John H. Blume
John H. Blume is Director of the Cornell Death Penalty Project and visiting Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. A graduate of Yale Law School, and Yale Divinity School, John has been practicing criminal defense law since 1985, and since 1987 has concentrated on the defense of persons sentenced to death. From 1988 until 1996, John was executive director of the Post-Conviction Defender Organization of South Carolina. He has represented countless defendants and petitioners at trial and in state and federal post-conviction proceedings.
John has argued several capital cases in the United States Supreme Court including Loving v. United States, 517 U.S. 748 (1996); Mu’Min v. Virginia, 500 U.S. 415 (1991); and Butler v. McKellar, 494 U.S. 407 (1990). He has been co-counsel, and counsel for amici curiae, in seven other capital habeas corpus cases in the Supreme Court, including Strickler v. Greene, 119 S.Ct. 136 (1999), Buchanan v. Angelone, 118 S.Ct. 757 (1998); Gray v. Netherland, 518 U.S. 152 (1996); Burden v. Zant, 510 U.S. 132 (1994); Yates v. Evatt, 500 U.S. 391 (1991); and Burger v. Kemp, 483 U.S. 776 (1987). In addition to extensive post-conviction work in various state courts, John has represented capital habeas corpus petitioners in the Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits.
John’s many writings include articles on federal habeas corpus law and practice, racial discrimination in the criminal law and capital cases in particular, and on capital punishment and mental retardation.
John has served as Habeas Assistance and Training Counsel since the project’s inception in 1996.