Partnering with ACLU affiliates in death penalty states, and with coalition partners nationally, CPP promotes both abolition and systemic reform of the death penalty process in the following ways:
Direct Representation: CPP takes on direct representation in cases that exemplify the inherent unfairness in capital cases. We work primarily in the courts of the South, in states that have historically been discriminatory or reluctant to provide adequate resources for indigent clients facing the death penalty.
Strategic Litigation: CPP is currently involved in capital litigation in courts throughout the country, including the United States Supreme Court. In general, its litigation focuses on: (1) innocent persons; (2) severely mentally ill persons; (3) persons who face execution because of abysmal legal representation; (4) persons who face execution because of systemic discrimination; and (5) improving the fairness of capital trials and appeals.
Systemic Reform: CPP works to reform the capital punishment process. In general, its initiatives focus on improving the quality of legal representation, enhancing the fairness of capital trials and appeals, and reducing the number of defendants who face the death penalty.
Public Education and Advocacy: CPP is actively engaged in repeal and moratorium efforts in a number of states. Elsewhere, CPP is working to curtail the use of the death penalty and oppose recent efforts to expand its use through public education and other advocacy efforts.
Capital Punishment Project Staff
Cassandra Stubbs, Director
Brian Stull, Deputy Director
Claudia Van Wyk, Senior Staff Attorney
Megan Byrne, Senior Staff Attorney
Alex Valdez, Staff Attorney
Stacie Brown, Senior Mitigation Specialist
William Webster, Paralegal
Jessica Poland, Office Manager
American Civil Liberties Union
Capital Punishment Project
201 West Main Street, Suite 402
Durham, N.C. 27701
Tel: 919-682-5659
Fax: 919-682-5961
Biography of Cassandra Stubbs
Cassy Stubbs is the director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project. Cassy joined the project in 2006 and since then has served as lead and associate counsel on behalf of death row inmates and defendants in trials and appeals throughout the South, including Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. Her clients have included Levon “Bo” Jones, a North Carolina death row inmate who was exonerated in 2008 when the state dismissed all charges against him, and Richard C. Taylor, a severely mentally ill man who was sentenced to death after a sham trial in Tennessee, but who won a new trial on appeal and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
Cassy has also worked with numerous organizations and ACLU affiliates to file amicus briefs in capital cases in state and federal courts around the country. She has written policy papers, editorials and blog posts on a wide range of capital issues, such as the persistence of racial disparities in capital punishment and the fundamental flaws of purported claims that the death penalty deters future murders.
Before joining the ACLU, Cassy worked as a New Mexico State public defender in Aztec, N.M. Previously, she litigated employment discrimination and wage and hour cases in state and federal court with Bet Tzedek Legal Services in Los Angeles, and with the New York Civil Liberties Union in New York City. She served as lead counsel in multiple influential employment cases, including Wet Seal v. Ochoa, In Re Metro Fulfillment and Lochren v. Suffolk County.
Cassy is admitted to the bars of North Carolina, New York, New Mexico, and California. She received her B.S, with honors, from Brown University in 1996 and graduated magna cum laude from New York University School of Law in 2000. She served as a judicial clerk for Judge Harry Pregerson on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Biography of Brian Stull
Brian Stull has worked for the ACLU Capital Punishment Project since 2006, and currently serves as the Project’s Deputy Director. He has represented clients facing death in trial, appellate, post-conviction, federal habeas and other cases in Alabama, Florida, California, Georgia, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina and Texas, and has long participated in the ACLU’s amicus work. Brian’s work has increasingly focused on litigating and exposing the pernicious role of racism in the administration of the death penalty.
Brian previously worked as a social worker in community mental health. He is an alumnus of New York’s Office of the Appellate Defender, the University of Michigan (B.A. and M.S.W.) and New York University School of Law. Brian takes inspiration from his resilient clients, talented colleagues, and from his N.Y.U. professors Anthony Amsterdam and Bryan Stevenson.
