Presumption of Finality: Letty Di Giulio’s Capital Decision

Abstract

Capital defense attorneys are part of a specific subset of the criminal justice system which solely focuses on representing defendants who are facing the death penalty. For Letty S. Di Giulio, becoming an attorney seemed like her natural path given her father’s legal legacy as a prominent criminal defense attorney in Louisiana.  However, when she was faced with a significant loss the summer before her last year of law school, she had to come to terms with the psychological toll capital defense attorneys face when a client is executed. . She was at a crossroads: Di Giulio had to choose whether to adhere to a career devoted to defending capital defendants at the mercy of the state or to reevaluate the vocation she had imagined for herself her whole life.