Jordan M. Steiker
- Judge Robert M. Parker Chair of Law
- Professor

Jordan Steiker is an expert on capital punishment and constitutional law and serves as director of the Texas Law Capital Punishment Center. He has written extensively on constitutional law, federal habeas corpus, and the death penalty, including a co-authored report to the American Law Institute prompting the withdrawal of the death penalty provisions of the Model Penal Code. Before joining Texas Law, Professor Steiker served as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court.
Featured Work
Professor Steiker joined the faculty in 1990 after serving as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He teaches constitutional law, criminal law, and death penalty law, and is Director of the law school's Capital Punishment Center. He has written extensively on constitutional law, federal habeas corpus, and the death penalty. Some of his recent publications include: Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment (Belknap/Harvard University Press, 2016, with Carol Steiker), winner of the Hamilton Book Award; The American Death Penalty and the (In)Visibility of Race, 82 U. Chi L. Rev 243 (2015) (with Carol Steiker); The Death Penalty from a Consequentialist Perspective, 47 Tex. Tech. L. Rev. 211 (2014). Along with his sister/co-author Professor Carol Steiker, he co-authored the report to the American Law Institute prompting the withdrawal of the death penalty provisions of the Model Penal Code. He has served as a visiting professor to Harvard Law School several times, most recently as the Touroff-Glueck Visiting Professor of Law and Psychiatry, Fall, 2018.
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year-2009
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Book
Death Pentalty Stories
Jordan M. Steiker, Death Penalty Stories (with John H. Blume, eds., New York: Foundation Press, 2009).
year-2008
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Article
Opening a Window or Building a Wall? The Effect of Eighth Amendment Death Penalty Law and Advocacy on Criminal Justice More Broadly
Jordan M. Steiker, Opening a Window or Building a Wall? The Effect of Eighth Amendment Death Penalty Law and Advocacy on Criminal Justice More Broadly [Symposium: Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Litigating Under The Eighth Amendment], 11 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 155 (2008) (with Carol S. Steiker). -
Article
Atkins v. Virginia: Lessons from Substance and Procedure in the Constitutional Regulation of Capital Punishment
Jordan M. Steiker, Atkins v. Virginia: Lessons from Substance and Procedure in the Constitutional Regulation of Capital Punishment [Symposium: Protecting a National Moral Consensus: Challenges in the Application of Atkins v. Virginia: Seventeenth Annual DePaul Law Review Symposium], 57 DePaul Law Review 721 (2008) (with Carol S. Steiker).
year-2007
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Article
Improving Representation of Capital Cases: Establishing the Right Baseline in Federal Habeas to Promote Structural Reform Within States
Jordan M. Steiker, Improving Representation of Capital Cases: Establishing the Right Baseline in Federal Habeas to Promote Structural Reform Within States, 34 American Journal of Criminal Law 293 (2007).
year-2006
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Article
The Shadow of Death: The Effect of Capital Punishment on American Criminal Law and Policy
Jordan M. Steiker, The Shadow of Death: The Effect of Capital Punishment on American Criminal Law and Policy, 89 Judicature 250 (March-April 2006) (with Carol Steiker). -
Article
Foreword [Symposium: Punishment Law and Policy]
Jordan M. Steiker, Foreword [Symposium: Punishment Law and Policy], 84 Texas Law Review 1687 (2006) (with Susan R. Klein). -
Article
A Tale of Two Nations: Implementation of the Death Penalty in "Executing" Versus "Symbolic" States in the United States
Jordan M. Steiker, A Tale of Two Nations: Implementation of the Death Penalty in "Executing" Versus "Symbolic" States in the United States [Symposium: Punishment Law and Policy], 84 Texas Law Review 1869 (2006) (with Carol S. Steiker). -
Article
United States: Roper v. Simmons
Jordan M. Steiker. “United States: Roper v. Simmons.” In 4 International Journal of Constitutional Law, Page 163 (2006). -
Article
United States:
Jordan M. Steiker, United States: Roper v. Simmons, 4 International Journal of Constitutional Law 163 (2006).
year-2005
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Book Chapter
Capital Punishment, in Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia
Jordan M. Steiker, Capital Punishment, in Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia (Joseph R. Marbach et al. eds.; Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005).
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Article
The Seduction of Innocence: The Attraction and Limitations of the Focus on Innocence in Capital Punishment Law and Advocacy
Jordan M. Steiker, The Seduction of Innocence: The Attraction and Limitations of the Focus on Innocence in Capital Punishment Law and Advocacy, 95 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 587 (2005) (with Carol S. Steiker).
year-2003
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Article
The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action: Ruling by Ruling, We Inch Closer to Core Problem at Our Universities
Jordan M. Steiker, The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action: Ruling by Ruling, We Inch Closer to Core Problem at Our Universities, Austin American-Statesman, June 25, 2003, at A11 (with Sanford Levinson). -
Article
The Search for Equality in Criminal Sentencing
Jordan M. Steiker, The Search for Equality in Criminal Sentencing, 2002 Supreme Court Review 223 (2003) (with Susan R. Klein). -
Book Chapter
Judicial Developments in Capital Punishment Law
Jordan M. Steiker, Judicial Developments in Capital Punishment Law, in America's Experiment with Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction (J.R. Acker & R.M. Bohm eds. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2nd ed. 2003) (with Carol S. Steiker).
year-2002
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Article
The Death Penalty: A Panel Discussion, 2002 Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Texas
Jordan M. Steiker, The Death Penalty: A Panel Discussion, 2002 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF TEXAS 86 (with others).
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Book Chapter
Federal Habeas and the Death Penalty: Reflections on the New Habeas Provisions of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act
Jordan M. Steiker, Federal Habeas and the Death Penalty: Reflections on the New Habeas Provisions of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, in Essential Readings on Political Terrorism: Analyses of Problems and Prospects for the 21st Century 216 (Harvey W. Kushner ed.; Lincoln, Neb.: Gordian Knot Books, 2002). -
Book Chapter
Habeas Corpus, in Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice
Jordan M. Steiker, Habeas Corpus, in Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice (4 vols.; Joshua Dressler ed.; New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2nd ed. 2002). -
Article
The Death Penalty: A Panel Discussion
Jordan M. Steiker, The Death Penalty: A Panel Discussion, 2002 Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Texas 86 (with others) -
Article
Abolition in Our Time
Jordan M. Steiker, Abolition in Our Time, 1 Ohio State Criminal Law Journal 323 (2003) (with Carol Steiker). -
Book Review
American Icon: Does it Matter What the Court Said in Brown?
Jordan M. Steiker, American Icon: Does it Matter What the Court Said in Brown?, 81 Texas Law Review 305 (2002) (essay reviewing What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said, ed. by Jack M. Balkin).
spring 2026
- Const Law II: Race/Sex Discrimination