Andrea Lyon, Former Cook County Homicide Task Force Chief, will Direct Clinic

Since 1977, when capital punishment was reinstated in Illinois, 13 Death Row inmates have been exonerated, which impelled the governor to declare a moratorium on the death penalty in January. Nationally, the statistics are even more staggering. Since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, 87 prisoners have had their state-imposed death sentences revoked.

In the face of such urgency to ensure that those charged with capital crimes receive the best representation available, the DePaul University College of Law will establish the Center for Justice in Capital Cases, with the aid of funding from the Illinois State Appellate Defender’s Office. The clinic will open in August.

Under the direction of Andrea Lyon, former chief of the Homicide Task Force for the Office of the Cook County Public Defender, the center will serve as a training ground for students interested in working on capital cases. It also will sponsor programs to provide attorneys with training and consultation resources they need to better represent their clients, such as a six-day intensive training school.

Lyon and her students will represent clients in one to two capital cases each year. Students will be responsible for a range of work including investigating cases, drafting memoranda, interviewing clients, conducting research and working with experts.

“Illinois’ record in capital cases is abysmal,” said Teree E. Foster, dean of the College of Law. “Many individuals charged with capital crimes do not have the resources to secure adequate legal representation.

Andrea’s superb work in training lawyers to try capital cases will have a marked impact on the defense of capital cases so that defendants will be provided with appropriate due process. By giving students hands-on experience in trying capital cases, working in the clinic may convince some of our brightest students to choose careers in criminal law, a field where talented young people always are needed.”

Lyon, who attended the Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C., has earned a reputation as a leading expert in death penalty defense. She comes to DePaul from the University of Michigan Law School where she was an assistant clinical professor and director of the Darrow Death Penalty Defense College, which trains attorneys to defend death penalty cases.

Prior to her foray into the world of academia, Lyon, who resides in Flossmoor, Ill., headed the Illinois Capital Resource Center, a training ground and resource center for attorneys providing defense in capital cases. As chief of the Homicide Task Force from 1976 to 1990, Lyon tried more than 130 murder cases, many of which involved the death penalty. To date, she never has lost a client to death row.

She has taught and lectured at numerous law schools including Harvard, the University of Chicago, Northwestern and the Chicago-Kent College of Law. She also has written extensively on death penalty defense issues including evidence, due process, habeas corpus and trial preparation.

Lyon sees the clinic as a place where she can use her wealth of experience to help shape a new generation of criminal defense attorneys. “I became a public defender because I wanted to help save the world, or at least some of it,” she said. “Because one of DePaul’s goals is progressive social change, my work in the clinic will be a natural fit. I’m looking forward to helping future criminal defense attorneys meet the challenges presented by this fascinating area of the law presents.”

Note to editors: Andrea Lyon can be reached at 312/362-8402 or 708/206-0293.