[2] He received his A.B., summa cum laude in French Literature from Haverford College in 1957.
He received his LL.B., summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law in 1960.
[1] He was the Judge Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law at NYU.
[4] Working with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Amsterdam argued and won Furman v. Georgia in 1972, in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on the requirement for a degree of consistency in the application of the death penalty.
He sits on the board of directors of the Death Penalty Information Center.