Karen Smith is senior litigation counsel at the Arizona Justice Project (AJP), where she litigates cases of actual innocence and manifest injustice. Prior to joining AJP in 2019, Karen was an assistant federal public defender in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defender of the District of Arizona, representing death-sentenced individuals in Arizona and Nevada. Karen was previously a litigator at a large firm in Washington, D.C., where she maintained an active pro bono practice representing indigent defendants in post-conviction proceedings in state and federal courts, including in the U.S. Supreme Court. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College.