Biography of Claudia Van Wyk
Claudia Van Wyk comes to the Capital Punishment Project after 14 years at the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Community Defender Office in Philadelphia. Before that she spent many years as a public defender in New York and New Jersey, where she did both capital and non-capital appellate work. Her two proudest accomplishments are helping to walk one death row client out of prison and helping to give another death row client a good death in the presence of friends.
Claudia was born and raised on Long Island in New York. She first developed an interest in indigent defense in the criminal defense clinic at NYU Law School. Claudia is admitted to the bars of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Biography of Megan Byrne
Megan Byrne joined as a staff attorney with the ACLU Capital Punishment Project after spending several years as an appellate public defender at the Center for Appellate Litigation, where she represented indigent clients in New York. While there, she served as a Supervising Attorney and founded and directed the Racial Justice Project, which identified and developed resources for reoccurring racial equity issues in criminal appeals. She also led an Anti-Racism Working Group that focused on non-litigation strategies for addressing racial bias in the criminal legal system. Before becoming an appellate public defender, Megan worked as a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where her pro bono work focused on criminal appeals for indigent clients.
Megan graduated from Stanford Law School with pro bono distinction. While at Stanford, Megan represented clients at the trial and appellate levels in Stanford’s Criminal Defense Clinic and spent a summer working for the New York Center for Juvenile Justice. She holds a B.A. in English and Philosophy from Indiana University, where she graduated with high distinction.
Biography of Alex Valdez
Alex Valdez (she/her) is a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. Before joining the ACLU, Alex was a public defender in New York City. She began her career at the Bronx Defenders, where she spent over three years as a trial attorney in the Criminal Defense Practice. While there, Alex represented hundreds of indigent clients in each stage of their misdemeanor and felony criminal prosecutions. She received extensive, annual training in trauma-informed and client-centered representation, which continues to inform her practice today. In addition to her trial practice, Alex defended a client against a State appeal and drafted two writs of habeas corpus on behalf of clients on Rikers Island who were at high risk of death during the COVID-19 pandemic. Alex then joined the Office of the Appellate Defender, where she represented individuals with felony convictions in New York. For two and a half years, Alex represented clients in direct appeals, trial court post-conviction litigation, and administrative hearings related to sex offender registration and parole revocation.
Alex received her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she graduated with honors as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Alex received her undergraduate degree from Columbia University’s Columbia College with a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy.
Biography of Stacie Brown
Stacie Brown is the Mitigation Specialist with the ACLU Capital Punishment Project. Stacie’s role is to develop comprehensive life stories and profiles that inform and persuade courts across the country to humanize incarcerated people facing the most severe and brutal punishment. Utilizing mitigation information, she details death sentenced people’s circumstances, history and environment to combat racism, unfair sentencing and execution. Prior to joining the ACLU-CCP, Stacie served as a Mitigation Specialist and Investigator for the Federal Community Defender of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s Capital Habeas Unit in Philadelphia for 14 years.
Stacie is a graduate of the University of Central Florida with a B. S. in Psychology. She began her career in a clinical mental health setting in Florida. Stacie then worked for many years for the State of Florida’s Capital Collateral Regional Counsel for the Southern District representing death sentenced people in Florida with their post-conviction appeals.
Biography of William Webster
William Webster is the paralegal for the ACLU Capital Punishment Project. Prior to joining the ACLU, William worked with several law firms in Washington, D.C. and Raleigh, N.C. His legal experience includes civil litigation involving insurance and medical malpractice matters, and assisting with the pro bono defense of misdemeanor criminal cases. William is a 1992 graduate of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He is a member of the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers.
Biography of Jessica Poland
Jessica Poland is the office manager for the ACLU Capital Punishment, having joined the project in 2013. Prior to ACLU, Jessica worked for 11 years as business manager for a nonprofit land conservation trust in North Carolina. Jessica earned a BFA in painting from Guilford College in 1995.