Mark Olive

Mark Olive's national practice of law focuses on death penalty litigation and educating lawyers, judges, and law students about capital punishment and habeas corpus practice.  Mark has litigated capital cases throughout the country, both state and federal, including in the United States Supreme Court.  Mark was the Director of the first Capital Resource Center in the country, opened in Florida in 1985.  The Center provided assistance to pro bono attorneys, as well as direct representation, in capital cases. He was later the Director of both the Georgia and Virginia Resource Centers.  He has taught in law schools around the country, and today teaches the Death Penalty and the Supreme Court seminar at the University of North Carolina College of Law in Chapel Hill. Mark has been awarded: the National Legal Aid and Defender Association's Life in the Balance Achievement Award; one of the the Florida Supreme Court’s highest awards, the Tobias Simon award for pro bono service;  the Kentucky Furman award for national service to death sentenced inmates; and the California Death Penalty Focus award for lifetime service.  Mark has been a member of HAT, with John Blume, since the project's inception in 1996.