Clive Stafford Smith is an attorney and the founder of Reprieve, a human rights organization focusing on the rights of death row prisoners and Guantánamo detainees. He spent nine years as a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights working on death penalty cases and other civil rights issues. He also launched the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, a non-profit law office specializing in representation of poor people in death penalty cases.
As director of Reprieve, Mr. Stafford Smith oversees legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves. Reprieve prioritizes the cases of prisoners accused of the most extreme crimes, such as acts of murder or terrorism, as it is in such cases that human rights are most likely to be jettisoned or eroded. Reprieve’s lawyers currently represent over 30 prisoners in Guantánamo Bay. The organization also continues to assist British nationals facing the death penalty around the world, and is conducting investigations into “extraordinary renditions” and secret prisons.
Mr. Stafford Smith has recently authored Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Seeking Justice in Guantánamo Bay, which recounts his personal experiences representing more than fifty of these prisoners.