Elisabeth Semel joined the Berkeley Law faculty in 2001 after two decades as a criminal and capital defense attorney and four years as the director of the American Bar Association Death Penalty Representation Project in Washington, D.C., including several years as adjunct faculty Georgetown Law.
Semel was the founding director of the Death Penalty Clinic, which she currently co-directs. In that role, she represents clients facing capital punishment at all stages of the proceedings in California and several states in the South. Semel and her students have filed amicus curiae briefs in death penalty cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, including Miller-El v. Cockrell, Miller-El v. Dretke, Snyder v. Louisiana, and Williams v. California (all dealing with race discrimination in jury selection).
In 2020, Semel and several of her students published Whitewashing the Jury Box: How California Perpetuates the Exclusion of Black and Latinx Jurors, which provided the evidentiary support for the California Legislature’s passage of AB 3070. The new statute dramatically reshapes the exercise of peremptory challenges trials to preclude strikes in which implicit or explicit racial or ethnic bias could be a factor. In 2024, Semel and another group of students published Guess Who’s Coming to Jury Duty: How the Failure to Collect Juror Demographic Data Contributes to Whitewashing the Jury Box. The new report catalogues the states that gather prospective jurors’ self-identified race and ethnicity and those that do not. It examines what courts do with the information, including whether it is provided to the court and counsel for use during jury selection, and the consequences of these choices in furthering or obstructing jury representativeness and diversity.
Semel maintains a page, Batson Reform State by State, on the Death Penalty Clinic website that tracks reforms in the use of peremptory challenges. Her publications include Batson and the Discriminatory Use of Peremptory Challenges in the 21st Century in Jurywork: Systematic Techniques (Thomson Reuters, 2023-24 ed.) and Reflections on Justice Stevens’s Concurring Opinion in Baze v. Rees: A Fifth Gregg Justice Renounces Capital Punishment, 43 UC Davis L. Rev. 783 (2010). She has written numerous articles about criminal defense practice and testified before Congress and the California Legislature.
Semel is the recipient of the Berkeley Law Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award (2023), an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Bard College (2016), the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice Lifetime Achievement Award (2019), and the Berkeley Law Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction (2015), among other honors.
Education
B.A., Bard College (1972)
J.D., UC Davis (1975)
Elisabeth Anne Semel is teaching the following courses in Spring 2025:
• 285.3D sec. 001 - Death Penalty Clinic Seminar II
• 295.5D sec. 001 - Death Penalty Clinic
Courses During Other Semesters
| Semester | Course Num | Course Title |  Teaching Evaluations | Fall 2025 | 285.2D sec. 001 | Death Penalty Clinic Seminar I | 295.5D sec. 001 | Death Penalty Clinic | Fall 2024 | 285.2D sec. 001 | Death Penalty Clinic Seminar I | View Teaching Evaluation | 295.5D sec. 001 | Death Penalty Clinic | View Teaching Evaluation |
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Judge rejects California DA’s request to change mass shooter’s death sentence to life without parole
Professor Elisabeth Semel, founding director of the UC Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic, said no matter what someone thinks of the death penalty, there remains no evidence that executions advance public safety.
Semel on new Glossip trial
UC Berkeley Law Chancellor’s Clinical Professor of Law and Co-Director, Death Penalty Clinic Elisabeth Semel discusses Richard Glossip’s new trial.
Richard Glossip ruling isn’t bellwether for death penalty: Legal expert
The win is certainly rare and noteworthy by this court but “it’s not a bellwether,” for future death penalty cases, said Elisabeth Semel, a professor and co-director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California’s Berkeley School of Law.
Are California’s Death Penalty Laws Applied in Racially Discriminatory Ways, Violating the State Constitution?
Two students from UC Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic fuel an amicus brief highlighting the importance of state constitutional independence and California’s deep record of discrimination in administering capital punishment.
Uncovering the Truth About Discrimination in Jury Selection
Professor Elisabeth Semel joins host Christopher Wright Durocher to talk about her recently released report, Guess Who’s Coming to Jury Duty?
