Our Mission: to establish a fair and just criminal justice system in Texas,
with an emphasis on improving the quality of representation afforded those facing the death penalty.
TDS routinely accepts law student interns. TDS has hosted interns from many Texas law schools, from other American law schools such as Cornell, Yale, Fordham University, and from several English law schools. Generally, TDS prefers interns who have completed their second year of law school, and who have taken classes in either the death penalty or criminal procedure. TDS also prefers interns who have demonstrated strong research and writing skills and a commitment to public interest law or indigent defense.
TDS will make arrangements for academic credit from the sponsoring school, if necessary. It is impossible to predict what kind of work a particular case may require, so the tasks interns may be expected to help out with are varied. Interns will likely do extensive legal research and writing in the areas of criminal procedure and habeas corpus. We may also ask interns to summarize transcripts of death penalty cases, visit the local court clerk to check out and examine records, travel (usually within Texas) to do research into local records or to find and interview jurors or other persons associated with an inmate's trial, and travel from Houston to Death Row to interview clients and present forms for them to fill out.
Representing death row inmates, although it is vital and fascinating work, is generally not popular. TDS requires interns to have a firm belief in the need for unflinching, partisan advocacy on behalf of all indigent persons under sentence of death.
