David Isaac Bruck (born 1949) is an American criminal defense lawyer, professor of legal clinics at Washington and Lee University School of Law, and director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse. Bruck has represented several high profile defendants.
Video David Bruck
Early life and education
Bruck was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for a prosperous family. Bruck is one of three children from Gerald, retired textile executive, and Nina, a photographer.
While a scholar at Harvard College, Bruck was involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement. Bruck is a contributor to Harvard Crimson . In one section, he asked the students to refuse to take their final in protest from Harvard University. Bruck holds a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1971.
After college, Bruck studied at the University of South Carolina School of Law. He went to law school at the University of South Carolina so he could advise a reluctant applicant in the Fort Jackson Army. During law school, Bruck works as a welder to finance his school because he does not want to be tied to his family. While at the University of South Carolina, he meets his friend and colleague Judy Clarke. He earned his law degree in cum laude in 1975. Before beginning his law practice, he traveled throughout the United States and Canada.
Maps David Bruck
Legal career
Bruck eventually returned to South Carolina to represent a client facing the death penalty because he did not believe these defendants received adequate representation. Bruck is also disturbed that the population of the deceased is mostly composed of poor blacks. One law school classmate said of Bruck: "He wants to help the helpless, many of us feel that way in school, but David is one of the few people who devote his career to it."
From 1976-1980, Bruck worked as a public defender in South Carolina. From 1980-1988, Bruck worked in private practice. From 1989-92, Bruck was Chief Prosecutor at the South Carolina Appellate Defense Office. From 1992 to 2004, Bruck returned to private practice. Since 1992, Bruck has served as a Federal Dead Dispute Resource Advisor for the federal defense program. Bruck represents Zayd Hassan Abd al-Latif Masud al-Safarini who received life sentences for his role in piracy 1986 Pan Am 73 Flight in Pakistan where 22 people were killed. David Bruck handles as many death penalty cases as possible in South Carolina. Bruck represents dozens of people accused of mass murder in front of a jury or post-punishment. Before the representation of Susan Smith in 1995, Bruck only lost three death penalties. Bruck saved many of his clients by winning a new trial that resulted in a life sentence and in one case, a release. Bruck has filed several cases before the United States Supreme Court, which prevails in six of them: Kelly v. South Carolina (2002), Shafer v. South Carolina (2001), Ramdass v. Angelone (2000), Simmons v. South Carolina (1994), Yates v. Evatt (1991), Yates v. Aiken (1988), Skipper v. South Carolina (1986).
Susan Smith
In 1995, Bruck and Judy Clarke served as legal advisor to Susan Smith, a South Carolina woman who faces the death penalty at the South Carolina Circuit Court for killing her two sons. Bruck befriended Clarke during law school, and recruited him for the case.
In their opening statement, Clarke believes Smith is very troubled and suffers from severe depression. Clarke told the jury: "This is not a case of crime, it is a case of despair and sadness." The defense theory of the case was that Smith drove to the lakeside to kill himself and his two sons, but his body got out of the car. The prosecutor, on the other hand, believes Smith kills his children to start a new life with a former lover. It took only two and a half hours of jury to punish him for killing his two sons. During the penalty phase, Tommy Pope, the chief prosecutor in Smith's case, vigorously backed Smith's death sentence. But the jury finally chose not to impose the death penalty.
Professor of law
In 2002, he began teaching in Washington & amp; Lee University School of Law. Since 2004, he has been a law professor and director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
In 2014, Bruck was appointed to a defense team working with the Boston Marathon bombing, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Clarke described Bruck as "one of the most experienced and respected defense lawyers in the United States." The federal jury convicted Tsarnaev of 30 counts against him and found him responsible for the deaths of three people killed in the 2013 attacks and the murder of an MIT police officer three days later. The same juror executes the Tsarnaev.
Dylann Roof
Dylann Roof, the nine-man murderer in a Charleston church shoot, represents himself in federal court, with Bruck as a standby adviser. The roof was found guilty by a jury on all 33 counts on December 15, 2016. On January 10, 2017, after three hours of deliberation deliberations Dylann Roof was sentenced to death.
Views
Bruck opposes the death penalty. He said about the practice: "I found cold blood from the whole terrible ritual, to take someone... and so planned to wipe them out."
Awards
- Significant Contribution to the California Criminal Justice Award for Criminal Justice (2001).
- John Minor Wisdom Public Service & amp; Professionalism Award from the American Bar Association (1996).
Scientific articles
- Death Watch: Change, Redemption Do Exist, The Champion, June 27, 2003.
- Kind of Terror, 5 J. App. Prac. & amp; Process 75 (2003).
- Capital Punishment in the Era of Terrorism, 41 Cath. Law. 187 (2002) (Panel Discussion with Norman L. Greene, Norman Redlich, Paul Saunders, Richard Weisberg, and Kenneth Roth).
- Tribute to William S. Geimer, 58 Wash. & amp; Lee L. Rev. 412 (2001).
- Keynote Address: Social and Political Misunderstanding Triggering Death Penalty, 13 T.M. Cooley L. Rev. 863 (1996) (Death Penalty Symposium).
- What's Material Death Sentence? Reflection Attorney Death Penalty, 1 Reconstruction, No. 3 (1991), at 35 (1990 Ralph E. Shikes Lecture, Harvard Law School).
- Can You Stop Client Interrogation Behind You ?, S.C. Law., Nov./Dec. 1991.
- Sentencing the Wicked Behind the Death: Analysis of the Eighth Amendment, 41 Ark. L. Rev. 725 (1988) (The Defender Lost in the Criminal Justice System Symposium) (with John Blume).
Further reading
- Habeas Corpse: Right of Appeal Under Fire, New Republic, July 15, 1991, at 10 (with Leslie Harris).
- On Death Row in Pretoria Central: Capital Punishment in South Africa. Not All That Is Different, New Republic, July 13, 1987, at 18.
- Is the Death Penalty Only for Killers of Whites ?, Wash. Post, Oct. 12, 1986, at D1.
- Book Review, The New Republic, January 20, 1986, at 27 (review James Q. Wilson et al., Crime and Human Nature (1985)).
- Implement More Teenagers, Wash. Posting, September 15, 1985, at D01.
- Death Penalty: Exchange, New Republic, May 20, 1985, at 20 (with Edward I. Koch).
- Implementing Youth for Crime, N.Y. Times, June 16, 1984.
- Book Review, 238 The Nation 266 (1984) (Reviewing Alan Dershowitz, The Best Defense (1982) and James S. Kunen, How You Can Defend The People: The Making of a Criminal Lawyer (1983)).
- Decision of Death, New Republic, December 12, 1983, at 18.
- Strom Thurmond's Roots, The New Republic, March 3, 1982, at 15.
- The Four Men Strom Thurmond Sent to Chair, Wash. Post, April 26, 1981, at C1.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments