David R. Dow is the Cullen Professor at the University of Houston Law Center and the Rorschach Visiting Professor of History at Rice University. He teaches and writes in the areas of contract law, constitutional law and theory, and death penalty law. As a death penalty lawyer, Dow has represented more than one hundred death row inmates in their state and federal appeals. In March 2000, Dow started the Texas Innocence Network, an organization that uses UH law students to investigate claims of actual innocence brought by Texas prisoners. Dow has been Of Counsel to the law firm of Smyser Kaplan & Veselka since the firm was founded in 1995.
Dow's work has appeared in both scholarly journals and popular publications. A full list is available on his c.v. His most recent books are Executed on a Technicality; America's Prophets: How Judicial Activism Makes America Great; and, most recently, The Autobiography of an Execution.