University News Last updated 01 March 2010
A prominent Birmingham law academic will play a leading part in a mock court trial taking place in London this week.
Julian Killingley, a Professor of American Public Law at Birmingham City University, will be the first ‘witness’ for the prosecution in a show trial in Westminster which will see the Court charging the US Death Penalty with ‘perverting the course of justice’.
Presided over by Lord Woolf (Former Chief Justice of England and Wales) the trial will debate the highly controversial subject of the death penalty, with Professor Killingley being the first in three witnesses for the prosecution.
Witnesses for the defence include former federal judge Professor Paul Cassell from University of Utah, a well-known and controversial proponent of capital punishment.
Professor Killingley said: "This is going to be a lively debate and no walkover for either side. I look forward to engaging with what I know will be a staunch defence of the death penalty."
The trial is being arranged and hosted by Amicus, a charity set up in 1992 in memory of Andrew Lee Jones, who was executed in Louisiana in July 1991. Amicus aims to help provide legal representation for those awaiting capital trial and punishment in the US and raise awareness of potential abuses of their rights.
For further information, log on to www.amicus-alj.org
ENDS