Please join Dorsey & Whitney LLP and
The Advocates for Human Rights’ Death Penalty Project
for our bi-monthly lunchtime speaker series:

The Andre Thomas Death Penalty Case Serious Mental Illness on Trial (or not?)

presented by

Cliff Anderson

Thursday, September 13, 2007
12:00-1:00 P.M.

at

Dorsey & Whitney
Seattle Room, 15th Floor
50 South 6th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55402

Cliff Anderson will discuss the Dorsey & Whitney death penalty team’s current death penalty case State of Texas v. Andre Thomas.  The triple homicide that Mr. Thomas committed in March 2004 made national headlines when shortly after Mr. Thomas turned himself in and confessed his crime, he pulled out his own right eye with his fingers after reading in his Bible, “If the right eye offends thee, pluck it out.”  After treatment for his psychosis and allegedly being restored to competency for trial, the State of Texas tried Thomas for murder.  Thomas pled not guilty by reason of insanity.  Yet, the jury found Thomas guilty of murder after just 45 minutes of deliberation following 11 days of trial testimony and 46 witnesses during the guilt/innocence phase.  The same jury reached a verdict in like time resulting in a sentence of death following the punishment phase.  Mr. Anderson will discuss the trial, his team’s initial post-conviction Application for habeas corpus relief now pending in Texas, and the long-term prospects for his client. 

Speaker biography

Cliff Anderson is a Senior Attorney in Dorsey's Advocacy Group.  His practice involves a balance of employment and complex commercial litigation as well as non-litigation employment advice work.  His employment-related litigation work includes defending age, disability, race, and sex discrimination suits as well as cases involving claims of misappropriation of trade secrets, corporate raiding, intentional interference with contractual relations, and violations of employment agreements including those involving non-compete and non-solicitation provisions.  His non-employment related litigation practice involves complex commercial litigation cases both representing plaintiffs and defendants.  Cliff received The Advocates for Human Rights 2005 Volunteer Award.  The award was based on Cliff’s advocacy against the death penalty.  Cliff led a team that worked on both the Osbaldo Torres case (whose death sentence ultimately was commuted to life) and that of Jose Ernesto Medellin, the latter of which involved Cliff’s Dorsey team filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court.  Both cases implicated issues related to the rights of arrested foreign nationals under the Vienna convention. 

Please R.S.V.P. to Laura Young at The Advocates for Human Rights by Tuesday, Sept. 11.
Phone: (612) 341-3302 ext. 128 • Email: lyoung@mnadvocates.org
This talk is a brown bag lunch.  Beverages will be provided.  Application will be made for one CLE credit.