(1) Give students practical experience in a very intense, highly specialized area of law - defense of capital cases - in which too few attorneys are available - in hopes that even if students do not practice in the area, they may volunteer their time after admission to the bar;
(2) expose students to special problems encountered by attorneys in this area of law, including the unique ethical considerations; and
(3) provide students with sufficient knowledge and experience to effectively evaluate arguments made in specific capital cases.

A brief topical outline is difficult to provide because a substantial portion of the classroom component of the course 
will concern:
(1) specific projects on which the students are working at the time; and 
(2) current issues in capital punishment. 

However, with respect to the special concerns of the attorney engaged in defending a capital case, the course will cover the following topics at a minimum:
              
- insanity and mental retardation as a limitation on death eligibility;
- death qualification of juries and jury selection;
- the penalty phase of a death penalty trial, including types of mitigation that can and should be presented;
- the role of psychiatric evidence in a death penalty case;
- the roles of appellate and habeas counsel;
- ineffective assistance of counsel; and
- how the defense attorney should deal with the volunteer.

Students will write an essay for an opportunity to reflect on their work this semester. For example, what were your expectations of or beliefs about the capital punishment system coming into this course, and how did they match the reality of the work you performed or what we discussed? You may comment on this in terms of the defendants whose cases you worked on, the nature of the crimes at issue, the attorneys you met and worked with, something else your observed or experienced, or something we discussed in class. How has this experience impacted you personally or professionally? What, if anything, surprised or disturbed you?

UGA Student Honor Code: "I will be academically honest in all of my academic work and will not tolerate academic dishonesty of others." A Culture of Honesty, the University's policy and procedures for handling cases of suspected dishonesty, can be found at www.uga.edu/ovpi.