Professor Julian Killingley
Email: julian.killingley@bcu.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 121 331 6287
Bio & Interests
Julian Killingley is solicitor and Professor of American Public Law at Birmingham City University School of Law. He was formerly a partner in private practice for 15 years specialising in criminal and family law. He is also qualified as an information technology ergonomist with an interest in cognitive models of tasks and skills. He is currently the director of the Law School's LL.B. Law with American Legal Studies programme. He teaches American constitutional law, American criminal procedure, and American legal practice.
He has specialist knowledge of the administration of the death penalty in the United States. He is a director of Amicus, a British charity that offers practical assistance to American death row inmates. He has contributed to a number of amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on issues such as mental retardation and the execution of juveniles.
Research Supervision
- English Criminal Legal Aid and Duty Solicitor Schemes
- English Criminal Law Practice
- Capital Punishment in the USA
- Criminal Appeals in American State and Federal Courts
- Mental Retardation (learning Difficulties) and Criminal Law
- Racism and Criminal Law in the USA
- American Federalism and Criminal Law
- US Supreme Court History and Practice
Select Publications
Killingley J. (with Professor David Wilson) (2005), 'An Ethnographic Evaluation of the C-FAR Programme', report published by Centre for Criminal Justice Policy & Research, Birmingham City University available at: http://www.c-far.org.uk/professordavidwilson.htm
Killingley J. (2005), 'United States Vienna Convention Compliance in Capital Cases', report published by Andrew Lee Jones Fund Limited / Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
Killingley J. (2005), 'Execution of Juveniles and Mentally Retarded Defendants in the USA', report published by Andrew Lee Jones Fund Limited / Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
Projects
Julian continues to maintain a strong interest in developing practical legal interventions to counter the inequities inherent in the resort to Capital Punishment. He is currently researching the ways in which confessions made to so-called jailhouse-snitches can lead to often unreliable convictions. He also continues to be actively involved in writing amicus curaie in high profile cases of legal significance.