About me
David Barron has represented death-sentenced individuals exclusively for nearly twenty-two years, first in South Carolina and since July 2004, in the Post-Conviction Branch at the Department of Public Advocacy. Handling only capital cases in state post-conviction and federal habeas proceedings, he has lost clients to execution, obtained last minute stays of execution, obtained clemency, and won reversals in numerous capital cases that ultimately concluded in less than a death sentence. He was counsel of record before the Supreme Court of the United in the landmark lethal injection case, Baze v. Rees, and routinely handles capital post-conviction cases before the Kentucky Supreme Court and capital federal habeas cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and before the Supreme Court of the United States. Throughout his career, Barron has handled intellectual disability litigation in state court and in federal habeas proceedings, including ultimately convincing the Commonwealth to concede intellectual disability in two capital cases where the death-sentenced individuals had spent over a decade under a death sentence, and continues to litigate intellectual disability on behalf of two other clients. He also wrote the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy manual chapter on intellectual disability. In addition to representing death-sentenced individuals, Barron spent nearly a decade as an adjunct law professor teaching courses on federal habeas corpus, the death penalty, and criminal adjudication. He has also presented on death penalty litigation matters a number of times at both local and national conferences. In his spare time, Barron enjoys watching the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, and New England Patriots, collecting baseball cards, and playing badminton, pickup games of basketball, darts, and ping pong. He, his wife, and two small dogs (he remains deathly afraid of large dogs) reside in Shelbyville, Kentucky.
