Bio
Maria joined the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project in February 2026 as Senior Counsel. Her work primarily focuses on unjust executions and end-stage death warrant litigation.
Prior to her role at the ACLU, Maria was a capital defense attorney for 20 years, where she handled all aspects and stages of capital representation. She began her career as Assistant State Attorney in Miami-Dade County where she witnessed firsthand the impact of violent crime and the limited ability of the criminal justice system to meet both the need for personal healing for crime victims as well as for accountability from those who harmed them.
Maria then joined Capital Collateral Regional Counsel (CCRC), where she spent nearly 13 years representing individuals on Florida’s death row in their post-conviction appeals. Among the many highlights of her dedicated career was securing the freedom of Clemente Aguirre, who was exonerated after a decade on Florida’s death row.
Maria then joined the Office of the Public Defender for the 6th Judicial Circuit of Florida, where she spent seven years in the capital trial division handling first degree murder cases, including those where the state of Florida was seeking the death penalty. She also represented clients in their juvenile resentencing hearings pursuant to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases of Miller and Graham, and won the release of four men who had originally been sentenced to life without parole as children, all of whom had spent decades in prison.
While working as an assist public defender, Maria also served as Executive Director for Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) for three years. FADP is Florida’s only statewide non-profit dedicated to ending the death penalty through legislative abolition. Maria served as Executive Director during Florida’s record-breaking pace of executions in 2025, faithfully telling the stories individuals facing execution, exposing injustices in their cases, and working with advocates across many different backgrounds to tell the truth about Florida’s broken death penalty. She remains FADP’s Legal and Policy Consultant.