Gerald Thomas Zerkin (born March 1, 1949) is an American lawyer. He is a senior assistant federal

public defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, ...

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

Career

Zerkin attended Brandeis University, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1971, University of Virginia where he received his master's degree in 1973, and

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

, where he received his degree in Law in 1976.LinkedIn Profile
/ref> He began private practice in 1978, and began his work defending

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

inmates in 1980, including Earl Washington. He has specialized in

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

defense and civil rights. At their annual dinner in 1999, Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (VADP) awarded and praised him as an expert capital case litigator. In 2001, he joined the public defender's office. Zerkin led the unsuccessful defense, with Edward B. McMahon Jr., at the trial of

Al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

member Zacarias Moussaoui. Zerkin heads Zerkin & Associates.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zerkin, Gerald 1949 births Brandeis University alumni Living people Boston College Law School alumni University of Virginia alumni American anti–death penalty activists Virginia lawyers 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers Public defenders