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The Independent
a day ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Prominent Chicago defense lawyer Thomas Durkin, a zealous advocate for clients, has died at 78
Thomas Anthony Durkin, a nationally prominent criminal defense attorney who for five decades was a fixture in Chicago's courthouses and who was known for his relentless advocacy for a roster of notorious clients, has died. He was 78 years old. Durkin died Monday after a brief battle with cancer, said a daughter, Alanna Durkin Richer, an Associated Press journalist in Washington. Durkin participated in some of Chicago 's highest-profile court cases, but his influence spanned beyond the city through his representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees, lectures at law schools across the country and legal essays and news media interviews in which he sounded the alarm about the perils of unchecked government power. His career was driven by a conviction that all defendants, no matter their alleged crime or society's perception of them, were entitled to a rigorous defense and to the protection of their constitutionally afforded civil rights. So committed was he to the defense of the unpopular that the headline of a 2016 Wall Street Journal article described him as a 'terror suspect's best hope in court.' 'I don't do this because I think my clients are wonderful people who should be exonerated,' he was quoted in the story as saying. 'I do it because I think I have a role in the system.' Durkin was born on the South Side of Chicago to a steel mill worker who saved enough money to put his son through the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated in 1968 and whose home football games he rarely missed. He later received a law degree from the University of San Francisco, where he was exposed to criminal defense by serving as a student adviser at a local public defender's office. Returning to Chicago, he clerked for Judge James Parsons of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois before entering private practice with a specialty in federal criminal cases. From 1978 through 1984, he served as a federal prosecutor in Chicago. Over more than 40 years in private practice, he cultivated a reputation as one of the country's foremost advocates of defendants other attorneys would pass on representing. 'He took on the most challenging, controversial and complex cases that other lawyers would run away from,' said Joshua Herman, an attorney who worked on national security matters with Durkin. 'Above all, he valued the rule of law the most and raised his strongest objections to what he saw as abuses of power.' Durkin's clients included Adel Daoud, who was accused in a plot to bomb a Chicago bar, and Mohammed Hamzah Khan, who as a teenager was arrested on charges of conspiring to provide support to the Islamic State. He won an acquittal on terrorism charges for Jared Chase, one of the so-called NATO 3 defendants accused of plotting to bomb the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago, and he represented Matthew Hale, a white supremacist leader accused of domestic terrorism offenses for soliciting the murder of a federal judge. 'I used to tell him he was my favorite 'cause' lawyer,' said Dan Webb, a former U.S. Attorney in Chicago who said he had known Durkin for more than 40 years and spoke to him just a week ago for a case they were working on together. 'When he got committed to a cause, he would not stop until he accomplished his goal.' He also was a go-to lawyer for numerous local elected officials who found themselves in legal trouble. The work, Durkin said, appealed not only to his commitment to civil liberties but stimulated him intellectually and spiritually as well. 'I think these are the cases of our day. They point out all the problems that terrorism has spawned, with the reaction on our side, both good and bad. I find them fascinating,' he said in a 2014 Chicago Reader piece. 'There are some days I find it hard to believe that people are paying me to be involved in what I'm involved in. There's a tremendous amount of history you have to learn, which I enjoy. There's a lot of theology you have to understand, which I enjoy.' Beyond Chicago, he did legal work for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, including helping represent Ramzi bin al-Shibh, an accused facilitator of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and representing others who have since been returned to their home countries. His experiences there, he said, helped show him the 'dark side' of American intelligence. 'I think I've been involved in some pretty wild stuff around here but I've never been involved in anything as wild as this,' he said in a 2009 Chicago television interview. Since 1984, he operated a law practice, Durkin & Roberts, with his wife, Janis Roberts, whose own legal career he was proud to pay tribute to. 'Without Roberts,' he has said, 'there is no Durkin.' Besides his wife and his daughter Alanna, he is survived by five other children: Erin Pieplow, Krista Mussa, Catherine Durkin Stewart, James Stewart and Matthew Stewart, and 15 grandchildren.
