Pro bono event to focus on death-penalty fight
A range of international speakers will discuss pro bono justice and the death penalty at the Law Society in Blackhall Place next month.
The event, which focuses on the fight against the death penalty, is presented by Arthur Cox and Amicus UK, which fights for people facing a death sentence in the US.
Keynote speakers include:
- Margot Ravenscroft (director, Amicus),
- Prof Raoul Shonemann (clinical professor and co-director, Capital Punishment Clinic at University of Texas School of Law), and
- Samantha Knight KC (Matrix Chambers).
Carolann Minnock (Arthur Cox) will moderate a question-and-answer session with the speakers and panel.
The event, on Wednesday 22 April, runs from 5.30pm to 8.30pm, with a live stream from Blackhall Place available from 6pm to 7.30pm.
Registration is now open.
Courses on capital punishment
Prof Schonemann has represented people facing the death penalty in trials, appeals, and post-conviction cases for more than 30 years.
Before joining the University of Texas in 2013, he served as managing attorney of the Southern Centre for Human Rights in Atlanta and as a deputy public defender at the Office of the State Public Defender in San Francisco.
He teaches courses on capital punishment, capital defence advocacy, and contemporary criminal-justice issues.
Knights’s practice focuses on immigration and asylum, public law, human rights, international law and commercial litigation. Her cases have involved ground-breaking developments in law before the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, European Court of Human Rights, and Court of Justice of the European Union.
Ravenscroft joined Amicus in 2007 after working for the Bar Pro Bono Unit. She previously worked in California at the offices of Clarence & Dyer LLP on death-penalty appeals.