William Kunstler

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William Moses Kunstler (July 7, 1919 - September 4, 1995) was a American jurist, self-described "radical lawyer" and civil rights activist.

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[edit] Early Life

The son of a physician, Kunstler was born in New York City and educated at Yale College and Columbia University Law School. While in school, Kunstler was an avid poet, and even represented Yale one year in the prestigious Glascock Prize competition at Mount Holyoke College.

Kunstler served in the U.S. Army during World War II in the Pacific theater, attaining the rank of Major. He received the Bronze Star. He was admitted to the bar in New York in 1948 and began practicing law. He was an associate professor of law at New York Law School (1950-1951).

[edit] Career as a movement lawyer

He was a director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1964 to 1972, when he became a member of the ACLU National Council. In 1969 he cofounded the Center for Constitutional Rights. Kunstler also worked with the National Lawyers Guild.

To many, Kunstler's image was that of a flamboyant radical. He defended many controversial clients, including Lenny Bruce, H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, American Indian Movement (AIM) leaders, Jack Ruby, Abbie Hoffman, Angela Davis, Jerry Rubin, Martin Luther King, Lemuel Smith, Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali, Ibrahim A. ElGabrowny, Gregory Johnson, Wayne Williams, Larry Davis and Gary McGivern.

He gained national renown for defending the "Chicago Seven" (originally "Chicago Eight") against charges of conspiring to incite riots in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. During the trial, he and the other defense attorney, Leonard Weinglass, were cited for contempt (the convictions were later overturned).

From 1983 until Kunstler's death in 1995, Kunstler took on fellow radical and future radio personality Ron Kuby as a junior partner. The two worked together on a number of highly controversial, well-publicized civil rights and criminal cases, including cases where the two represented Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, head of the Egyptian-based terrorist group Gama'a al-Islamiyah - Colin Ferguson - the man responsible for the LIRR shootings, who would later reject Kuby & Kunstler's legal counsel and choose to represent himself at trial, Qubilah Shabazz - the daughter of Malcolm X, accused of plotting to murder Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam - Glenn Harris -a public school teacher in New York who absconded with a fifteen year-old girl for two months - Darrell Cabey, one of the victims of the Bernard Goetz shooting, and perhaps most controversially, associates of the Gambino crime family. During the first Gulf War, they represented dozens of Americans soldiers who refused to fight and claimed conscientious objector status. They also represented El-Sayyid Nosair, the assassin of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane.

During the 1994-95 television season, Kunstler starred as himself in an episode of Law & Order called White Rabbit. It was based on the 1971 Boston Brinks truck robbery in which a policeman was shot.

In late 1995, Kunstler died in New York of heart failure at the age of 76. In his last major public appearance, at the commencement ceremonies for the University of Buffalo's School of Architecture and Planning, Kunstler lambasted America's continued use of the death penalty, saying, "We have become the charnel house of the Western world with reference to executions; the next closest to us is the Republic of South Africa."

[edit] List of Books

  • Our Pleasant Voices, 1941
  • The Law of Accidents, 1954
  • First Degree, 1960
  • Beyond a Reasonable Doubt? The Original Trial of Caryl Chessman, 1961 & 1973
  • The Case for Courage: The Stories of Ten Famous American Attorneys Who Risked Their Careers in the Cause of Justice, 1962
  • And Justice For All, 1963
  • The Minister and the Choir Singer: The Hall-Mills Murder Case, 1964 & 1980
  • Deep in My Heart, 1966
  • Trials and Tribulations, 1985
  • My Life as a Radical Lawyer, 1994
  • Hints & Allegation: The World (In Poetry and Prose), 1994
  • Politics on Trial: Five Famous Trials of the 20th Century, 2002
  • The Emerging Police State: Resisting Illegitimate Authority, 2004

[edit] Pop Culture References

  • In the film The Big Lebowski, Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (played by Jeff Bridges) demands representation by Mr. Kunstler or Ron Kuby during the Malibu Police Station scene.
  • Kunstler also appeared as himself for one episode of the television series "Law & Order" in the 1994 episode of "White Rabbit".

[edit] External links

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