Phillip H. Cherney

Adjunct Professor of Law

phillip.cherney@faculty.sjcl.edu

Education

J.D., Lincoln Law School, San Jose
B.A., University of California, Los Angeles

Courses Taught

Criminal Law
Criminal Procedure
The Death Penalty
Evidence I
Evidence II

Professor Cherney has over four decades of trial and appellate experience in state and federal courts in civil and criminal litigation. For thirty-five years he focused his law practice on criminal defense representation, tried twenty murder cases, including six capital cases, and he was appointed by the California Supreme Court as lead counsel in six death penalty appeals and habeas corpus proceedings. Retiring from active practice in 2019, he has been a consultant to public defender agencies and private counsel in death penalty litigation, testified as an expert witness on professional standards and practices for defense counsel in death penalty trials, and he has published scholarly articles on select topics in criminal law.

Scholarship

• The Lamentable Mr. Toad:  On the Wild Ride With Claims of Ineffective Assistance of Counsel in Capital Cases Before the United States Supreme Court 42 LINCOLN L.R. (2014-2015).
• Featured speaker at CACJ/Fresno County Public Defender Seminar: Capital Defense Training: Handling a Death Case in the Central Valley (October 2011).
• Featured speaker at Fresno County Defense Attorneys: Preserving Record for Appeal (July 2009).
• Guest speaker at Seattle University: Poverty and the Death Penalty (2004-2006).
• Guest Speaker at California State University, Fresno: Capital Case Defense Practice (December 2002).
• Thrice in Jeopardy: The CCE Prosecution of Felix Mitchell, 27 SANTA CLARA L. REV. 515 (1987).