Herbert Jay Stern
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Herbert Jay Stern (born 1936) is a lawyer in New Jersey who formerly served as a federal judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Born in New York City, Stern attended Hobart College and then the University of Chicago Law School, from which he graduated in 1961. After serving for one year in the United States Army Reserve, Stern served from 1962 to 1965 as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, during which he participated in the investigation of the assassination of Malcolm X. He then took a position as a trial attorney in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the United States Department of Justice. In 1969, Stern became Chief Assistant United States Attorney for New Jersey. From 1971 to 1973 he served as the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey.
In December 1973, President Richard M. Nixon appointed Stern to a District Judgeship in New Jersey. Stern succeeded Judge Leonard Garth, who had been elevated to an appellate position on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. During a 13-year tenure on the bench, Stern presided over a variety of civil and criminal cases. However, his judicial service is best remembered for the unique case of United States v. Tiede, an aircraft hijacking prosecution that was the sole case ever tried in the United States Court for Berlin, over which he was specially designated to preside by selection of the U.S. Department of State. In a published opinion in the case issued in 1978, Stern held that even though the case involved prosecution of German citizens in an unusual forum outside the United States, the defendants were still parties to an American criminal proceeding and entitled to the United States Constitution's guarantee of trial by jury. Stern later authored Judgment in Berlin, a book about his experiences in the Tiede case which was eventually made into a film.
In 1987 Stern resigned from the federal bench and entered private practice as an attorney. He is currently a member of his own law firm located in Roseland, New Jersey. In addition to Judgment in Berlin, Stern is the author of several books for lawyers on the subject of trial advocacy.
[edit] References
- Narvaez, Alphonso A., "Judge's Years with U.S.: From Malcolm X to Berlin", New York Times, Nov. 9, 1986.
- Stern, Herbert Jay, Judgment in Berlin, New York: Universe Books, 1984.
