The Case for eliminating the Death Penalty-A Conversation with Professor Andrea Lyon

Please click on this link to contribute whatever you can to keep this podcast on the air:  https://thechesedfund.com/yeshivaofnewarkpodcast/keeping-the-ark-afloat  With downloads approaching the million mark-and an archival library numbering in the thousands, the Yeshiva ofNewark Podcast has been striving to continuously upgrade our content, and professionalize our audio sound, along with altering approaches in light ofmuch appreciated listener feedback.  A niche has been carved out that resonates with many on the wide spectrum of Observant Jews.  This explains why we continually rank high in independent on-line lists of top Yeshiva podcasts.   This proud edifice is in real danger of toppling and disappearing.  We need the help of our listeners to continue to record and edit, and to promote a product that has been a balm and instructive to so many.   Just 36 dollars, a minimum donation, from a thousand of you out there will keep usafloat as a New Ark of straight, intelligent, and humorous discussion,lectures, debate and inquiry - while the destructive waters of ignorance and politics crash around us Ms. Lyon is a renowned lawyer, author, speaker, professor and former Dean of the Valparaiso University Law School, who has been featured on national news and media outlets. Dubbed “The Angel of Death Row” by the Chicago Tribune, she was the first woman to serve as lead attorney in a death penalty case, and she holds an unparalleled 19 wins in 19 capital cases. Ms. Lyon has dedicated her career to advocating and upholding justice for all. Her legal work began in the Cook County Public Defender’s Office where she rose to become Chief of the Homicide Task Force. Managing a 22-lawyer unit, she tried over 130 homicide cases and defended more than 30 potential capital cases at the trial level, including taking 19 capital cases through penalty phase. In 1990, Ms. Lyon founded and directed the Illinois Capital Resource Center representing all of the death row inmates in Illinois. She is leader of academic reforms in both curriculum development and mentoring diversity in law school student and faculty populations. Ms. Lyon brought her depth of criminal justice experience to enrich legal education at University of Michigan Law School as assistant clinical professor; DePaul University College of Law as clinical professor of law, Associate Dean of Clinical Programs, and Director of the Center for Justice in Capital Cases; and as Dean of Valparaiso University Law School. In January of 2015, Ms. Lyon was awarded Operation Push’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Lyndon B. Johnson Dream-Makers Award. A winner of the prestigious National Legal Aid and Defender Association’s Reginald Heber Smith Award for best advocate for the poor in the country, she is a nationally recognized expert in the field of death penalty defense and a frequent Continuing Legal Education (CLE) teacher throughout the country.  She has been designated as learned counsel in the federal defense system. Ms. Lyon received her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University and her law degree from Antioch School of Law. Her publications include over fifty law review articles, over ten practice manuals and books, including The Feminine Sixth: Women in Criminal Defense (NACDL Press 2018), The Death Penalty: What’s Keeping it Alive (Rowan & Littlefield, 2015), Team Defense in Criminal Cases with Mortimer Smith (ABA publication, 2014), and Angel of Death Row: My Life as a Death Penalty Defense Lawyer (Kaplan, 2010).  This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate