Dr. John Blume

Biography

Professor John H. Blume is the Samuel S. Leibowitz Professor of Trial Techniques and co-director of the Cornell Death Penalty Project at Cornell Law School. He teaches courses in Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, and Evidence, and supervises the Capital Punishment and Juvenile Justice Clinics. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (B.A., 1978), Yale Divinity School (M.A.R., 1982), and Yale Law School (J.D., 1984), he clerked for Hon. Thomas Clark of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit after law school. With years of experience in private practice focusing on civil rights litigation and criminal defense, he was the initial Executive Director of Justice 360, a nonprofit advocating for individuals on death row, before joining the faculty at Cornell. Professor Blume has co-authored multiple publications, including 'Cases and Materials on the Death Penalty' and 'Modern Approaches to Evidence,' alongside several law review articles addressing capital punishment and related issues. He has argued eight cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous cases in several U.S. Courts of Appeals, litigating over 100 capital cases through trial and appeal.

Research Interests

Experience