Work with us

The Death Penalty Fellow will take on a wide range of casework, advocacy, and research responsibilities relating to Reprieve’s death penalty work.  He/she will be creative, organized, effective and motivated. He/she will have excellent written and oral communication skills and relevant legal/human rights experience. He/she will appreciate an informal workplace and enjoy working with a busy team. He/she will ideally be available to begin work no later than August 2016. The successful candidate will have investigative and research experience. He/she should have completed a law degree and should have experience working in a legal setting (ideally on death penalty cases). He/she should also have an active interest in US politics and public policy.  He/she should be fully committed to Reprieve’s position on the death penalty and all other organizational policy.

Responsibilities

The Death Penalty Fellow will be responsible for a wide range of casework, advocacy, and research relating to Reprieve’s death penalty work.A significant portion of the Death Penalty Fellow’s time will be spent assisting on the Stop Lethal Injection Project (SLIP), which seeks to prevent the misuse of medicines in lethal injection executions. This will involve investigating current and future lethal injection drug execution methods, including choice of drugs, method of administration, source and supply chain of drugs. He/she will also conduct legal research relevant to the pharmaceutical industry, secrecy, FDA, DEA and international regulations pertaining to the manufacture, sale and distribution of medicines.

Specific responsibilities are as follows:

Investigation and Research

• Investigation into lethal injection protocols and methods of execution in the US and elsewhere
• Pharmaceutical industry research
• Corporate social responsibility advocacy
• Legal research and drafting
• Liaising with death penalty lawyers in the US and elsewhere
• Research into European export control regulation
• Research into the use of lethal injection as method of execution outside the USA

Policy / Resources / Organization

• Identifying key decision-makers and influencers who could help advance Reprieve’s casework and campaign priorities
• Engagement with government and non-government players about death penalty issues.
• Expanding on the research into drugs that could be used in lethal injections in the US and elsewhere and assist the Director of the Death Penalty Team in developing policies to prevent the use of these drugs in executions.

Campaigning, Press and Public Education

• Assisting with media work as necessary to promote the activities and aims of the projects to relevant audiences. This may include drafting press releases, organizing hearings, conferences and other speaking events, liaising with journalists, creating case summaries and increasing the public profile of Reprieve’s SLIP and other death penalty-related projects and priorities.

Person specification

Required skills and experience:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Legal research skills
• A high degree of self-motivation
• Excellent interpersonal and networking skills
• Ability to form effective working relationships with lawyers, experts and other professionals, agencies, organizations, etc, both in the US and overseas
• Creativity and energy in approaching a workload consisting of large long-term projects
• Meticulous time and file management abilities
• Ability to work under pressure
• Confident using MS Word, MS Excel, email, and the internet for research purposes
• An ability to work with people from different cultures and nationalities.

Desirable skills and experience:

• Knowledge of the US death penalty system
• Knowledge of the death penalty system in countries which have the death penalty for drug offences, notably Pakistan
• Knowledge of international human rights law
• Experience of working on capital cases
• Relevant investigative experience
• A relevant legal qualification
• Experience of working with the press (including drafting press releases, giving interviews, organizing press conferences)
• Experience working on international campaigns and with foreign government agencies or NGOs, preferably on death penalty or other human rights issues

Key contacts
The Death Penalty Fellow will work closely with the Director of the Death Penalty Team in London, and alongside all staff at Reprieve US. He/she will also work with the Reprieve Fellows in Pakistan and South-East Asia, with the London-based Reprieve caseworkers, the Operations Director, the Director of Strategy and Policy, as well as local lawyers, government and consular officials, and relevant journalists and NGOs.

Length of Term and Salary
The Death Penalty Fellow will receive a monthly stipend, 100% employer-paid health insurance and generous vacation leave.
The initial term of employment for this position is one year, with a possibility of renewal depending upon resources and program needs.
Applicants must be eligible to work in the US.

How to Apply
Please send a cover letter and resume to info@reprieve.org with the subject line Death Penalty Fellowship.  Apply by July 8 .