Associated Press
a day ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Prominent Chicago defense lawyer Thomas Durkin, a zealous advocate for clients, has died at 78
WASHINGTON (AP) — Thomas Anthony Durkin, a nationally prominent criminal defense attorney who for five decades was a fixture in Chicago's courthouses and who was known for his relentless advocacy for a roster of notorious clients, has died. He was 78 years old. Durkin died Monday after a brief battle with cancer, said a daughter, Alanna Durkin Richer, an Associated Press journalist in Washington. Durkin participated in some of Chicago's highest-profile court cases, but his influence spanned beyond the city through his representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees, lectures at law schools across the country and legal essays and news media interviews in which he sounded the alarm about the perils of unchecked government power. His career was driven by a conviction that all defendants, no matter their alleged crime or society's perception of them, were entitled to a rigorous defense and to the protection of their constitutionally afforded civil rights. So committed was he to the defense of the unpopular that the headline of a 2016 Wall Street Journal article described him as a 'terror suspect's best hope in court.' 'I don't do this because I think my clients are wonderful people who should be exonerated,' he was quoted in the story as saying. 'I do it because I think I have a role in the system.' Durkin was born on the South Side of Chicago to a steel mill worker who saved enough money to put his son through the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated in 1968 and whose home football games he rarely missed. He later received a law degree from the University of San Francisco, where he was exposed to criminal defense by serving as a student adviser at a local public defender's office. Returning to Chicago, he clerked for Judge James Parsons of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois before entering private practice with a specialty in federal criminal cases. From 1978 through 1984, he served as a federal prosecutor in Chicago. Over more than 40 years in private practice, he cultivated a reputation as one of the country's foremost advocates of defendants other attorneys would pass on representing. 'He took on the most challenging, controversial and complex cases that other lawyers would run away from,' said Joshua Herman, an attorney who worked on national security matters with Durkin. 'Above all, he valued the rule of law the most and raised his strongest objections to what he saw as abuses of power.' Durkin's clients included Adel Daoud, who was accused in a plot to bomb a Chicago bar, and Mohammed Hamzah Khan, who as a teenager was arrested on charges of conspiring to provide support to the Islamic State. He won an acquittal on terrorism charges for Jared Chase, one of the so-called NATO 3 defendants accused of plotting to bomb the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago, and he represented Matthew Hale, a white supremacist leader accused of domestic terrorism offenses for soliciting the murder of a federal judge. 'I used to tell him he was my favorite 'cause' lawyer,' said Dan Webb, a former U.S. Attorney in Chicago who said he had known Durkin for more than 40 years and spoke to him just a week ago for a case they were working on together. 'When he got committed to a cause, he would not stop until he accomplished his goal.' He also was a go-to lawyer for numerous local elected officials who found themselves in legal trouble. The work, Durkin said, appealed not only to his commitment to civil liberties but stimulated him intellectually and spiritually as well. 'I think these are the cases of our day. They point out all the problems that terrorism has spawned, with the reaction on our side, both good and bad. I find them fascinating,' he said in a 2014 Chicago Reader piece. 'There are some days I find it hard to believe that people are paying me to be involved in what I'm involved in. There's a tremendous amount of history you have to learn, which I enjoy. There's a lot of theology you have to understand, which I enjoy.' Beyond Chicago, he did legal work for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, including helping represent Ramzi bin al-Shibh, an accused facilitator of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and representing others who have since been returned to their home countries. His experiences there, he said, helped show him the 'dark side' of American intelligence. 'I think I've been involved in some pretty wild stuff around here but I've never been involved in anything as wild as this,' he said in a 2009 Chicago television interview. Since 1984, he operated a law practice, Durkin & Roberts, with his wife, Janis Roberts, whose own legal career he was proud to pay tribute to. 'Without Roberts,' he has said, 'there is no Durkin.' Besides his wife and his daughter Alanna, he is survived by five other children: Erin Pieplow, Krista Mussa, Catherine Durkin Stewart, James Stewart and Matthew Stewart, and 15 grandchildren.
