Brian White has spent 32 years practicing law in Decatur, the town in Alabama where he grew up. On Sept. 17, the American Bar Association’s Death Penalty Representation Project recognized what much of that career has been built on: three decades of incredible commitment to capital defense work in Alabama’s courts.
At the Project’s 40th anniversary Volunteer Recognition & Awards event in Washington, D.C., White received the John Paul Stevens Guiding Hand of Counsel Award, shared this year with Colorado capital defender Don Knight. Keynote speaker Seth Waxman, former U.S. solicitor general, and special guest Sister Helen Prejean, author of “Dead Man Walking,” joined the program to honor White, Knight, and three law firms recognized with the Project’s Exceptional Service Award.
White came to capital defense work through the Equal Justice Initiative, the Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program, and, more recently, the Alabama Post-Conviction Relief Project. Over three decades, he has represented capital defendants across the full arc of a case — trial, post-conviction, and appeal — often working alongside volunteer counsel from firms around the country.
Much of that work is demanding: multi-day evidentiary hearings, competency and intellectual-disability claims, and years of careful procedural work in post-conviction cases. It’s the kind of steady, detailed advocacy both Freeman and Keeton pointed to in describing why White earned this year’s award.
“Brian approaches his representation with humility and commitment to saving people from death at the hands of the government,” said Christine Freeman, executive director of the Alabama Post-Conviction Relief Project, who introduced White at the ceremony. “He is known for not being afraid of challenging circumstances or difficult facts … He volunteers for the hardest cases and stays in the fight.”
Kacey L. Keeton, senior litigator in the Capital Habeas Unit at the Federal Defenders for the Middle District of Alabama, described the kind of presence White brings to a state where capital defense depends almost entirely on volunteers: “Most volunteers, understandably, want the trial. Brian took the unglamorous, years-long fight that nobody sees, because that is where his client needed him … Lawyers take their first capital case because someone like Brian makes them believe they won’t be doing it alone — and he makes sure they aren’t.”