The Center for Social Justice
The Center for Social Justice is a groundbreaking Center that provides direct representation to a full caseload of individuals sentenced to death. Loyola’s commitment to advocacy for condemned individuals in Louisiana extends back over thirty years, when it housed the Loyola Death Penalty Resource Center. The Resource Center operated during a time of great crisis in the death penalty, and successfully stopped the executions of numerous individuals. The Resource Center also was involved in representing the clients in such cases as Kyles v. Whitley, Sawyer v. Whitley, and the exoneration of John Thompson.
In 2024, Loyola took the extraordinary step of taking over representation of individuals sentenced to death in their direct appeal and post-conviction proceedings, through a contract with the Louisiana Public Defender Oversight Board. Center staff include lawyers and mitigation specialists with decades of capital defense experience from the former Capital Appeals Project, which operated from 2002-2024 and represented clients in such cases as Kennedy v. Louisiana and Snyder v. Louisiana. The Center for Social Justice now directly represents individual clients on Death Row, and offers opportunities for students to work as part of the capital teams through a year-long experiential course.
Mission
The primary mission of the Center for Social Justice is the client-centered and zealous representation of the most vulnerable citizens of our state: those condemned to execution. The Center shares the Jesuit values of human dignity, capacity to change, forgiveness, and solidarity with the poor and marginalized. Thus the Center’s primary mission must be direct advocacy on behalf of the clients it represents.
The Center also seeks to improve capital defense in Louisiana by teaching students death penalty law, policy, and litigation, integrating students as part of defense teams, and providing client contact opportunities. By integrating the students into the capital teams, the Center helps students gain the skills they need to provide much-needed representation of clients in Louisiana facing the death penalty.
New Course: Death Penalty Defense Seminar
Students who enroll in the yearlong Death Penalty Defense course work under the supervision of CSJ Program Director, Cecelia Trenticosta Kappel, and CSJ attorneys, investigators and mitigation specialists who are members of the individual legal teams. Students work on capital cases on direct appeal and in post-conviction, and occasionally on other cases represented by the Center. Students review trial records, visit clients, examine evidence, work with experts, and help prepare motions and briefs. The course, taught by Adjunct Professor Cecelia Trenticosta Kappel and Professor D. Majeeda Snead, also has a weekly seminar in which students receive instruction on the governing law and practice.
Connect with Us
The Center for Social Justice
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
7214 St. Charles Avenue, Box 907
New Orleans, Louisiana 70118
504-861-5735
The Center for Social Justice is accepting applications from law students for Summer 2025 internships. Please send cover letter, resume, and writing sample to zorjuela@defendla.org.