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Prominent Chicago defense lawyer Thomas Durkin, a zealous advocate for clients, has died at 78
Thomas Anthony Durkin–a nationally prominent criminal defense attorney who for five decades was a fixture in Chicago's courthouses and who was known for his relentless advocacy for a roster of notorious clients–has died. He was 78 years old. Durkin died Monday after a brief battle with cancer, said a daughter, Alanna Durkin Richer, an Associated Press journalist in Washington. Durkin participated in some of Chicago's highest-profile court cases, but his influence spanned beyond the city through his representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees, lectures at law schools across the country, and legal essays and news media interviews in which he sounded the alarm about the perils of unchecked government power. His career was driven by a conviction that all defendants–no matter their alleged crime or society's perception of them–were entitled to a rigorous defense and to the protection of their constitutionally afforded civil rights. So committed was he to the defense of the unpopular that the headline of a 2016 Wall Street Journal article described him as a 'terror suspects' best hope in court.' 'I don't do this because I think my clients are wonderful people who should be exonerated,' he was quoted in the story as saying. 'I do it because I think I have a role in the system.' Durkin was born on the South Side of Chicago to a steel mill worker who saved enough money to put his son through the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated in 1968 and whose home football games he rarely missed. He later received a law degree from the University of San Francisco, where he was exposed to criminal defense by serving as a student adviser at a local public defender's office. Returning to Chicago, he clerked for Judge James Parsons of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois before entering private practice with a specialty in federal criminal cases. From 1978 through 1984, he served as a federal prosecutor in Chicago. Over more than 40 years in private practice, he cultivated a reputation as one of the country's foremost advocates of defendants other attorneys would pass on representing. 'He took on the most challenging, controversial, and complex cases that other lawyers would run away from,' said Joshua Herman, an attorney who worked on national security matters with Durkin. 'Above all, he valued the rule of law the most and raised his strongest objections to what he saw as abuses of power.' Durkin's clients included Adel Daoud, who was accused in a plot to bomb a Chicago bar, and Mohammed Hamzah Khan, who as a teenager was arrested on charges of conspiring to provide support to ISIS. He won an acquittal on terrorism charges for Jared Chase, one of the so-called 'NATO 3' defendants accused of plotting to bomb the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago, and he represented Matthew Hale, a white supremacist leader accused of domestic terrorism offenses for soliciting the murder of a federal judge. 'I used to tell him he was my favorite cause lawyer,' said Dan Webb, a former US Attorney in Chicago who said he had known Durkin for more than 40 years and spoke to him just a week ago for a case they were working on together. 'When he got committed to a cause, he would not stop until he accomplished his goal.' He also was a go-to lawyer for numerous local elected officials who found themselves in legal trouble. The work, Durkin said, appealed not only to his commitment to civil liberties but stimulated him intellectually and spiritually as well. 'I think these are the cases of our day. They point out all the problems that terrorism has spawned with the reaction on our side, both good and bad. I find them fascinating,' he said in a 2014 Chicago Reader piece. 'There are some days I find it hard to believe that people are paying me to be involved in what I'm involved in. There's a tremendous amount of history you have to learn, which I enjoy. There's a lot of theology you have to understand, which I enjoy.' Beyond Chicago, he did legal work for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, including helping represent Ramzi bin al-Shibh, an accused facilitator of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and representing others who have since been returned to their home countries. His experiences there, he said, helped show him the dark side of American intelligence. 'I think I've been involved in some pretty wild stuff around here, but I've never been involved in anything as wild as this,' he said in a 2009 Chicago television interview. Since 1984, he operated a law practice, Durkin & Roberts, with his wife, Janis Roberts, whose own legal career he was proud to pay tribute to. 'Without Roberts,' he has said, 'there is no Durkin.' Besides his wife and his daughter Alanna, he is survived by five other children: Erin Pieplow, Krista Mussa, Catherine Durkin Stewart, James Stewart, and Matthew Stewart, and 15 grandchildren.
RNZ News
6 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
ICE deportation action lands Marshallese, Micronesians in Guantanamo
The first-ever US military flight carrying 18 Marshall Islanders deported from the United States by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrived Majuro on June 10 this year. Photo: Marshall Islands Office of National Security United States immigration and deportation enforcement continues to ramp up, affecting Marshallese and Micronesians in new and unprecedented ways. The Trump administration's directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest and deport massive numbers of potentially illegal aliens, including those with convictions from decades past, is seeing Marshallese and Micronesians swept up by ICE. The latest unprecedented development is Marshallese and Micronesians being removed from the United States to the offshore detention facility at the US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay - a facility set up to jail terrorists suspected of involvement in the 9/11 airplane attacks in the US in 2001. Marshall Islands Ambassador to the US Charles Paul this week confirmed a media report that one Marshallese was currently incarcerated at Guantanamo, which is also known as "GTMO". The same report from said 72 detainees from 26 countries had been sent to GTMO last week, including from the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. A statement issued by the US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE operations, concerning detention of foreigners with criminal records at GTMO said Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem was using "every tool available to get criminal illegal aliens off our streets and out of our country." But the action was criticised by a Marshallese advocate for citizens from the Compact countries in the US. "As a Compact of Free Association (COFA) advocate and ordinary indigenous citizen of the Marshallese Islands, I strongly condemn the detention of COFA migrants - including citizens from the Republic of the Marshall Islands - at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay," Benson Gideon said in a social media post this week. "This action raises urgent legal, constitutional, and ethical concerns that must be addressed without delay." Since seeing the news about detention of a Marshallese in this US facility used to hold suspected terrorists, Ambassador Paul said he has "been in touch with ICE to repatriate one Marshallese being detained." Paul said he was "awaiting all the documents pertaining to the criminal charges, but we were informed that the individual has several felony and misdemeanor convictions. We are working closely with ICE to expedite this process." Gideon said bluntly the detention of the Marshallese was a breach of Compact treaty obligations. "The COFA agreement guarantees fair treatment. Military detention undermines this commitment," he said. Gideon listed the strong Marshallese links with the US - service in high numbers in the US military, hosting of the Kwajalein missile range, US military control of Marshall Islands ocean and air space - as examples of Marshallese contributions to the US. "Despite these sacrifices, our people are being treated as criminals and confined in a facility historically associated with terrorism suspects," he said. "I call on the US Embassy in Majuro to publicly address this injustice and work with federal agencies to ensure COFA Marshallese residents are treated with dignity and fairness. "If we are good enough to host your missile ranges, fight in your military, and support your defense strategy, then we are good enough to be protected - not punished. Let justice, transparency, and respect prevail." There were 72 immigration detainees at Guantanamo Bay, 58 of them classified as high-risk and 14 in the low-risk category, reported The report added that the criminal records of the detainees include convictions for homicide; sexual offenses, including against children; child pornography; assault with a weapon; kidnapping; drug smuggling; and robbery. Civil rights advocates have called the detention of immigration detainees at Guantanamo Bay punitive and unlawful, arguing in an active lawsuit that federal law does not allow the government to hold those awaiting deportation outside of US territory. Most Marshallese passport holders enjoy visa-free travel to the US, though there are different levels of access to the US based depending on if citizenship was gained through naturalization or a passport sales program in the 1980s and 1990s. US Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Laura Stone said, however, that "the visa-free travel rules have not changed." She said she could not speak to any individual traveler's situation without adequate information to evaluate the situation. She pointed out that citizenship "acquired through naturalization, marriage, investment, adoption" have different rules. Stone urged all travelers to examine the rules carefully and determine their eligibility for visa-free travel. "If they have a question, we would be happy to answer their enquiry at ConsMajuro@ she added.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration holding immigrants from 26 countries at Guantánamo prison
The Trump administration is now holding undocumented immigrants from 26 nations and six continents, at the notorious Guantánamo Bay naval base and prison in Cuba, as part of its push to rapidly expand U.S. immigration detention and deportation infrastructure. There are 72 immigration detainees at the base, 58 of who are classified as high-risk, officials told CBS News. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the detainees are from Brazil, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Peru, Romania, Russia, Somalia, St. Kitts-Nevis, the United Kingdom, Venezuela and Vietnam. The facility has previously housed American detainees from the War on Terror, many without trial. It has been home to 663 migrant detainees since February, an official added, well short of the administration's initial 30,000-detainee goal for the facility. In June, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to rapidly deport immigrants to third countries beyond their place of origin, which critics say has allowed the government to send migrants to dangerous, war-torn areas where they risk persecution, including South Sudan. Last month, immigrants' rights advocates sued the administration over its use of the Guantánamo facility, alleging the government had unlawfully moved detainees out of the country when it brought them to the base, which is on land the U.S. says is leased but Cuba insists be returned. A former immigration detainee who was held at Gitmo, as the facility has become known, said he was kept in a dark, windowless prison cell with only a bucket for relieving himself, as he heard screams from other deportees, including threats to commit suicide. 'It's a promise the President campaigned on, that if you invade our nation's borders, if you break our country's laws, and if then you further commit heinous, brutal crimes in the interior of our country ... you are going to be deported from this country, and you may be held at Guantánamo Bay,' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in February when asked about the allegations. 'These are criminals we are talking about — don't forget that.' That month, federal officials abruptly emptied out the ranks of immigration detainees held on the naval base, in the midst of a lawsuit from civil rights attorneys demanding access to the facility to offer legal aid to migrants. At the time, the Department of Justice argued those inside Gitmo don't have any rights to attorneys or legal assistance, but said there weren't any detainees inside the facility. The U.S. has pushed to rapidly expand its detention and deportation capacity, including providing immigration and border officials with about $170 billion in unprecedented funding as part of its spending package. It has also enlisted facilities with questionable human rights records, including a Salvadoran mega-prison where detainees say they have been tortured and held for months without communication with their families and lawyers, and Alligator Alcatraz, a facility in the Florida Everglades.
