Marah Stith McLeod

Professor of Law

Office: 2113 Eck Hall of Law
Phone: 574-631-5487
Email: marah.s.mcleod.16@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Beth Smith
CV: View
SSRN: View

Marah Stith McLeod joined Notre Dame Law School in 2016. She teaches criminal law and procedure and studies the theory and practice of sentencing. Her articles on the death penalty, on mercy, and on principles of sentencing have appeared in the Virginia Law Review, Texas Law Review, Boston University Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Ohio State Law Review, Florida Law Review, and other journals. Prior to joining Notre Dame, McLeod taught legal writing at Columbia Law School.

McLeod is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School. McLeod served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Prior to becoming a professor, McLeod worked as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice and then as a civil litigator and pro bono counsel in death penalty cases at Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago.

McLeod is an advocate for criminal law reforms and serves on the executive board of the Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network, which draws on Catholic principles to advance the common good and affirm the dignity and equality of all human beings.

Before studying law, McLeod spent a year working with Mother Teresa’s sisters in a home for handicapped orphans in Kolkata, India. McLeod now has five beloved children of her own.

Courses Taught

Criminal Law
Criminal Adjudication
Plea Bargaining

Scholarship

Articles 

A Democratic Restraint on Incarceration, 76 Fla. L. Rev. 1147 (2024)
Showing Mercy Through a Presumption of Retribution, 102 Tex. L. Rev. 1365, 1473 (2024)
Preventing Undeserved Punishment, Notre Dame Law Review, 99 Notre Dame L. Rev. 493 (2023)
Communicating Punishment, 100 B.U. L. Rev. 2263 (2020)
The Death Penalty as Incapacitation, 104 Va. L. Rev. 1123 (2018) 
Does the Death Penalty Require Death Row? The Harm of Legislative Silence, 77 Ohio St. L.J. 525 (2016) 
Immigration Control: A Catholic Dilemma?, 84 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 73 (2007) 
The Semblance of Autonomy: Treatment of Persons with Disabilities Under the Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act, 22 Issues L. & Med. 39 (2006) 

Shorter Works 
White Paper of Democratic Criminal Justice, 111 Nw. L. Rev. 1693 (2017) (multiple authors)
A Humble Justice, 127 Yale L.J.F., 196 (2017) 
A Plebiscitary Bargain, 1 London L.R. 497 (2005)

Areas of Expertise

• Catholic Social Teaching
• Criminal Law & Procedure
• Death Penalty