Elisabeth Semel '75 Publishes Death Penalty Op-Ed in Bee

Elisabeth Semel '75, a UC Berkeley School of Law clinical professor and director of the school's Death Penalty Clinic, published "Can Californians afford to keep the death penalty?," the lead article in the Sacramento Bee's May 17 Sunday Opinion section.   The article notes the recent challenges to the state's lethal injection protocol that would need to be overcome in order for capital punishment to resume and questions the wisdom of moving forward with plans for reinstatement during a time of fiscal crisis, given the enormous costs of capital punishment.

"My opposition to the death penalty is not based on an economic calculation," writes Semel. "I would prefer that capital punishment end because we come to our collective senses about what Justice Harry Blackmun called a penalty that ‘remains fraught with arbitrariness, discrimination, caprice, and mistake.' However, I am not an elected public official who has the responsibility of spending the taxpayers' dollars wisely."

After graduation from King Hall, Semel worked as a deputy public defender, then entered private practice and, in 1983, formed the firm of Semel & Feldman, where she defended criminal cases in state and federal court. In 1997, she left private practice to serve as the director of the American Bar Association Death Penalty Representation Project in Washington, D.C.  She joined the Berkeley faculty in 2001 as the first director of the Death Penalty Clinic.