Washington, DC (Feb 28, 2025) – The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) presented its Defender of Freedom Award to Beth Blackwood at a reception hosted by NACDL’s Foundation for Criminal Justice (NFCJ) in Charlotte, NC. Beth was honored for her work as Counsel and Director for the First Step Act Resource Center at NACDL from 2020-2024. As Director, Beth led NACDL’s policy work ensuring the full implementation of the First Step Act and leading the Compassionate Release Clearinghouse in collaboration with NACDL’s long-term partner on these efforts, FAMM.
“As soon as the pandemic emerged, Beth and NACDL’s First Step Act Resource Center began working closely with FAMM and other partners to develop the Compassionate Release Clearinghouse to deal with the potentially catastrophic issue of people facing federal prison while the pandemic was ongoing,” said NACDL Immediate Past President Michael Heiskell. “The goal was to take advantage of the provisions of the First Step Act that expanded the availability of early release for medical reasons for people who were sick, terminally ill, and elderly, because they were vulnerable to covid. The Clearinghouse brought thousands of cases and recruited and trained pro bono attorneys and provided them with the legal resources to do what they needed to do to. With her co-leadership, the Clearinghouse established and obtained counsel and life-saving sentence reductions for nearly 300 individuals and shaped significant policy changes that have expanded the scope of compassionate release.”
Speaking about her work at the First Step Act Resource Center, Beth Blackwood said, “When people were dying in prisons, when they were scared, and they were elderly, and they were sick, we finally had a mechanism through the First Step Act to get them out. We mobilized with our partners, all the coalitions that NACDL has built over the years, and we were able to start a pro bono program to get attorneys to file motions for these sick and elderly people in prison. And so when people called and they were scared and they said ‘I’m afraid I’m going to die in prison’ we could say ‘we can help you.’ So, my thanks to NACDL because after watching so many people go into prison for so many years, it was such a blessing to get to see them come out.”
Before and after her time at NACDL, Beth practiced as an Assistant Federal Defender and Research and Writing Attorney at the Federal Public Defenders of Western North Carolina, where she represented indigent defendants charged with a wide variety of federal crimes, including drug and firearm offenses, violent crimes, fraud, and sex offenses. Beth represented clients through every stage of a criminal case, including pre-indictment, pretrial, plea negotiations, trial, and sentencing. She currently works for the Federal Defenders' Sentencing Resource Counsel, focusing on federal sentencing policy. She holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Music and English and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was an Executive Editor of the Michigan Journal of Race and Law.
Contacts
Jessie Diamond, Deputy Director, Public Affairs and Communications, (202) 465-7647 or jdiamond@nacdl.org
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal legal system.
