Summer I 2025
Professor(s):
David Dow (FACULTY)
Cassandra Jeu (CLINICAL FACULTY)
Jeffrey Newberry (CLINICAL FACULTY)
Credits: 4
Course Areas: Practice Skills - Clinics and Externships
Constitutional and Criminal Law
Time: 4:00p-5:30p MW Location: 260
Course Outline: Death Penalty & Criminal Appeals Clinic explores the substantive law, investigative techniques, and post-conviction appellate remedies applicable in capital (death penalty) and non-capital cases. Lectures will cover topics such as: Texas criminal statutes, state/federal habeas law, clemency proceedings, investigative techniques, and capital trial strategy. In addition to attending lectures, students work on both death-penalty and non-death penalty cases. For death penalty cases, students investigate claims related to the guilt-innocence and punishment phases of death-penalty cases; and research/draft post-conviction appeals, and/or clemency petitions. For non-death penalty cases, students research and draft direct appeals.
Given the strict filing deadlines in criminal appellate cases, it is vital that Death Penalty & Criminal Appeals Clinic students adhere to deadlines set by the course instructor.
NO BOOK FOR THIS COURSE.
Course Syllabus: Syllabus
Course Notes: (Face-to-Face) The UH registration system instruction mode for this course is listed in parenthesis. For this instruction mode, instructors and students are expected to normally be physically present in the classroom. If the course has a final examination, it will be in a classroom requiring your physical presence. Other assessment, such as a mid-term exam, may also be in a classroom. Whether this instructor will offer “remote presence” (starting a zoom meeting from the podium computer to enable student remote access on an occasional basis) for part or all of the semester is not known, but students should not rely on an expectation that remote presence will be available.
Quota = 6.
Death Penalty & Criminal Appeals Clinic and Innocence Investigations meet in the same classroom. STUDENTS CAN REGISTER FOR EITHER INNOCENCE INVESTIGATIONS OR DEATH PENALTY & CRIMINAL APPEALS CLINIC, BUT CANNOT REGISTER FOR BOTH DURING A SINGLE SEMESTER. However, students are permitted to take Innocence Investigations one semester, then Death Penalty & Criminal Appeals Clinic some subsequent semester (or vice versa) for a total of six substantive credit hours. Please direct any questions to Professor Cassandra Jeu.
Prerequisites: Yes Completion of two semesters of law school plus completion of or current enrollment in Criminal Law and instructor permission. Students must apply to Death Penalty & Criminal Appeals Clinic by submitting the online application at: https://uhlc.wufoo.com/forms/m1263f5v0xj9tln/ Students should not attempt to enroll themselves in this
First Day Assignments:
Final Exam Schedule:
This course will have:
Exam:
Paper:
Satisfies Senior Upper Level Writing Requirement: No
Experiential Course Type: clinic
Bar Course: No
DistanceEd ABA: No
Pass-Fail Student Election: Conditional Availability (not for required credits)
Course Materials
No book required for this course
