Association of Alumni President John Mathias '69 has been selected to chair the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Representation Project, an organization that advocates for defendants facing capital punishment. Mathias, an opponent of the death penalty who has taken on five pro bono cases with clients facing the death penalty during his career as a lawyer, said he was "very pleased" to accept the position in an interview with The Dartmouth on Monday.
The Project recruits and provides assistance to lawyers who take on clients pro bono, he said. Since its inception in 1986, the Project has held recruiting sessions in over 20 cities nationwide and has successfully enlisted the help of approximately 200 volunteer firms.
The capital punishment system is currently afflicted by a "crisis of counsel," in which defendants lack adequate legal representation during both their criminal trial and sentencing processes, Mathias said.
"Very few people know how deficient the level of representation is," he said. "Everyone assumes that defendants get all kinds of legal help on death row, and the opposite is actually true very few of them do."
The problem is compounded because many of the clients receiving the death penalty are poor and cannot afford "meaningful representation" lawyers who have experience with death penalty cases, Robin Maher, the director of the Project, said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. As a result, most inmates on death row do not receive fair trials, and after being convicted, many defendants lack appropriate counsel for their appeals process, according to Maher.
Mathias said that although he is opposed to the death penalty, the ABA takes no stance on the issue other than to emphasize adequate representation during the trial and sentencing proceedings. The Project is important regardless of one's position on capital punishment, Mathias said.
"Most people would agree that whatever they think about the death penalty, they would like to know all the facts they would want to hear the whole story," he said.
In addition to raising awareness, the Project also works to reform the way in which legal counsel is provided to defendants who cannot afford their own representation, Mathias said.
"One hundred and thirty five people have been exonerated from death row after evidence of their innocence was discovered," Maher wrote in the e-mail. "Some of those exonerees came within hours of being executed. No one knows how many innocent people there are on death row today."
Mathias, whose one-year term began Aug. 4, said his duties as chair include convening meetings of the Project's steering committee and soliciting firms for volunteers and donations.
Mathias will face a number of significant challenges during his tenure as chair of the Project, Maher said, the most immediate of which include current budget constraints and a drop in donations, both due to the economic recession.
Law firms in uncertain financial situations are less likely to undertake pro bono cases, according to Mathias.
"We're going to have to work harder, twice as hard," Mathias said, adding that he believes the lawyers involved "will do good things, regardless of the level of money involved."
Maher cited Mathias' fundraising experience as an important asset for the Project in the upcoming year.
A more chronic challenge for the Project lies in the unpopularity of death penalty cases among lawyers because of their tendency to be "challenging and time consuming," Maher said.
Judges and juries are unsympathetic to defendants charged with serious capital crimes, making their cases a hard sell to potential pro bono firms, according to Mathias.
"Those are the most unpopular people on the face of the earth," Mathias said. "It's a big job to keep the volunteerism and energy level up."
Maher said Mathias is well equipped to face these challenges, due to his "terrific energy and dedication to his position," as well as his extensive pro bono service. Of the five death penalty cases Mathias has handled, three were completed and all of those clients avoided capital punishment.
"I've had a lifelong commitment to this on the pro bono side of things," he said.
