Associate Professor of Law
adillard@ubalt.edu
410.837.5416
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 517
Administrative Assistant: Deborah Pinkham
410.837.4634
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 502
Education
J.D., Washington and Lee University Law School
B.A., Wellesley College
Areas of Expertise
Read Dillard's New York Times op-ed about the murder conviction of New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Dillard argues in her piece from 2017 that brain damage, from which the majority of pro football players unfortunately suffer, should have been a permissible defense at Hernandez' trial.
Capital Punishment
Constitutional Criminal Procedure
Criminal Law
Lawyering Skills
Virginia Practice and Procedure
Dillard joined the faculty in 2006, following four years on the faculty of American University, Washington College of Law, where she taught criminal law and served as the acting director of the Legal Rhetoric Program. Before entering the academy, Dillard was the deputy public defender for the city of Alexandria, Va.
Her scholarly interests include sanity and competency issues, police use of force, judicial ethics and various topics in law and religion.
In 2014, Dillard served on a death-in-custody review panel investigating the 2013 death of Tyrone West while in Baltimore City police custody. She is also lead counsel in an ongoing, pending capital murder case involving complex mental health, sanity and competency issues.
Dillard is a member of the Virginia and United States Supreme Court bars.
Selected Publications
Articles and Essays
Madness Alone Punishes the Madman: The Search for Moral Dignity in the Court's Competency Doctrine as Applied in Capital Cases, 79 Tenn. L. Rev. 461 (2012).
Big Brother IS Watching: The Reality Show You Didn't Audition For, 63 Okla. L. R. 461 (2011).
And Death Shall Have No Dominion: How to Achieve the Categorical Exemption of Mentally Retarded Defendants from Execution, 45 U. Rich. L. Rev. 961 (2011).
Sloppy Joe, Slop, Sloppy Joe: How USDA Commodity Dumping Ruined the National School Lunch Program, 87 Or. L. Rev. 221 (2008).
AT HIS DISCRETION (n.): "to be disposed of as he thinks fit; at his disposal, at his mercy; unconditionally," 97 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 1295 (2008).
Articles on Social Science Research Network
Media Placements
Cruel and Unusual for Whom, ACS Blog -- The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (Nov. 8, 2013).