John J. Duffy Jr. (born February 3, 1933) is an American criminal defense trial attorney of the highest acclaim. His courtroom style combines a great Irish wit and a natural affinity for and ease with tradtitional courtroom manner.
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Duffy is the son of John and Jane Duffy and spent his early years in the Corktown neighborhood of Philadelphia. He attended St. Thomas Moore High School from 1947–1951 and enlisted in the Air Force and served in London during the Korean War.
Duffy graduated from La Salle College (renamed La Salle University) in Philadelphia in 1959 and Villanova University Law School 1962.
When three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi in 1964, Duffy drove to New York to meet with the wife of Michael Schwerner, one of the victims. Duffy spent the following winter in Mississippi, working for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference taking depositions of black voters who were denied entrance to the polls.
In the 1970s, Duffy served as an attorney for members of several motorcycle gangs including the Pagans MC and the Hells Angels.
Duffy is a member of the bars of Pennsylvania bar and the Supreme Court of the United States. He was sponsored for admission to the Supreme Court by Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall.
He is also a partner at the law firm of Duffy & Green.
Duffy played a role in the 1980 ABSCAM scandal in which numerous elected officials were targeted in an FBI sting operation, with agents posing as Arab businessmen offering bribes. Duffy was the lead defense attorney for Louis C. Johanson, a member of the Philadelphia City Council who was sentenced to three years in prison.[1]
In 1981, Duffy defended one of the Maragos brothers who, along with four others, were accused of fixing the Pennsylvania lottery's daily number. The event was known as the Triple Six Fix, because the winning number was 6-6-6. All of the Maragos brothers avoided jail time by agreeing to testify against the accused mastermind of the scam, Nick Perry.[2]
In 1991 Duffy began a 10 year defense of Andrew Byrne who was accused of killing his wife. Byrne's conviction was twice overturned and in 2001 Duffy secured a plea bargain for his client.[3]
In 1999, Fran Pardo was accused of murdering Glenn Porter. In the 2001 jury trial, Duffy successfully defended Pardo and his client was acquitted.[4]
Duffy is the co-founder of Lawyers Concerned For Lawyers and is past chairman of the board of directors of the Caron Foundation. As Director, Duffy has helped to place more than 1,000 substance abusers in treatment. Duffy is Chairman Emeritus of the Caron Foundation.
In 2009, Duffy was given the Osceola Wesley award by Chester County Drug Court his contributions to the "recovery of people gripped by addictive demons".[5]
In 1953 Duffy met Bridget Cotter while he was in London. The two married and moved to the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Duffy divorced and then married his second wife in 1986. He has seven children and 19 grandchildren.