David Fathi, director of Human Rights Watch's US Program, is an expert on the death penalty, prison conditions, and other aspects of US criminal justice policy. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Fathi spent ten years as a staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project, where he brought lawsuits challenging conditions in prisons, jails, and immigration detention facilities throughout the United States. He developed a specialty in challenging "supermax" prisons, where prisoners are held in near-total isolation for months or years at a time. Fathi is a graduate of the University of Washington and the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He speaks French.

Human Rights Watch Reports:

No Equal Justice: The Prison Litigation Reform Act in the United States (June 16, 2009)
 
Articles:

"An Unfair Prison Litigation System," The Boston Globe, August 24, 2009.

"Texas increasingly out of step on death penalty," The Houston Chronicle, May 23, 2009.

"Prison Nation," The Huffington Post, April 9, 2009.

"Lock 'em up? It costs you," The Chicago Tribune, April 1, 2009.

"Separate and Unequal Justice for Prisoners," The Huffington Post, March 26, 2009.

"32 Years on Death Row," The Huffington Post, March 16, 2009.

"Obama Administration Contends Prisoner Has No Right to DNA Testing," The Huffington Post, March 2, 2009.

"Dangers of a Preventive Detention Law," Boston Globe, January 1, 2009.

"Executing the Innocent?" The Huffington Post, September 18, 2008.