I was delighted to see that the campaign group Reprieve has signed up Julian Knowles as its Death Penalty Director. Fortunately, Knowles will not be giving up his day job as the English Bar's most successful junior specialising in extradition and the more intellectual aspects of crime.

The barrister will spend the equivalent of two days a week working for Reprieve, filling in behind Clive Stafford Smith who now specialises in Guantanamo-related cases. And how much will Knowles be paid for advising British prisoners facing the death penalty abroad? Precisely nothing: it's his contribution to pro bono work.

Knowles's former clients include General Pinochet and Sion Jenkins.  He is currently acting for one of the former MPs charged with false accounting.