Washington, DC (Aug. 10, 2026) – San Francisco, CA criminal defense attorney MartÃn Sabelli received the Robert C. Heeney Memorial Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the Association’s annual meeting in St. Petersburg, FL. The Robert C. Heeney Memorial Award is given annually to the criminal defense attorney who best exemplifies the goals and values of the Association and the legal profession.
“MartÃn is the consummate advocate, not just as a lawyer, but as a leader and as a policy person,” said NACDL Past President Andrew Birrell. “His grasp of issues, his curiosity, and his intellect are seemingly boundless. MartÃn could have done anything he wanted, anything. He graduated from Harvard, the London School of Economics, and Yale Law School. He could have gone into finance and ended up being the President of the United States if he wanted to do that. But instead, MartÃn's heart has always been with the citizen accused and the vulnerable.”
Sabelli was President of NACDL from 2021-22 and won its Champion of Justice Award in 2018. He co-chairs NACDL’s Lawyer’s Assistance Task Force and has led NACDL’s effort to restore the right to trial by eliminating the trial penalty. Sabelli is a member of the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College where he focuses on jury selection, cross examination, and racism. Sabelli has also taught at many programs including the Trial Advocacy Workshop of Harvard Law School, the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, and many public and private programs across the country. He is deeply involved in establishing a jury trial system in Argentina and is drafting its first model code of evidence. In 2012, Sabelli established a national criminal defense college in Argentina for defenders across Latin America.
Sabelli accepted the award honoring his mentors Dr. Nora Sabelli, Barry J. Portman, and Drew S. Days, III and citing Martin Luther King’s phrase that “the moral arc of the universe is long but bends towards justice.” Sabelli noted that “I personally resist that phrase. It does not resonate with me. It is a passive phrase. I know it came from a great person, a hero, who gave his life in a way that breaks all our hearts. But the moral arc doesn't bend itself. We bend it or we don't bend it. We bend it toward justice or others bend it away from justice. This organization, the NACDL, empowers us to bend the arc together, collectively, and that is why this is the only organization to which I have been and am committed.”
Sabelli also called for NACDL to consider the relationship between effective representation and electoral democracy, noting that we cannot reform the criminal legal system and do right by our clients of tomorrow if we fail to defend the constitutional order, including the right to vote and judicial independence. Sabelli thanked the leaders of NACDL’s Criminalization of Voting Rights Committee, Ray de La Cabada and Seth Chazin, for their pioneering work in protecting the right to vote and President Birrell for his strategic leadership, intelligence, and courage during the most challenging year of NACDL’s history.
Sabelli has served as a Federal Public Defender, a partner at Winston & Strawn, the Director of Training of the Office of the San Francisco Public Defender, and as a law clerk to the late Honorable Robert F. Peckham. Sabelli has represented individuals in state and federal courts since 1993 in a wide range of civil and criminal matters including complex federal white collar criminal prosecutions, multi-defendant federal “gang” RICO cases, and federal and state death-penalty matters.
Contacts
Jessie Diamond, Deputy Director, Public Affairs and Communications, (202) 465-7647 or jdiamond@nacdl.org
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal legal system.
