Members of the CHR have contributed to the work of Amicus, providing biannual training to UK barristers, solicitors, and law students, and provide strategic advice, and contribute to the member’s publication the Amicus Journal. We help fulfil Amicus’ mission of providing legal services to those on death row in the United States.
Researchers
Consultancy background
Various members of the Centre for Human Rights have contributed to the work of Amicus since 1996. Amicus was formally known as the “Andrew Lee Jones Fund,” and in 1996, Professor Yorke was the second recipient of the ALJ Scholarship for his death penalty work in Oklahoma. Since this time, Amicus has evolved to become the leading UK nongovernmental organisation which trains the UK legal profession to undertake aspects of capital defence within the United States, and it provides legal services and advice from the UK.
Consultancy process
CHR members have provided the biannual training of UK barristers, solicitors and law students, undertaken trusteeship, held membership of the editorial board of the Amicus Journal, provided legal opinion on amicus curiae briefs, and advised on intern placements across the United States. We deliver training on Federalism, the composition of the United States Supreme Court, the capital judicial process, the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, race and equal protection, jury selection, and international law and the death penalty.
At Birmingham City University our students acts as “Amicus Ambassadors” and organise events to raise awareness of the plight of those facing the death penalty in the United States, and engage BCU students with the Amicus networks across the UK and in the US. Our students have attended the Amicus training, and following death penalty internships, have shared their experiences with the UK’s legal profession.
Past students have also contributed to the Amicus Journal, and have undertaken casework in which trial transcripts, appellate briefs, and amicus curiae briefs have been filed into the US state and federal courts.