2026 Summer Public Defense Conference

John Holdridge has fought the death penalty in courtrooms around the country for over
four decades. He has worked as the Director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project,
as a public defender in Connecticut’s Capital Defense and Trial Services Unit, and as
Director of the Mississippi and Louisiana Capital Trial Assistance Project in New
Orleans. Before committing to death penalty representation full-time, he was a litigation
associate at a Wall Street law firm. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Lawrence
University in Appleton, Wisconsin, and received his J.D. from New York University
School of Law, where he served as an Articles Editor for the Annual Survey of American
Law. He was the 2002 recipient of the Life in the Balance Achievement Award of the
National Legal Aid and Defender Association, which stated that “he has set the standard
for capital defenders throughout the country.” In 2008, he received Lawrence
University’s Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award, which is presented to
“to an alumnus or alumna of Lawrence University or Milwaukee-Downer College of
more than 15 years, for outstanding contributions and achievements in a career field.”