About the Federal Capital Trial Project

The Federal Capital Appellate Resource Counsel Project was created by the Defender Services Committee of the Judicial Conference in 2008. The Project’s mission is to help courts and federal defenders identify qualified counsel for federal death-penalty appeals, train and consult with assigned counsel, and provide direct representation in some cases. In addition, the Project helps FDPRC and CRC consult with trial lawyers in federal capital cases on legal issues. The Federal Capital Appellate Resource Counsel is Barry Fisher.  The Project's other attorneys are Sean Bolser and Jerome Del Pino.

The Federal Capital Trial Project National Mitigation Coordinator assists federal defender staff, CJA counsel, and members of the Federal Capital Trial Project identify and retain appropriate, culturally competent mitigation specialists for new cases, leads efforts to train, mentor, and provide support to mitigation specialists in federal capital trial level cases, provides task-specific support to federal capital trial teams on a wide variety of mitigation issues, and works to increase the racial, ethnic and cultural diversity of the federal capital mitigation specialist community.

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.

The Client Relation & Life Support Project assists capital defense teams in working with difficult clients, who are reluctant to have mitigation investigated, reluctant to seek life sentences, or reluctant to take plea bargains for sentences less than death.  Created in 2008, staffed by Wilbert Rideau and other carefully selected people -- all of whom have made meaningful lives serving time in prison – the project has since succeeded in helping clients choose life paths in most of the cases in which it has been involved.