S. Jill Benton

S. Jill Benton joined the University of Georgia School of Law in the spring of 2024 as an emerging scholar teaching criminal procedure.

Benton comes to the School of Law after working at the Federal Defender Program in Atlanta for almost 25 years. Most recently, she was the chief of the Capital Habeas Unit, where she led a team of attorneys, investigators, mitigation specialists, paralegals and support staff representing death-sentenced clients in habeas corpus and clemency proceedings. Prior to assuming the role of habeas unit chief, Benton practiced with the Federal Defender for more than 16 years.

Her career highlights include arguing before the en banc Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of a client of 23 years and coauthoring the successful petition for writ of certiorari in Sears v. Upton and authoring the briefs in the ensuing federal habeas proceedings that resulted in her client's death sentence being vacated.

Benton has served as an invited faculty member at the National Orientation Seminar for Assistant Federal Defenders from 2016 to 2023 and at the National Habeas Seminar multiple times over the past 13 years.

She earned her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Ohio University in 1995 and her law degree cum laude from UGA in 1999.