Diann Y. Rust-Tierney is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. Prior to joining the UDC Law faculty, she served as the Executive Director of the Racial Justice Institute and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. She was appointed the Robert F. Drinan S.J. Visiting Professor for Human Rights at Georgetown University Law Center in 2021.
Professor Rust-Tierney is one of five inaugural recipients of the Steven M. Polan Fellowship in Constitutional Law and History at the Brennan Center for Justice. The focus of her scholarship is on the proper interpretation of the eighth amendment in light of history and recent developments in the law. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Georgetown Human Rights Institute.
Professor Rust-Tierney was the Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty from 2004 to 2022, where she led national and independent state affiliate efforts to end capital punishment in the U.S. and supported death penalty abolition worldwide. She developed and coordinated national policy and legal strategy. As a nationally recognized expert, she developed strategic communications and policy advocacy to change public opinion about the death penalty and appeared in national media. She has served as an expert resource to members of Congress and legislative staff on capital punishment.
She held various roles at the American Civil Liberties Union from 1985 to 2004, including Chief Legislative Counsel and Associate Director of the Washington Office and Director of the Capital Punishment Project. While at the ACLU she reviewed, vetted, and critiqued legal analysis on all policy reports and testimony submitted to Congress. She supervised senior legislative counsel; developed and implemented legislative strategy on civil rights and civil liberties and initiated the creation of a new integrated policy, organizing, communications, and field program to support the Washington Office in its legislative advocacy.
As Director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project she worked with the ACLU Director of Communications to commission and disseminate seminal research on public attitudes about the death penalty. Early in her career, Professor Rust-Tierney served as a Staff Attorney at the National Women’s Law Center where her focus was on federal policy and litigation related to Title IX prohibiting discrimination against women and girls in education and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting discrimination in employment.
Professor Rust-Tierney writes and speaks in the areas of human rights, legal history of the US death penalty, racial disparities, structural racism, and its connection to current threats to democracy.
Professor Rust-Tierney earned her JD from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and her BA from the College of Wooster.
Criminal Procedure
Human Rights Advocacy
Capital Punishment