Ms. Swain is a senior associate attorney in our St. Louis office and a 2015 graduate of the Saint Louis University School of Law. During her studies, she worked at the Washoe County Public Defender’s office in Reno, Nevada and was one of the first students in SLU Law’s death penalty clinical program.

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At the clinic, she worked on Mr. Mark Christeson’s warrant litigation culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court’s stay entered just hours before his scheduled execution and, ultimately, a summary reversal of the federal court of appeals in January 2015. During her time at SLU Law, Swain was elected vice president of the Public Interest Law Group and treasurer of the Criminal Law Society. She also served as a co-chair for the PILG’s annual Fellowship Auction, which raises funds for students pursuing internships to provide free legal services for indigent clients. Swain is a Nevada native and a graduate of its flagship university. Contact Ms. Swain at k.swain@phillipsblack.org

Ms. Pelaez is a paralegal and office manager at the Philadelphia Office. She graduated from Baruch College, New York with a B.A. in Spanish and a minor in Translation. She also holds an M.A.T. in Teaching Foreign Language from Tufts University.

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Juliette worked for over 10 years as a paralegal in Miami, San Francisco, and New York. She previously worked in family and criminal law, as well as workers' compensation. Having a passion for her native Spanish language, she pursued a career in education, teaching Spanish at a charter school in Philadelphia. After 4 years, Juliette decided to return to the legal field where she can use her legal and translation skills in a meaningful way. Contact Ms. Pelaez at j.pelaez@phillipsblack.org

Mr. Welling is a senior associate attorney in our St. Louis office. Before joining us, Joe clerked for the Honorable Laura Denvir Stith of the Supreme Court of Missouri upon graduation from the Saint Louis University School of Law in 2016.

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He co-authored a fifty-state survey of the law of police use of force justification and, in addition to his student note published in the print edition, authored three other articles on the on-line companion to the SLU Law Journal. During law school, Joe interned in the Housing Division of Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, was a judicial extern for Chief Judge Angela Quigless of the Missouri Court of Appeals-Eastern District, and volunteered for a pro bono attorney in a criminal defense case connected with the Ferguson protests. Joe is also an alumni of Phillips Black's death penalty clinical curriculum at SLU and will be co-teaching the faculty's doctrinal seminar on capital punishment beginning in Fall 2017. Before law school, he had an illustrious career as a professional juggler and, additionally, served as an interpreter for the Deaf, specializing in graduate and professional school interpretation. Joe earned a B.A. in English from the University of Missouri, St. Louis, which he followed with graduate studies at the University of Chicago. Contact Mr. Welling at j.welling@phillipsblack.org

Ms. Zuccarello is a senior mitigation specialist in our Philadelphia office. Her work in the field began in 2010 as a volunteer at the Wisconsin Innocence Project. Prior to joining Phillips Black, she worked as a fact investigator and mitigation specialist in private practice in Kansas City, Missouri.

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She has been appointed as a mitigation specialist in habeas corpus cases and has served as a fact investigator for indigent defendants with innocence claims. She earned a bachelors with highest distinction from the University of California, Berkely, where her studies in the Department of Sociology focused on race, poverty, and stratification. Contact Ms. Zuccarello at j.zuccarello@phillipsblack.org

Mr. Diallo is an associate in our New York office. He graduated from Fordham University School of Law in 2018. Before that he earned a Bachelor’s in Government, with honors and a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice with honors from John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York.

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Before law school he worked at the Red Hook Community Justice Center, a project of the Center for Court Innovation in New York. He also worked for three years as an adjunct lecturer at John Jay College, teaching policing, corrections, and criminal justice policy courses. During law school, Mr. Diallo interned at the New York City Civil Court, in Queens New York, the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, in Brooklyn, New York, the Homeless Rights Project of the Legal Aid Society, in the Bronx, New York and Phillips Black. At Fordham Law School’s Community Economic Development, he advised clients on how to incorporate nonprofits, drafted nonprofit governance documents, and applied for nonprofit tax-exempt status on behalf of clients. Contact Mr. Diallo at a.diallo@phillipsblack.org

Mr. Kirshner is a staff attorney in our Philadelphia office. He joined Phillips Black in 2021 as a Public Service Venture Fellow, after receiving his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he participated in the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project, Capital Punishment Clinic, and Child Advocacy Clinic.

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During law school, Mr. Kirshner worked as an intern for Phillips Black, the Capital Habeas Unit for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Veteran Advocacy Project, and the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services Youth Advocacy Division. He also served as a research assistant to Professor Justin Marceau, aiding his research on Eighth Amendment non-narrowing challenges to capital punishment schemes. Mr. Kirshner graduated from Cornell University in 2018 and worked for Ithaca’s Community Outreach Worker Program during his undergraduate career. Contact Mr. Kirshner at e.kirshner@phillipsblack.org.

Ms. Grays is a Pre-Law Fellow at Phillips Black. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Georgia State University in 2025. Prior to attending Georgia State University, she studied abroad for a year in Costa Rica and Spain.

