Judy Clarke: Jared Loughner's 'Amazing' Attorney

[cali]

7 hours ago

Judy Clarke is the Forrest Gump of criminal defense attorneys. Otherwise unassuming, even shy, she seems to turn up, front and center, for many of the cases we'll never forget.

She counseled Ted Kaczynski 13 years ago this month when the Unabomber was toying with the government in advance of his guilty plea. She helped an unrepentant Eric Robert Rudolph, the Olympic Park bomber, avoid a death sentence. She was present and accountable during the chaotic trial of Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother who drowned her two small children in a car in a lake. She even represented Zacarias Moussaoui, the mercurial al-Qaeda conspirator. All of those defendants faced capital charges. None are currently on death row. And now, Clarke is Jared Lee Loughner's attorney in a dramatic case that surely will be in the headlines for years to come.


The 22-year-old defendant in the Tucson massacre case could have been assigned a lawyer who sleeps through trials, or who doesn't investigate witnesses, or who otherwise is ineffective as he squares off with federal prosecutors, a devastated Arizona, and an angry nation. In Clarke, Loughner has in his corner a tenacious attorney who is something of a folk hero to criminal defense attorneys around the country. She is dogged, detailed, and well-respected among the federal judiciary. She is also a staunch opponent of the death penalty, which is helpful, if not required, in her line of work. And she specializes, or so it seems, in molding pretrial agreements between her clients and the government which end up precluding long trials, endless appeals, and death row visits. Even legendary trial lawyers, ones with stellar national reputations of their own, consider Clarke "amazing" (to use a word that kept popping up in my in-box).

Clarke, one of the foremost experts at representing capital defendants, has little of the flamboyance of Stephen Jones, who represented Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. She has little of the oratory skill of Michael Tigar, who saved Terry Nichols' life in the second Oklahoma City bombing trial. She does not fill a courtroom like Michael Jackson's attorney, Thomas Mesereau, or Texas' famed Dick Deguerin. But she does everything well, avoids the limelight, eschews displays of ego, and works as hard as a defense lawyer can. "She is one of my personal heroes," a veteran federal public defender told me Tuesday. "She is one of those extraordinary attorneys who have it all. She has a sharp mind for legal analysis, is an exceptional trial lawyer and is as dedicated and driven as anyone you will ever meet."

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http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/01/11/judy-clarke-jared-loughners-amazing-attorney/

[Lucinda]

1. Thanks for the post. I didn't know much about her.

Interesting read. :hi:

[Statistical]

2. Good our legal system works best when it is adversarial.

Each side using their full abilities to get the outcome they want. There is less corner cutting. More work on building solid cases. Ultimately in a higher % of cases justice is served. It isn't a perfect system but it works best when it is highly adversarial.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. Sounds like an excellent champion of lost causes

And keeping a client off death row is seen as a victory.

I think Jared will be one more, just like the rest. Too scary to ever be let loose on the public. Too nuts to be sentenced to death.

I wonder if Jared asked for her specifically, or if she just saw a familiar ambulance to chase? How does a famous high-profile attorney get assigned to someone who can't afford an attorney? Jared can't have much money. Heck, he wanted change back from the bill he used to pay the taxi driver, knowing it was his last taxi ride.

:hi:

[ejpoeta]

4. everyone deserves representation. sadly many end up with public defenders who are

overwhelmed. but it sounds like this woman goes about looking for these kinds of cases and probably went to him.

[Statistical]

5. Most highly sucessful lawyers like her don't take cases like this for the money.

Calling her an ambulance chaser is kinda silly.

They take cases because they don't need the money and want tough cases to stick their names to.
If you make multi-million dollars a year you can take a high profile case every couple years with minimal compensation and it won't cripple the bank account.

Also I remember reading she is an avid anti-DP crusader.

[KurtNYC]

6. Premeditated mass murder

hopefully she is less than "amazing" this time.