Purpose
Our office was established with two main purposes:
to provide high quality representation to indigent persons
charged with death penalty eligible offenses
in the state courts of Mississippi at the trial level and
on direct appeal where the death penalty has been imposed;
to relieve the financial burden death
penalty cases pose to local governments
History
The Office of Capital Defense Counsel was established by the Capital Defense Litigation Act of 2000 in order to "provide representation to indigent parties under indictment for death penalty eligible offenses."
In July 2001, André de Gruy was appointed the first director. De Gruy opened the office August 1, and the office accepted its first case on September 12, 2001.
Since then, the office has assumed representation in 139 death penalty-eligible cases at the trial level and 18 death penalty cases on direct appeal. Ten of the trial level cases were without local counsel requiring the assignment of two attorneys from the office. The office has also consulted on many more cases at trial and appeal level and provided three training programs with more planned.