- Over twenty years’ experience providing pre-trial and trial defense including death penalty litigation.
- Experience litigating before the Military Commissions as detailed defense counsel to Nashwan al-Tamir (charged as Hadi al-Iraqi).
- TS/SCI Security Clearance.
- Judicial experience as a substitute judge in Virginia’s 19th Judicial Circuit.
- Appointed lead counsel in capital and death penalty cases in Georgia and Virginia.
- Appointed lead counsel in criminal trial and appellate cases in Georgia and Virginia.
- Lead counsel jury trial experience includes approximately 90 jury trials, encompassing various criminal cases such as murder trials and serious felonies. Noteworthy among these trials is one where the death penalty was pursued, ultimately resulting in a unanimous life sentence. Additional experience in jury sentencing, due to Virginia’s previous requirement for jury sentencing in every jury trial until the relevant law changed in 2021.
- Assistant counsel in federal habeas corpus death penalty litigation.
- Demonstrated commitment or interest to indigent defense.
- Demonstrated commitment and interest in serving racially and socioeconomically oppressed communities.
- Conducted mitigation penalty-phase investigation in trial and post-conviction death penalty cases.
- Conducted merits-phase investigation in trial and post-conviction death penalty cases.
- Trained in death penalty jury selection.
- Experienced in pre-trial merits and penalty investigation in criminal cases.
- Extensive jury and trial experience including case presentation, witness preparation, examination and cross-examination of witnesses, including expert witnesses.
- Demonstrated proficiency in the investigation, litigation, and presentation in forensic psychiatric cases.
- Adjunct professor at University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, Virginia.
- Trains other attorneys at Continuing Legal Education seminars.
- Experienced in the utilization of expert witnesses including psychiatric and forensic evidence.
- Demonstrated proficiency and commitment which exemplify the quality of representation appropriate to criminal trial and death penalty cases.
Karin Kissiah
Karin Kissiah
Address
127 Abercorn St.
Savannah, GA 314012
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Karin Kissiah is a highly qualified expert in the field of criminal defense. She has twenty years’ experience trying cases before juries in Georgia, Virginia, and the Military Commissions at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. During her professional career, Ms. Kissiah has served as a public defender and capital defender representing clients charged with offenses ranging in seriousness from drunk driving to racketeering, war crimes, and capital murder. She is skilled in the preparation and presentation of cases as both principal and supervisory counsel. Ms. Kissiah has judicial experience, having served as a substitute judge in Virginia’s 19th Judicial Circuit. Ms. Kissiah has defended hundreds of cases including serving as lead counsel in approximately twenty death penalty cases directing and coordinating capital defense teams including the utilization of distinguished experts. No client Ms. Kissiah has represented at the trial level has been sentenced to death. Ms. Kissiah is a guest speaker and lecturer on criminal defense issues. She has taught death penalty jurisprudence and lectured extensively on capital punishment, legal representation of poor people accused of crimes, racial discrimination in the criminal legal system, and legal representation of mentally ill and intellectually disabled persons accused of crimes.
Qualifications
Education
Undergraduate:
- New York University, Gallatin Division New York, NY
- Bachelor’s Degree with Individualized Major in American History with concentration in the Foundations of Common Law American Legal
Traditions, May 1994
Law School:
- Brooklyn Law School, Brooklyn, NY J.D. June 2000
- Fellowships: Brooklyn Law Students for Public Interest (BLISPI) Fellowship, Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Fellowship
Advanced Certificates:
- Cornell University Diversity and Inclusion certificate program through eCornell March 2021
Licensed to practice
- Georgia State Bar, Admitted 2016, Active Member in Good Standing
- Virginia State Bar, Admitted 2000, Associate Member in Good Standing
Community and Professional Organizations
- National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
- National Association of Public Defenders
Judicial experience
- Substitute Judge for the Commonwealth of Virginia 19th Judicial Circuit, (appointed 2013)
Professional Experience
- GS-15 Trial Attorney, Military Commissions Defense Organization, Washington, D.C.
- Georgia Capital Defender, Southeast Georgia Regional Capital Defender Office, Brunswick, Georgia
- Office of the Capital Defender, Central Region, Richmond, Virginia
- University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, Virginia
- Kissiah & Schaefer, pllc, Fairfax, Virginia
- Fairfax County Office of the Public Defender, Fairfax, Virginia
- Northern Virginia Office of the Capital Defender, Manassas, Virginia
- Fairfax County Office of the Public Defender, Fairfax, Virginia
- Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, Charlottesville, Virginia
Selected Presentations
- Guest Speaker, Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Annual Conference Competency and Insanity: Dealing with the Mentally Fragile Client (October 2012);
- University of Richmond Law School, Trial Advocacy Board finals judge (2013);
- Guest Speaker, William and Mary Law School, Greater Peninsula Women’s Bar Association CLE Fundraiser, speaking on Miller v. Alabama Juvenile Law and Criminal Law (February 2014);
- Panelist, Mental Health and the Criminal Law, University of Richmond School of Law (September 2015);
- University of Richmond School of Law, Careers in the Criminal Law, panelist (April 2016); Panelist,
- Georgia Capital Defense Conference Fighting the Death Penalty One Client at a Time, speaking on themes and theories in successful police killing trials (May 2018).
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