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While at Georgia State, Ms. Grays was actively involved in The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), Voters of Tomorrow, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Before transferring, she interned at The Justice Desk in Cape Town, South Africa, where she taught teenage girls about their human rights and gender-based violence—an experience that inspired her to pursue a career in the legal field. Contact Ms. Grays at n.grays@phillipsblack.org.

Ms. Elhadi is an associate in the Oakland office and a 2022 graduate of Columbia Law School. Originally from Minnesota, she studied human rights at the University of Minnesota and went on to work in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon.

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At Columbia, Ms. Elhadi was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Berger Public Interest Fellow, and Racial and Social Justice Fellow. During her summers, she worked as a legal intern at the International Refugee Assistance Project and the Center for Constitutional Rights. Through these and other roles she continued to focus on human rights issues, including Guantánamo, environmental issues, and capital punishment. Before joining Phillips Black, she completed a fellowship at Reprieve, working on the Middle East Death Penalty team to advocate for those on death row in the Gulf. Ms. Elhadi is a also published creative writer and poet, and lover of the outdoors. Contact Ms. Elhadi at r.elhadi@phillipsblack.org.

Ms. Huang is an associate in our Oakland office. She is a graduate of Berkeley Law, where she participated in the Death Penalty Clinic, working at the intersection of state and federal habeas law, as well as the Policy Advocacy Clinic, working to eliminate fines and fees in the juvenile system. Contact Ms. Huang at m.huang@phillipsblack.org.

 
Ms. Greenfield is an associate attorney and mitigation specialist. She has represented clients facing the death penalty across the US and in sub-Saharan Africa, working in state, federal, and international courts. Ms. Greenfield has expertise in women and gender nonconforming people’s capital cases, a topic on which she publishes, teaches, and trains advocates in the US and internationally. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Cornell Law School, where she teaches on gender and human rights, and a consultant at the Center on Gender and Extreme Sentencing.

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Prior to joining Phillips Black, Ms. Greenfield worked at Reprieve and the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, and she clerked for the Honorable Kermit V. Lipez on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. She holds a J.D. from Cornell Law School and is licensed to practice in New York. Contact Ms. Greenfield at n.greenfield@phillipsblack.org.

Stephen Lazar is a legal apprentice at the Philadelphia Office, and a formerly incarcerated person who was sentenced to die in prison for a crime he did not commit. While incarcerated he worked in the prison law library assisting fellow prisoners with their legal woes and became a certified legal reference aide by the state of Pennsylvania. He also participated in numerous criminal justice think tanks as well as the Inside/Out program earning credits towards a degree. In March of 2023, Mr. Lazar was fully exonerated and released after serving sixteen years of his death by incarceration sentence. Mr. Lazar regularly speaks at colleges about the horrors of the criminal justice system, and he and a group of other exonerees work to help recently released prisoners adjust to society. Contact Mr. Lazar at s.lazar@phillipsblack.org.

Monnette Blue is an Associate Mitigation Specialist at Phillips Black, Inc. She received her master's degree in paralegal studies at Webster University in Kirkwood, Missouri, and her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. She has worked with death, non-death, and juvenile cases for over a decade. Monnette has been instrumental in creating DEI conversations during her tenure at the Missouri State Public Defender's office, including being Chairperson of the People of Color ERG group, DEI committee, and training advocacy hiring team. Monnette has spoken at Women's Retreats about the art of self-advocacy at work and in everyday life. Monnette is a member of the Black Public Defender's Association, National Association of Public Defense, and mentee turned Mentor of the Scharlette Holdman Mitigation Program.

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Monnette sits on the board of the historical Fox Park Neighborhood Association and Family Resource and Community Connections, Inc., member of the Community Advisory Group of city of St. Louis Sustainability and climate plan committee. Monnette sat on the Professional Organization of African American Women board for 7 years and is an advocate at Missouri Against Death Penalty rallies and vigils. Outside of community outreach presence and fighting for justice in legislation, Monnette is a mother of 2 adult children and a fur grandmother of 2. Contact Ms. Blue at m.blue@phillipsblack.org.

 

Mr. Price-Slade is a Larsen Justice Fellow at the Oakland office. He is a 2025 graduate of Berkeley Law. Hailing from Western Massachusetts, he completed his undergraduate studies at Deep Springs College and Wesleyan University. At Berkeley Law, Mr. Price-Slade participated in the Death Penalty Clinic and spent several semesters as a member of the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law. He also completed an individual research project analyzing how appellate waivers have barred many prisoners from obtaining the benefit of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Johnson v. United States. Outside of work, he enjoys making music with friends. Contact Mr. Price-Slade at i.price-slade@phillipsblack.org.

Mr. Roberts is a staff attorney in our Philadelphia office. He joined Phillips Black as a Harvard Law Review Fellow. A 2023 graduate of Harvard Law School, Mr. Roberts clerked for the Honorable Gene E.K. Pratter of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania before joining Phillips Black. Originally from Colorado, Mr. Roberts studied philosophy and German as an undergraduate at Colorado College. After continuing these studies on a fellowship at the University of Regensburg in Bavaria, Mr. Roberts returned home and worked as a public school teacher in Colorado Springs before enrolling in law school.

