FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY RESOURCE COUNSEL PROJECT & CAPITAL RESOURCE COUNSEL
The principal activities of FDPRC include monitoring federal death penalty cases, helping judges recruit counsel for federal capital prosecutions and advising courts about CJA issues and the defense function in federal death penalty cases, consulting with individualassigned counsel, providing resource materials, and training on capital case defense techniques. FDPRC has advised and assisted CJA panel attorneys, federal defenders, judges, the Judicial Conference Defender Services Committee, and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
CRC serve as full-time assistant federal defenders with the principal responsibility of focusing on federal capital cases assigned to federal defender organizations, including training their staff, consulting on cases, and serving as co-counsel in a limited number of cases.
FEDERAL CAPITAL APPELLATE RESOURCE COUNSEL
Federal Capital Appellate Resource Counsel recruits, trains, consults with, and otherwise assists attorneys appointed to federal death-penalty appeals; provides direct representation in a limited number of such appeals; and coordinates with FDPRC, CRC, and the 2255 Project to advise capital trial lawyers on certain legal issues.
NATIONAL MITIGATION COORDINATOR
The National Mitigation Coordinator provides mitigation assistance to CJA panel attorneys, the courts, and federal defenders in identifying mitigation specialists, providing referrals to capital counsel in capital habeas and capital prosecution cases, participating in mitigation training programs, and consulting with defense teams who need guidance in relation to mitigation.
DEFENSE-INITIATED VICTIM OUTREACH COORDINATOR
The Victim Outreach Coordinator provides victim outreach assistance to federal capital cases nationwide, assisting Federal Defender offices, FDPRC, CRC, 2254 & 2255 projects by consulting, providing referrals of victim liaisons, conducting victim outreach trainings and continuing to educate capital defense attorneys about the values and principles of defense-initiated victim outreach.
LIFE SUPPORT PROJECT
The Life Support Project assists capital defense teams in working with clients who are reluctant to have mitigation investigated, reluctant to seek life sentences, or reluctant to take plea bargains for sentences less than death. Staffed by Wilbert Rideau and five other carefully selected people -- all of whom have faced capital charges, somehow gotten life sentences, made meaningful lives serving time in prison, and gotten out and stayed out – the project has already, in less than two years, succeeded in helping clients choose life paths in virtually every case in which it has been involved.