Ronald J. Tabak

Ronald J. Tabak "is experienced in death penalty and civil rights litigation. For example, he successfully argued Francis v. Franklin, a death penalty case, in the U.S. Supreme Court and played a leading role in securing Johnny Gates’ removal from death row after 26 years. Mr. Tabak has chaired the Committee on Civil Rights of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and is co-chair of the Death Penalty Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities. He has been a leader in the ABA’s efforts to recruit and train lawyers for indigent death row inmates. He spearheaded the successful effort to get the ABA to call for a moratorium on executions until various due process concerns are resolved. He is the Chair of the ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities’ Task Force & Mental Disability and the Death Penalty, whose proposals have been adopted as policies by the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association. He has spoken on capital punishment at conferences sponsored by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Arizona state court system, the Federal Bar Council and numerous other organizations."

• Attorney, Skadden, Arps

Affiliations

• Chair or Co-chair, Death Penalty Committee, Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, American Bar Association (1988-present); Member Policy Council (1994-2001); Special Counsel, Policy Council (2001-present); Chair, Task Force on Mental Disability And The Death Penalty (2003-present)
• Chair, Committee on Civil Rights, Association of the Bar of the City of New York (1998-2001); Member (1994-1997)
• Member, Legal Services Committee, New York State Bar Association (2006)
• Member, Special Committee on Capital Punishment, Association of the Bar of the City of New York (1994-present)
• Member, Steering Committee, American Bar Association Death Penalty Representation Project (2003-present)
• President, New York Lawyers Against the Death Penalty (1988-present)
• Member, Board of Appleseed (1995-2002; 2003-present)
• Member of Board, New York Civil Liberties Union (1995-present); Executive Committee (2004-present)
• Member of Board, Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc. (2004-present)
• Member, Board of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty (1995-present); Secretary (2004-present)
• Member, Board of Death Penalty Information Center (2004-present)
• Chair, Jethro Committee to Honor the Legal Profession, Central Synagogue (2002-2005)