Hannah Gorman is the director of The Balanced Justice Project at Florida International University’s College of Law and a research scholar based at the Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International University’s College of Law (FCCR). She is a dual qualified attorney (United Kingdom and USA – New York) with a license to practise as a mitigation specialist in Florida.
Hannah leads the Florida Center for Capital Representation’s state-wide research and assists legal teams with capital cases. In particular, she provides assistance with empirical evidence and data collection, jury selection, life history investigation and victim outreach. Hannah has extensive experience in representing foreign nationals and conducting in-field investigation overseas. She has worked on cases in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oregon and Florida as well as in South East Asia and the Middle East. She also co-teaches the death penalty module and directs the death penalty clinic at FIU with a special focus on international human rights law.
Hannah was formerly associate director of the Centre for Human Rights at Birmingham City University, UK where she co-directed/founded the law school’s pro bono clinic. She previously practised as a solicitor-advocate in criminal and public law (right to education; property rights of indigenous tribes; right to life; right to freedom of religion; right not to be subjected to torture) in the UK and worked with the United Nations, European Union and various governments around the world on best consular practice for national detained overseas. She has also drafted and co-ordinated the filing of amicus briefs on various key issues such as juvenile sentencing (Graham & Sullivan v. Florida; Miller v. Alabama; Jackson v. Arkansas), death row phenomena and the application of scientific principles in determining intellectual disability.
research interests
Criminal Law Criminal Procedure & Litigation Death Penalty Law Human Rights Law (International & Domestic - UK & US)