Ursula Bentele

Professor Bentele taught criminal and capital punishment law and directed the Capital Defender and Federal Habeas Clinic at Brooklyn Law School. She is a nationally recognized expert and established author on death penalty issues, appellate advocacy and the Constitutional Court of South Africa. She is the principal author of the widely used casebook, Appellate Advocacy: Principles and Practice, which released its 5th edition this year.

 

She has handled numerous death penalty cases in post-conviction proceedings and is a recipient of the New York City Bar’s Thurgood Marshall Award, which recognizes attorneys who have contributed time and expertise to represent people sentenced to death.  She also participated in the Capital Jury Project funded by the National Science Foundation, in which she helped to analyze interviews of over 1,000 jurors who had participated in cases where a death sentence was possible.

 

Professor Bentele joined the faculty in 1981, after having served with the Legal Aid Society in its Criminal Defense Division and its Civil Appeals and Law Reform Unit.