Students in the Death Penalty and Criminal Defense Clinic are selected to engage in field work in Manhattan Criminal Court, representing people charged with misdemeanors from the case's inception through final disposition. A companion seminar offers intensive instruction in criminal law, criminal procedure and evidence. This clinic also enables students to provide zealous, innovative representation to the individuals most harmed by the criminal punishment system: those condemned to die. We represent clients in Southern jurisdictions at multiple litigation points – from state direct and collateral appeal to federal habeas, providing clinic students with experience in high-stakes litigation in multiple forums and jurisdictions.
Jonathan Oberman and Kathryn Miller, Co-Directors
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Death Penalty and Criminal Defense Clinic Co-Directors: Jonathan Oberman and Kathryn Miller
Jonathan Oberman is a Clinical Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Death Penalty and Criminal Defense Clinic. Over his twenty years at Cardozo, Oberman has taught Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law, Wrongful Convictions, and Ethics of Criminal Advocacy. In addition he teaches the Defense Clinic Seminar and directs the Criminal Defense Clinic, supervises students in the Criminal Appeals Clinic, and in the past litigated cases with the Innocence Project. Over his tenure at Cardozo, close to 150 former students have gone on to careers in Public Defender offices all over the country. Before coming to Cardozo, Oberman spent eleven years working as a Public Defender in both appeals and trials, where he served as a supervising attorney and trial trainer. He continues to work as a cooperating attorney with lawyers in the Legal Aid Society Criminal Defense Practice. Email: oberman@yu.edu
Kathryn Miller is a Professor of Law and the Co-Director of the Death Penalty and Criminal Defense Clinic. Her scholarship focuses on how dominant conceptions of criminal punishment and adjudication implicate the constitutional rights of criminal defendants. She explores how procedural rules designed to further the interests of criminal defendants often disadvantage them and have detrimental spillover effects. Prior to joining Cardozo, Professor Miller was a clinical fellow and supervising attorney at UC Berkeley School of Law where she taught in the law school's Death Penalty Clinic. Professor Miller has represented individuals convicted of capital crimes at the Equal Justice Initiative and has served as a supervising attorney at The Bronx Defenders. Professor Miller has a B.A. summa cum laude from The College of William & Mary and a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif . Email: kathryn.miller@yu.edu
Class of 2024 Criminal Defense Clinic Students Earn Public Defense Jobs
All 15 Class of 2024 students from Cardozo's Criminal Defense Clinic have accepted full-time positions as public defenders.
Student Experience
Zoe Sheppard's ‘24 clinical experience began with a challenging two-fold case that required her to quickly establish a trusting relationship with a young client and persuade the assistant district attorney to re-offer an expired plea deal. Along with the support of her clinical partner and faculty advisor, Zoe successfully convinced the ADA to re-offer the expired plea deal. With the offer now back on the table and an ominous trial date rapidly approaching, Zoe advised the client that accepting this deal was in his best interest. Zoe's work helped earn the client's freedom and sharpen her legal acumen.
Faculty Scholarship: The Antisubordination Eighth Amendment
This Article by Co-Director Kathryn Miller featured in California Law Review (2024) argues for a constitutional response to one of the worst structural harms of the criminal legal system: the perpetuation of racial subordination. It makes this case by exploring whether the antisubordination principle best associated with the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause could be applied to Eighth Amendment constitutional interpretation. This principle posits that the Constitution should be read in a way that dismantles the structural harm of caste hierarchy. An antisubordination interpretation of the Eighth Amendment would require courts to balance the depth of the harm of caste perpetuation against the strength of the government’s interest in imposing punishment on an individual. Such a test would lead to the invalidation of punishments that entrench racial hierarchy—absent a compelling government interest in continuing to impose them.
In spring 2022, the Criminal Defense Clinic authored a letter to Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams on behalf of people incarcerated at Rikers Island.
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Cardozo Criminal Defense Clinic – Rikers Island Letter