New Report Shows How Collecting Jurors’ Demographic Data Is Crucial to Diverse Juries
A new report from Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic shows how collecting jurors’ demographic data is crucial to forming diverse juries.
Professor Elisabeth Semel on the Implications of Batson v. Kentucky and California’s Capital Punishment System
Professor Elisabeth Semel discusses the implications of Batson v. Kentucky (1986) and California’s capitol punishment system.
Alameda DA’s lowering of charges in Dublin murder supported by 1980s death penalty ruling
The ruling, which led to Warren McCleskey’s execution in 1991, dealt a severe blow to opponents of the death penalty. But it also added legal support to arguments for prosecutorial discretion — that prosecutors, not judges, are the ones to decide what charges to pursue in court and take to the jury, said Elisabeth Semel, a UC Berkeley law professor and co-director of the school’s Death Penalty Clinic.
States’ Failure to Collect Juror Race Information Contributes to “Whitewashed” Jury Box, Berkeley Law Report Finds
A new report from Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic finds that just 19 states collect race and ethnicity information from prospective jurors, meaning that a majority of states cannot ensure that their juries are a “representative cross-section of the community ” as mandated by the Constitution.
Colo. Court Jury Bias Decision A Window Into Batson Debate
“If I’m a lawyer sitting in court, week after week, watching juries come in and I’m not seeing Black people, I’m not seeing Latinx people, and I know what their population is in my county, I know something is wrong,” said Elizabeth Semel, an expert on discriminatory jury practices and co-director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. “But how can I figure it out without the data? I can’t.”
A Growing Legacy: Our Death Penalty Clinic’s Profound Impact on Clients and Students for Over 20 Years
Expert leaders dedicated to top-rate client representation and student training help the clinic become a national leader in serving people facing capital punishment.
In two high-profile cases, victims’ families don’t want to press charges. Does it matter?
In potential capital cases, local prosecutors often follow the requests of a victim’s family when it suits their purposes, said Elisabeth Semel, a UC Berkeley law professor and co-director of the school’s Death Penalty Clinic.
Berkeley Law Receives $5.5M From Barry Tarlow’s Estate
“This will allow us to strengthen our already outstanding criminal justice faculty, which are widely regarded as among the very best in the country,” said Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “Barry Tarlow was an eminent criminal defense attorney, and I am thrilled that we will honor his legacy by having a permanent chair named in his memory.”
Berkeley Law Receives $5.5 Million Gift for Criminal Justice
The Barry Tarlow Chair in Criminal Justice will honor the renowned defense attorney’s legacy and create a new faculty position awarded to a tenured professor.
Standing Firm: How Berkeley Law Faculty and Students are Stepping Up to Advance and Defend Basic Rights
With basic rights in peril at home and around the world, the law school community is answering the call.
Why the Jury Is Stacked Against the Parkland Shooter — and Why You Should Care
“It’s said that a society is measured by how we treat the worst among us, the most marginalized, the most despised,” Death Penalty Clinic Co-Director Elisabeth Semel tells columnist Nicholas Goldberg. “The law applies to everybody. We don’t get to pick and choose.”
Berkeley Law Clinic Helps Spur National Movement to Make Juries More Diverse
Key research by Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic is helping courts and state legislatures tackle racial discrimination in jury selection across the country.
Many juries in America remain mostly White, prompting states to take action to eliminate racial discrimination in their selection
Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, explains that racial discrimination in jury selection is a nationwide issue and says reforming peremptory strikes is only part of the fight
‘Terrific Teachers, Superb Scholars, and Wonderful Colleagues’: Six Professors Awarded Faculty Chairs
Professors Katerina Linos, Steven Davidoff Solomon, Abbye Atkinson, Elisabeth Semel, Laurel E. Fletcher, and Jeffrey Selbin are honored for their contributions to scholarship and legal education.
The ‘stepchild of lynching’: How the death penalty targets Black people.
Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, says from its inception, in this country, the death penalty and racism were inseparable