Meet our Forum Keynote Speaker: Paula Sites

We're fortunate enough to have the Indiana Public Defender Council's Assistant Executive Director, Paula Sites, as our keynote speaker for our upcoming forum, Achieving the Inevitable: Ending the Death Penalty in Indiana. If you have not already done so, please register!


Paula Sites was born three days before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Birmingham, Alabama bus, and while she claims no direct memory of either event, both fill her with a measure of gratitude and wonder. She serves as Assistant Executive Director of the Indiana Public Defender Council, a statewide support center for public defenders.

Since 1990, she has provided training, consultation, and research assistance to attorneys representing capitally charged or sentenced clients throughout the state, and monitors the status of all capital cases filed in the state. In her capacity as Assistant Executive Director, she also works with a variety of organizations and government agencies to promote the fair administration of justice in Indiana, focusing on capital punishment as well as issues involving criminal defendants with mental illness, mental retardation, and developmental disabilities.

She recently served on the Indiana Assessment Team of the ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project. She is a past winner of the Indiana State Bar Association Women in the Law Achievement Award and the Amnesty International USA Indiana Abolitionist of the Year.