Marah Stith McLeod

Marah Stith McLeod is a Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame’s Notre Dame Law School, where she has taught since 2016. Her research focuses on sentencing theory, the death penalty, mercy in legal systems, and Catholic social teaching applied to criminal justice reform. She teaches courses in criminal law, criminal adjudication, and plea bargaining.

McLeod holds degrees from Harvard University and Yale Law School. Before joining Notre Dame, she clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Ninth Circuit Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain. She also worked as an Attorney-Adviser in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel and practiced civil litigation at Sidley Austin LLP, focusing on death penalty cases. She currently serves on the executive board of the Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network, advocating for reforms rooted in Catholic ethics.

Her scholarship critiques and proposes solutions to systemic issues in criminal sentencing, such as over-incarceration, the moral and practical challenges of the death penalty, and the role of mercy in judicial decisions. Recent articles emphasize democratic constraints on punishment and the ethical dimensions of sentencing. McLeod’s work bridges legal theory with practical reform, often engaging themes of dignity, equality, and the common good.

McLeod’s career also includes humanitarian work, including a year working with Mother Teresa’s Sisters in Kolkata, India, supporting handicapped orphans. She is a mother of five children and remains deeply involved in advocating for marginalized individuals within the criminal justice system.