A Dangerous Precedent for Pro Bono
March 27, 2014
Earlier this month, while we were celebrating pro bono at the 2014 PBI Annual Conference, the U.S. Senate rejected President Barack Obama’s nomination of Debo Adegbile to lead the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. All Republicans and seven Democrats voted against the nomination ostensibly because, while working for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), Adegbile contributed to a series of briefs on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a death-row inmate convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer. Abu-Jamal’s death sentence was ultimately overturned on the grounds of unconstitutional jury-sentencing instructions. Adegbile’s defeat on these grounds sends