NATIONAL CRIMINAL DEFENSE COLLEGE FACULTY

Dumaka Shabazz is a federal public defender based in Nashville, Tennessee, where he represents clients charged with fraud, homicide, and other violent, white-collar or large-scale narcotics crimes. Before joining the Federal Public Defender’s Office in 2010, Professor Shabazz was a criminal defense attorney in private practice for five years. He began his legal career in the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office, where he prosecuted criminal cases through negotiation, motions practice and trials, and participated in numerous jury trials involving crimes from DUI to homicide.

He is a staff teacher at the New Defender College for newly hired federal public defenders, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and has been a guest lecturer at Vanderbilt University and Sewanee—The University of the South. At Vanderbilt, he teaches Trial Advocacy.

Bart Sheela is an Alternate Public Defender in San Diego. In his over thirty-five years of practice, he has tried just about every variety of criminal case, including several capital cases.

He has served on the California Public Defender Association’s Board of Directors for nearly 20 years and has served as its President. He has assisted in the planning of the Capital Case Defense Seminar, the largest capital case defense program in the nation, for the last 10 years. In addition, he has been a co-chair of the Training Committee for 10+ years and planned nearly 100 trainings for California lawyers. In 2019, he was chosen as the Public Defender of the Year.

He was formerly the Chair of the California State Bar’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct and has written and lectured on legal ethics and trial practice.

He proudly serves on the faculty at the National Criminal Defense College and the Clarence Darrow Death Penalty Defense College.

He has successfully resolved his last seven death penalty cases.

Jeff Sherr is the Training Director for the National Association for Public Defense producing hundreds of webinars for public defense professionals across the nation. Prior to that he was the Manager of the Education and Strategic Planning Branch of the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. Jeff started with the DPA since 1994, starting first as a law clerk, then working with the Juvenile Post Dispositional Unit, then in the trial division with the Stanford Field Office, and now in Frankfort with the education staff. Jeff graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1995. Jeff has been a faculty member for Gideon’s Promise, the National Criminal Defense College, Clarence Darrow Death Penalty College, Harvard Trial Advocacy Workshop, Bronx Defender Academy, and other state litigation institutes.

In addition to regularly training public defender litigators and trainers, Jeff trains public defender leaders nationally and for many individual defender states and offices. Jeff also has an extensive background in theatre having studied with the National Shakespeare Conservatory and the University of Kansas. Jeff performs regularly with Central Kentucky Improv in Lexington, Kentucky and at Improv Festivals across the country.

Where hasn’t Fredi worked? She’s been an Assistant Federal Defender in Omaha, Nebraska; Boise, Idaho; Reno, Nevada and Asheville, North Carolina, with side stops in Washington, DC as visiting counsel at the Defender Training Branch and at the U.S. Sentencing Commission. She’s in such “high demand” that she recently received a recruiting email asking her if she would like to be a legal assistant in an up and coming workers’ comp firm. She wrote back thanking them but she was having too much fun being an advocate for poor people and had to decline their lovely offer. Then she killed her LinkedIn account.

An honors grad of Cornell University and New York University School of Law, Fredi has served on the faculty for numerous programs around the country. Her favorite tag line during her teaching sessions is, “You understand this is interactive, right?” To date, no one has successfully slunk down low enough for her to not make eye contact and ask for a volunteer.

Fredi co-authored Trial in Action: The Persuasive Power of Psychodrama and expects to be an answer to a trivia question one day because of it. She’s written article/chapters on various topics: child pornography, voir dire, cross examination and the effects of incarceration on families. Her two passions are psychodrama (where she’s certified as a practitioner, not to be confused with being certified period) and Improv. She will play improv games all day if allowed, and you’ll often hear her muttering, “Whoosh, Bang, Pow!”

Michael L. Stout is a trial attorney specializing in Criminal Law. He received a J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law and is a Recognized Specialist in Criminal Law. He often teaches other lawyers throughout the nation through workshops and seminars, especially in the area of jury selection.

Michael has been on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College for 36 years. He was the first chair of the New Mexico Public Defense Commission and remains a member of the Commission.  Michael also serves as the acting President of New Mexico Justice, a Criminal Justice PAC.  He is an AV rated attorney and has been named in every issue of the Best Lawyers of America, SuperLawyers, and most recently on America’s Top 100 Criminal Defense Attorneys.

Ryan is a criminal defense attorney based in Athens, Georgia who practices in both federal and state courts. Ryan is a former state public defender and state capital defender.  Ryan began his legal career in 2001 as an Athens public defender.  For 12 years, Ryan dedicated himself to defending indigent defendants in Athens on cases ranging from disorderly conduct to murder.  During his five years as lead attorney for the Northeast Georgia Capital Defender Office, none of the office’s clients were sentenced to death.  Ryan’s current private practice focuses 100% on criminal defense.  Ryan is an experienced trial lawyer having tried all manner of misdemeanor and felony cases.  Ryan is also a faculty member of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Bill Daniel Trial Advocacy Program.