Spring 2023
Professor(s):
David Dow (FACULTY)
Cassandra Jeu (CLINICAL FACULTY)
Jeffrey Newberry (CLINICAL FACULTY)
Credits: 2
Course Areas: Practice Skills - Clinics and Externships
Constitutional and Criminal Law
Time: 4:00p-6:00p T Location: 207
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 actual cases. Students investigate claims related to the guilt-innocence and punishment aspects of death-penalty cases; and research/draft direct appeals, post-conviction appeals, and/or clemency petitions.
Although the same substantive material is covered in both Innocence Investigations and Death Penalty & Criminal Appeals Clinic, the classes differ in terms of the type of case work performed by students. Death Penalty & Criminal Appeals Clinic students work on claims related to both actual and legal innocence. Given the fact that criminal appeals have strict filing deadlines, 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. After student registration opens, there may be instruction mode changes to this course up through two weeks before the first day of classes for the term, but notice of such changes will be sent to then-registered students. 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 = 10
Death Penalty Clinic and Innocence Investigations meet in the same classroom. STUDENTS CAN REGISTER FOR EITHER INNOCENCE INVESTIGATIONS OR DEATH PENALTY CLINIC, BUT CANNOT REGISTER FOR BOTH DURING A SINGLE SEMESTER. However, students are permitted to take Innocence Investigations one semester, then Death Penalty 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 or concurrent enrollment in Criminal Law and Constitutional Law, as well as a pre-registration interview with the course instructor (e-mail ccjeu@central.uh.edu for scheduling).
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