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During law school, Mr. Roberts participated in the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project and interned for the Capital Appeals Project, the Capital Habeas Unit for the Northern District of Texas, the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, and East Bay Children’s Law Offices. A lover of research and writing, Mr. Roberts authored an article about reconciling restorative and retributive theories of justice by abolishing the death penalty, which appears in the Harvard Civil Rights—Civil Liberties Law Review. Contact Mr. Roberts at t.roberts@phillipsblack.org.

Ms. Barksdale is a mitigation specialist based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. She received her undergraduate degree in Arts and Letters from Portland State University and master’s degree in social work at Louisiana State University. She has worked on pretrial, post-conviction, clemency, and parole preparation throughout the deep south with a primary focus on juvenile life without parole and death penalty cases. She is trained in Defense Victim Outreach (DVO) and always looking to push the boundaries of bringing art and activism into mitigation investigation. Contact Eve Barksdale at e.barksdale@phillipsblack.org. 

 

 
 

Ms. Wishingrad is a law fellow in the Oakland office. She is a 2025 graduate of Stanford Law School, where she participated in the Community Law Clinic, the Prisoner Legal Services pro bono project, and the Three Strikes Project. During her summers, she worked at Reprieve and the Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California, Capital Habeas Unit. Originally from Los Angeles, Sarah earned her B.A. from Stanford University in 2018, her MSt from the University of Oxford in 2019, and prior to law school worked as a paralegal at American Oversight. Contact Ms. Wishingrad at s.wishingrad@phillipsblack.org.

Ms. Frieders is a fellow in the Oakland office and is originally from Tucson, Arizona. She graduated from Stanford Law, where she participated in the Criminal Defense Clinic, handled criminal appeals at the First District Appellate Project, and assisted with prisoners' rights litigation at Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld. Before coming to law school, she worked for two years as a client advocate at the Delaware Office of Defense Services. Contact Ms. Frieders at c.frieders@phillipsblack.org.

 
 

special counsel

Lee Kovarsky

Mr. Kovarsky is a Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law, where he teaches Criminal Procedure, Civil Procedure, Federal Jurisdiction, Capital Punishment, and Habeas Corpus. He previously taught at the University of Maryland School of Law (Carey). He is the co-author with Brandon Garrett of the habeas corpus case book from Foundation Press as well as a teaching text on the death penalty, and has authored a number of law review articles on related subject matter.

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He has extensive capital litigation experience, having served as the Post-Conviction Director for Texas Defender Service and the Managing Director of the Powell Project. He has been counsel of record in dozens of death penalty matters, and consulted extensively in dozens more. His practice has primarily involved Texas prisoners, but includes litigation at all levels of the state and federal judiciary. Most recently, in the fall of 2017, he argued Ayestas v. Davis in the United States Supreme Court. Contact Mr. Kovarsky at l.kovarsky@phillipsblack.org.

Ms. Knight represents clients facing the death penalty in state and federal courts nationwide, in all stages of proceedings. She has also represented clients sentenced to life without parole as juveniles, clients who have experienced sexual assault in custody, and those who face criminal charges for performing humanitarian aid work. Her practice is largely centered in Arizona, where she regularly appears in the Arizona Supreme Court. Her practice also extends to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

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She serves as a program attorney for the Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program, providing expert consultation and assistance to legal teams defending Mexican nationals facing the death penalty in the U.S. She has published several law review articles on federal habeas corpus procedure. In addition, she holds an MFA in creative writing and is a published novelist, and presents at conferences on the subject of storytelling and narrative in advocacy. Contact Ms. Knight at a.knight@phillipsblack.org.

Mr. Dunham is the director of the newly created Death Penalty Policy Project and an adjunct professor of death penalty law at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. An internationally recognized expert on capital punishment with more than three decades of experience in death penalty policy and practice, he joins Phillips Black after 8 years in Washington as Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center. From 1994 to 2016, he represented Pennsylvania death-row prisoners at all levels of the Commonwealth’s state and federal courts, including arguing in the U.S. Supreme Court. He has served as Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Capital Case Resource Center; Director of Training in the Philadelphia federal defender’s Capital Habeas Unit; and as assistant federal defender in the capital habeas unit of the Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

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Mr. Dunham is a member of the Board of Directors of Witness to Innocence and previously served on the Steering Committee of the American Bar Association’s Death Penalty Representation Project and the boards of directors of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project and the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He has lectured throughout the United States and internationally in death penalty trainings, symposia, and conferences. His teaching experience also includes 11 years at Villanova Law School teaching the school’s death penalty seminar and teaching an inter-university honors capital punishment seminar as a visiting scholar at Oklahoma State University, as part of Oklahoma state university system’s Scholarship-Leadership Enrichment Program. Contact Mr. Dunham at r.dunham@phillipsblack.org.

In Memoriam

Marco Maldonado

Marco Maldonado was a legal apprentice at the Philadelphia Office and a certified legal reference aide by the state of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Villanova University with a B.A. in Liberal Arts. He also earned an M.A. in the Humanities from California State University - Dominguez-Hills with a focus on Historiography. Although not a lawyer, Marco successfully litigated his own wrongful conviction in both state and federal courts in Pennsylvania. We miss him every day.