Spring 2025: Capital Punishment Clinic

By Professor Patrick Metze, Director of the Capital Punishment Clinic. Originally published in the Spring 2025 Texas Tech Law Newsletter.

The sixteenth Capital Punishment Clinic, featuring students Areesha Hemani and Andie Keefer's work at the RPDCC, with extended excerpts from their clinic application essays on the death penalty.

From the Desk of Patrick S. Metze – Director, Capital Punishment Clinic

The Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases office (RPDCC) welcomed it's sixteenth Capital Punishment Clinic this past Spring semester. This office is the only statewide defender for capital cases with eight regional offices throughout Texas. All of their clients are in the unenviable position of prolonged incarceration — generally single celled — alienated from family with little hope of eventual release. This semester two students were chosen from those that completed the Fall 2023 and 2024 Capital Punishment Seminar. Completion of the seminar indoctrinates the chosen students into the unique world of the capital defender.

This column is reproduced only in brief. Read the whole thing in the Spring 2025 issue at Texas Tech Law.