University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law

The urban public law school with a small liberal arts feel

Sean O'Brien Associate Professor of Law; J.D. (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law); B.A. (Northwest Missouri State University) Class Links email 816-235-6152 Vita Professor O’Brien has been Director of various criminal defense clinics at UMKC School of Law since 1983, including the Public Defender Appeals Clinic (1983-1985), the Public Defender Trial Clinic (1985-1989), and the Death Penalty Representation Clinic (1990-present). As an Adjunct Professor, he has taught Problems and Issues in the Death Penalty at UMKC since 1995, and he has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Washburn University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Midwest Innocence Project. He teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Wrongful Convictions. Professor O'Brien served as the Chief Public Defender in Kansas City, Missouri from 1985 through 1989, when he was appointed Executive Director of the Missouri Capital Punishment Resource Center, now the Public Interest Litigation Clinic, where he represents clients in capital trial, appeal and postconviction cases. Professor O'Brien’s noteworthy cases include Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298 (1995), which preserves the right of habeas corpus review for innocent prisoners, and Stewart v. Martinez-Villareal, 523 U.S. 637 (1998), which preserves habeas corpus jurisdiction over Eighth Amendment issues which arise when death row prisoners become insane while awaiting execution. He received his B.A. in English with highest honors from Northwest Missouri State University in 1977, and his J.D. from UMKC School of Law, where he served on the Moot Court Board. In 2005, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Human Letters from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, for his pro bono work on behalf of condemned prisoners. Professor O'Brien is a Past President of Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, former Chair of the Missouri Bar Criminal Law Committee, and is a frequent lecturer on criminal justice issues. His academic lectures include the Yale Law School First Monday in October Lecture Series, Executing the Mentally Retarded, (Hartford, CT, 2001); Westminster University School of Law A.J. Bannister Memorial Lecture, “Issues of Concern in the American System of Capital Punishment,” (London, UK, 1997), and The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Competency to Be Executed: Interdisciplinary and Ethical Considerations (2001). He is a permanent faculty member of The Persuasion Institute, sponsored by the New York University School of Law, and The Habeas College, presented by National Institute of Trial Advocacy. Professor O’Brien is the 2006 winner of the American Bar Association Ross Essay Award, which recounts his last conversation with Missouri death row inmate Doyle Williams. Finding Redemption, 92 ABA Journal 59 (August, 2006), http://www.abanet.org/journal/ross/home.html. His other recent publications include Capital Defense Lawyers: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 105 Mich. L. Rev. 1 (March, 2007), and Kansas v. Marsh: Putting the Guesswork Back Into Capital Sentencing, 105 Mich. L. Rev. First Impressions 90 (2006), http://students.law.umich.edu/mlr/firstimpressions/vol105/obrien.pdf. He is author of Missouri Criminal Practice, Chapter 21: Voir Dire and Jury Selection, and Chapter 24: Jury Instructions (MoBar, 4th Ed., 2005). Professor O’Brien has won many awards for his work on behalf of indigent prisoners, including the UMKC Law Foundation Don Quixote Award (1987), the National Lawyer’s Guild Social and Economic Justice Award (1993), the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Annual Recognition Award (1994), the Missouri Association to Abolish the Death Penalty Legal Advocacy Award (1992), the Missouri Association of Social Welfare Annual Recognition Award (1994), the National Association to Abolish the Death Penalty Outstanding Legal Service Award (1998), the UMKC Alumni Achievement Award (2003), the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri Annual Civil Liberties Award (2003), the Lawyers Association of Kansas City Annual Charles Whittaker Award (2004). Professor O’Brien was named a Legal Leader of the Year by the Jackson County Record in 2005, and was Missouri Lawyer’s Weekly Lawyer of the Year in 2003 for his work in the exoneration of death row inmate Joseph Amrine. In 2005, Professor O’Brien received the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association Lifetime Achievement Award. You can access my papers on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=850294