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Florida Supreme Court Reverses Itself on Death Penalty Restriction from 2016

Saying it made a “clear error” in 2016, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday scrapped a decision that gave some Death Row inmates another chance to argue that they should be shielded from execution because they have intellectual disabilities. The…
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Online Course: Intellectual Disability in Capital Cases

It is our mission to ensure that no one with intellectual disability is ever executed. We are dedicated to equipping all members of the capital defense team with the tools needed to discover, investigate, and effectively litigate intellectual…
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2020 Death is Different Seminar XXVI

February 20-21, 2020 All FACDL seminars, apart from the annual Criminal Law Certification Review seminar, are intended to: promote the excellence of, disseminate knowledge to, and provide education to, the criminal defense community.  In…
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PD9 and GCD Host Capital Defense Conference in Orlando: Telling the Client’s Story

The Georgia Capital Defenders had scheduled a great October CLE program in Savannah captioned “Telling the Client’s Story,” but had complications which prevented them from going forward. We contacted GCD and offered to put on their program…
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When People with Intellectual Disabilities Are Punished, Parents Pay the Price

Carol Nesteikis, 66, has never committed a crime. But for two years, from six in the evening to six in the morning the next day, she lived under de facto house arrest with her 32-year-old son, Adam. It wasn’t because she wanted to. The…
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Registration Open: Social Worker/Sentencing Advocate Conference in Seattle, Washington – September 10-13

These conferences will feature nationally recognized faculty in a mix of plenary sessions, simultaneous sessions and small group breakouts.  Participants will have the opportunity to choose sessions to best fit their individual needs.  There…
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Representing People with Mental Disabilities: A Practical Webinar for Criminal Defense Lawyers

For criminal defense lawyers of all types, clients with mental disabilities are a part of their practice. This includes the white collar criminal defense lawyer who represents an executive charged with tax evasion who functions despite a variety…
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Mentally Ill South Florida Man Starved to Death in Prison, Lawsuit Alleges – The Miami New Times

When Vincent Gaines was sentenced to five years in prison on robbery charges in June 2013, state officials recommended he be placed in a mental-health unit because he had regular visual and auditory hallucinations. So Gaines was transferred…
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Registration Open: Defender Summer School, August 6-7

Registration is now open for the 2018 Defender Summer School, hosted by Robert Wesley, Public Defender for the Ninth Judicial Circuit. Speakers Prof. Denis Keyes, Professor of Education, College of Charleston Dr. I. Bruce Frumkin,…
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Supreme Court Won’t Hear the Case of Brendan Dassey, Sentenced to Life as a Teen and Featured in ‘Making a Murderer’ – The Washington Post

The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a plea to intervene in the case of Brendan Dassey, whose confession to rape and murder as a teenager was portrayed as coerced in the popular Netflix documentary “Making a Murderer.” Read more.