Spring 2001: Does Capital Punishment Have a Future? Participants Ronald Tabak Ronald Tabak is Special Counsel to and Pro Bono Coordinator of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP. Mr. Tabak has argued two death penalty cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Ronald Tabak began his involvement with capital punishment in 1983, when he undertook the pro bono representation of a Georgia death row inmate in the 11th Circuit. After winning there, cert. was granted, and he argued for that inmate in the U.S. Supreme Court in late 1984 and won the case, 5-4 in 1985. The case was Francis v. Franklin, 471 U.S. 307 (1985). He has subsequently handled several other state post-conviction and federal habeas corpus cases for death row inmates, one of which, Dugger v. Adams, 489 U.S. 401 (1989), he lost 5-4 in the Supreme Court in 1989. Mr. Tabak also authored the ABA's amicus curiae brief in Murray v. Giarratano, 492 U.S. 1 (1989), which advocated that death row inmates should have a constitutional right to counsel in state post-conviction proceedings. He has participated in a supportive role in numerous other ABA amicus briefs bearing on the death penalty. In the mid-1980s, Mr. Tabak helped initiate what is now the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project. He has since that time worked with that Project and with the Association of the Bar of the City of NY on efforts to recruit pro bono lawyers for death row inmates and to provide these lawyers with training programs. Since the late 1980s, Mr. Tabak has served as chair and/or co-chair of the Death Penalty Committee of the ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities. As such, he has been involved in all ABA resolutions bearing on the death penalty since that time. Mr. Tabak has written extensively on capital punishment since the mid-1980s, in many law reviews. And he has chaired numerous ABA and Association of the Bar of the City of NY programs on the death penalty, most of which have been transcribed and published, in some instances with commentaries authored by himself. Mr. Tabak’s committee and section originated the ABA's death penalty moratorium resolution, which was adopted in 1997. He testified before Congress earlier in the 1990's on the ABA's behalf in support of the Racial Justice Act. He has appeared before legislative and other bodies in support of moratorium efforts. Currently, Mr. Tabak is President of New York Lawyers Against the Death Penalty and a member of the Board of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty. He is Special Counsel to and pro bono coordinator of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP. Mr. Tabak participates extensively in efforts to preserve and resuscitate the writ of habeas corpus, and to prevent its further weakening. Read the transcript of the chat with Ronald Tabak. Examples of Articles by Ronald Tabak: “What’s Happened to Habeas,” Human Rights, Volume 23, Number 3, Summer 1996 “Racial Discrimination in Implementing the Death Penalty,” Human Rights, Volume 26, Number 3, Summer 1999 Note: Opinions are linked for cases cited above. Brief abstract of Francis v. Franklin Back to Participants Spring 2001 Summit Home | Learning Links & Readings Student Activities| Participants | Transcripts National Online Youth Summit Home