J. Amy DIllard

J. Amy Dillard

Visiting Adjunct Faculty

 Sullivan Hall

Email Amy

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Capital Punishment
  • Constitutional Criminal Procedure
  • Criminal Law
  • Lawyering Skills
  • Policing Reform

EDUCATION

  • B.A., Wellesley College, cum laude, American Studies (with honors) and English, 1988
  • J.D., W&L Law School, 1991

Biography

Professor J. Amy Dillard is a member of the permanent law faculty at the University of Baltimore, and she has taught at Indiana University, Maurer School of Law and American University, Washington College of Law. She spent the first decade of her legal career as the Deputy Public Defender of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, and she still serves as counsel for a defendant charged with capital murder in Virginia.

Professor Dillard actively consults with and supports the work of the Prosecutorial Accountability Project at Civil Rights Corps, and her scholarship focuses on prosecutorial accountability, police reform, and mental illness in criminal law. She is currently working on a book project that considers the inequities of professional attire demands on women and gender queer trial lawyers. The project stems from Professor Dillard's Repository Research Fellowship with the Elizabeth Sage Costume Collection at Indiana University. Professor Dillard is building a repository of images and oral histories, and you can visit the start of that repository project on Instagram @StartWithTheClothes.

Professor Dillard teaches criminal law; constitutional criminal procedure; introduction to lawyering skills; a #MeToo seminar; a race, crime, and media seminar; professional responsibility; and torts.

Publications

  • Op-ed, Chauvin Trial Underscores Need to Re-open Case, BALTIMORE SUN (May 6, 2021).
  • Op-ed, Is C.T.E. a Defense for Murder?, N.Y. TIMES (Sept. 23, 2017).
  • Madness Alone Punishes the Madman: The Search for Moral Dignity in the Court's Competency Doctrine as Applied in Capital Cases, 79 Tenn. L. Rev. 461 (2012).
  • Big Brother IS Watching: The Reality Show You Didn't Audition For, 63 Okla. L. R. 461 (2011).
  • And Death Shall Have No Dominion: How to Achieve the Categorical Exemption of Mentally Retarded Defendants from Execution, 45 U. Rich. L. Rev. 961 (2011).
  • Sloppy Joe, Slop, Sloppy Joe: How USDA Commodity Dumping Ruined the National School Lunch Program, 87 Or. L. Rev. 221 (2008).
  • AT HIS DISCRETION (n.): "to be disposed of as he thinks fit; at his disposal, at his mercy; unconditionally,"97 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 1295 (2008).