ABSTRACT
This chapter explains some of the responsibilities of capital defense attorneys and how their work differs from the work of most other lawyers. It considers what happens when capital defense lawyers make mistakes and how difficult it is for appeal and postconviction attorneys to correct mistakes made by earlier attorneys in the process. The chapter explains how the Supreme Court has dictated that the Constitution entitles defendants to competent defense attorneys. It then summarizes the important role that capital defense lawyers have played and continue to play in the history of the United States (US) death penalty. In all criminal cases, a defense attorney protects a person, and, by asserting an individual's rights, helps uphold the rights embedded in the US Constitution. The Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution provides that criminal defendants have a right to counsel. The Constitution similarly guarantees this right to counsel in state courts under the Fourteenth Amendment.
