Alan W. Clarke

Alan W. Clarke (born August 19, 1949) is a lawyer best known for his work opposing the death penalty. He has pursued his position as a student, as a practicing lawyer, as a professor, and as a mentor to the movement.

Clarke began his campaign as a graduate student, criticizing the death penalty in his doctoral work. He practiced criminal defense including capital cases. Since 2003 he has been at Utah Valley University, where he is a professor of Integrated Studies, and has been an active publisher. Most recently, his role has included review of current studies of the death penalty and been sponsor of annual death penalty symposia since 2005.

Education Clarke did his undergraduate work at the College of William and Mary, where he also finished his Juris Doctor degree. His thesis at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario for the LL.M. 1994, is titled "Procedural Labyrinths and the Injustice of Death: A Critique of Death Penalty Habeas Corpus." A recent book (with Laurelyn Whitt, Fall 2007), "The Strange Fruit of American Justice: International and Domestic Resistance to the Death Penalty," argues that executions in the U.S. have far-reaching effects on relationships between the U.S. and other countries worldwide.

Legal work Clarke's trial experience has been in Indian law, capital murder, and habeas corpus (including death row representation). He has been an ACLU cooperating attorney, including voting rights litigation for the Virginia ACLU. He was chairman of the Midwestern Criminal Justice Association Death Penalty Panel. Book Review—Most Deserving of Death? An Analysis of the Supreme Court's Death Penalty Jurisprudence

Selected publications

Alan W. Clark, Virginia's Capital Murder Sentencing Proceeding: A Defense Perspective (1984) Alan W. Clarke, Rendition to Torture: A Critical Legal History, 62 RUTGERS LAW REVIEW 1 (2009). Alan W. Clarke, Terrorism, Extradition, and the Death Penalty (2003) Alan W. Clarke, Laurelyn Whitt, The Bitter Fruit of American Justice: International and Domestic Resistance to the Death Penalty, Northeastern (November 30, 2007). Alan W. Clarke, Eric Lambert, and Laurie Anne Whitt, Executing the Innocent: The Next Step in the Marshall Hypothesis, 26 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY REVIEW OF LAW & SOCIAL CHANGE 309 (2000–2001) Alan W. Clarke and Laurie Anne Whitt, University Senates and the Law: A Case Study 15 THOUGHT AND ACTION: THE NEA HIGHER EDUCATION JOURNAL, No. 2, 119 (Fall 1999). Alan W. Clarke, Procedural Labyrinths and the Injustice of Death: A Critique of Death Penalty Habeas Corpus, (Part Two), 30 UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND LAW REVIEW 303 (1996). Alan W. Clarke, Procedural Labyrinths and the Injustice of Death: A Critique of Death Penalty Habeas Corpus, (Part One), 29 UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND LAW REVIEW 1327 (1995).