Judy C. Clarke

It was no surprise when a federal magistrate judge last year appointed Clarke to defend accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

A renowned federal capital defense expert, Clarke has devoted her career to preventing some of the nation's highest-profile murderers from landing on death row. Among them are Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Jared Lee Loughner, the Arizona shooter who killed six people, including a federal judge, and wounded 13 others, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

"When it comes to federal death penalty work, there's nobody in the nation better," said H. Dean Steward, a former federal public defender in Orange County and a close friend of Clarke.

Her role in the Boston case took on greater significance after the U.S. Justice Department announced in January it would seek the death penalty for Tsarnaev's alleged role in the 2013 bombings that killed three people and injured hundreds. Clarke has recently sought to move his trial from Massachusetts, where she said the media has prejudiced her client.

Yet it's likely the case will be resolved before the trial is set to begin in November, Steward said. Clarke is skilled in presenting mitigating evidence about her clients to the prosecution in a reasonable way to convince them not to pursue an execution.

"Her real talent is on the mitigation side, and obviously in a case like the Boston bomber that's a critical component of the defense," he said.

Clarke, a Washington and Lee University School of Law visiting professor who practices in San Diego alongside her husband, could not be reached for comment. She's notoriously reticent with the media, but her low-key and humble personality often pays off with prosecutors and juries, Steward said.

"Our clients are different," Clarke told attendees of a Loyola Law School conference last year. "We should enjoy the opportunity to step into their lives. It can be chaotic. But it's a privilege to be there as a lawyer."

<< KYLIE REYNOLDS