeared as an expert witness in capital cases. The principal program of the project has been the Southern Internship Program, which each summer sends 8–10 law students to work with capital defense attorneys in the South.

Listen to Professor Steven Shatz, director of the Keta Taylor Colby Death Penalty Project, and students Ashley Connell, Class of 2010, and Natalie Davis, Class of 2010, discuss their experiences working on death penalty cases in the American South at a USF School of Law Justice Forum. The event introduced students to internship opportunities.

Southern Internship Program

During the spring, students attend four training sessions covering a range of issues in death penalty law and practice. In the summer, students are sent in pairs to spend 10 weeks working at the offices of capital defense lawyers in the South. Each student is assigned to work with an attorney on one or more of that attorney's cases. In the course of the casework, the students perform legal research, visit their clients in prison or jail, gather case-related documents, e.g., from trial attorneys' files or public sources (through trips to courts and other agencies or by means of subpoenas or public record act requests), as well as interview lay and expert witnesses, and in some cases jurors. In addition to working on their cases, the students, under the general supervision of Shatz, each undertake a larger legal or empirical research project aimed at developing a systemic challenge to the particular state's death penalty law or practice.

The work is challenging, both legally and emotionally. A few of the students have had the satisfaction of seeing their work bear fruit. In 2002, in Mississippi, Amy Flynn developed the mitigation evidence that caused a jury to reject the death penalty for her client, and David Brody wrote the brief that caused the Mississippi Supreme Court to set aside his client's default and permit the client to litigate his claims. In 2003, in Texas, Alma Lagarda and Laurel Gorman developed the evidence of mental retardation that saved three clients from execution. In 2004, in Arkansas, Jason Horst and Stephanie Smith had the satisfaction of seeing one of their clients released from death row on a mental retardation claim. Most of the time, however, the students contribute small pieces to very large cases, so they will never know how their work contributed to the ultimate outcome. Occasionally, the students experience failure. In 2003, in Arkansas, Megan Rosichan and Robert Tadlock worked around the clock for a month to prevent an execution and were unsuccessful. In 2004, in Texas, Amy Goldman spent a substantial portion of her time preparing a clemency petition for her client, but the petition was denied, and he was executed. Whatever the outcome for particular clients, however, the students all finish the summer having learned about the death penalty, about the practice of law and about the circumstances under which people live. They know that the tasks they did would not have been accomplished but for their efforts and that they made a contribution to the struggle against the death penalty.

The Keta Taylor Colby Death Penalty Project's Southern Internship Program will not be offered in summer 2012. The program will resume in summer 2013.