Cathryn Crawford

Ms. Crawford successfully represented Leroy Orange, who was granted a pardon based on innocence in January 2003, after spending nineteen years on death row for a crime he did not commit. Mr. Orange was one of Illinois’ "Death Row Ten" -- defendants sentenced to death after being convicted with the use of confessions allegedly obtained through torture by a former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. Ms. Crawford has served as co-counsel for other members of the Death Row Ten. She served on a team of lawyers that successfully petitioned for the assignment of a special prosecutor in cases in which men alleged that they were tortured by Commander Burge.

Ms. Crawford has teamed up with the American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center / National Juvenile Defender Center to improve access to counsel for juveniles. Since the year 2000, she has served as an investigator and consultant in ABA assessments of indigent defense for juveniles in the states of Georgia, Montana, Ohio and Indiana. She also served as the principal investigator in Texas’ juvenile indigent defense assessment. Funded by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the investigation resulted in a report titled Selling Justice Short: Juvenile Indigent Defense in Texas, which was part of a larger inquiry conducted by Texas Appleseed into the provision of defense counsel to indigent people in Texas, including adults and the mentally ill. The report is credited as providing impetus for the passage of the Texas Fair Defense Act in 2001, an act that overhauled the indigent defense systems of Texas.

Ms. Crawford has written and lectured extensively on issues including representation of juvenile defendants, criminal justice and death penalty reform, police misconduct, pro bono obligations of attorneys in private practice and developments in juvenile and criminal law. In the summer of 2004, Ms. Crawford served as a visiting Professor of Evidence in Golden Gate Law School’s Honors Program. Ms. Crawford is also a member of the faculty for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. She was recently named by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin as one of “40 Illinois Attorneys Under 40 to Watch.”

In addition to “Selling Justice Short”, her publications include, “Report on the Legal Needs of Harris County Children (ABA Children’s Rights Litigation Com. 2004, report coordinator), A "Public Assets" Theory of Lawyers' Pro Bono Obligations, 145 U.Pa.L.Rev. 1245 (May, 1997) co-authored by Steven Lubet, and Law and Order, California- Style: Look West, Cook County, Look West, Chicago Tribune, 3/1/00, co-authored by G. Flint Taylor.

Ms. Crawford serves on the Board of Governors of the Chicago Council of Lawyers. She also serves as a community representative on the Local School Council of Clemente High School