Judy Clarke: Patron Saint of Defense Attorneys
They were all death penalty cases, and against the longest of odds Clarke found a way to save her clients from execution each time. It is a legal feat unmatched in the annals of death row cases. An avowed opponent of capital punishment, Clarke’s skill is finding the humanity in defendants accused of inhumane crimes and using it not necessarily to win acquittal but to seek a degree of mercy that helps them avoid a death sentence.
.. “Judy’s gift is that she sees the people she represents as human beings when they are monsters to everyone else,” said David Kaczynski, whose older brother, Ted, is serving a life sentence for crimes he committed as the Unabomber. “She was able to see the humanity in my brother, to find it in spite of the horrible, horrible things he’d done, and it helped to save his life.”
.. But it’s not just Tsarnaev she will humanize. “She’ll bring out the humanity in the jury,” Denvir said. “She’s very good at making people consider their own values and what they believe. Twelve people have to say let’s kill him, and that’s not the easiest thing to do.”